This former MLBer never used a pitch clock

Major League Baseball has a pitch clock.

Will it matter? Let's find out from our friend, former big leaguer Elliot Johnson, who never needed a pitch clock. He didn't step out of the batter's box for no reason. He didn't start the count 0-1 like Manny Machado did. There's Manny Machado news today too. You were never had a strike penalty called on you, did you, sir?

No, that stuff didn't really exist. I would be planning for it so much that I would make sure I didn't give the edge to the other guy. All right, so it happened to Manny Machado. I think it was the first spring training game where he stepped in the batter's box and he wasn't there in time. It doesn't matter if everybody else isn't ready, he wasn't. And it was strike one.

He just went, okay, it's strike one. Do you think the pitch clock will work and keep the games moving? I think we've seen that it's going to work.

I think what you're going to find is the variability of how it gets enforced. I think it's going to bother, if you're rooting for whomever, you know, the Dodgers, Padres, Yankees, Mets, whomever it is, you're going to feel like you really want the rules to be enforced for your benefit. I think the thing I don't want to see is umpires kind of wielding that sword to change the outcome of a game in some way, shape or form, like the Braves ending recently. I don't think we want to see that.

I think that everybody's going to have to get on board with the way that it works. And one of the things that I do want to note as well, Adam, the spring training games are not going to be the way that it goes down in regular season because there's 60 guys on the roster right now that got somebody getting loose right now. Every single game gets out of hand. I mean, I started watching a little bit of the Mets game yesterday and Buck had to go out there and pull, I can't remember his name, but he had to go out and pull somebody. They already had somebody getting loose.

You've got backups for your backups. So it's moving along quicker because the lack of catcher meetings, pitching coach meetings, that sort of thing, they're just going out there and pulling them and bringing in the next guy, if it gets out of control. So it's not going to go like seeing these 30 minute disparity, 40 minute disparities are not going to be the way that it works. As far as listening to an interview with Michael Kay, the Yankees play by play guy and yes, network today. And he goes, well, yeah, yesterday's game was, was two 19 and it was eight to five.

Mike, that ain't going to happen. We're going to have an eight to eight to five game that last two hours and 19 minutes because there's no drama. There's, there's no intensity in a spring training game.

Guys are just trying to get their work in and get out. Did you know though, and I read this yesterday, that we've already had a rule on the books where with nobody on the pitcher must deliver a ball, a pitch in 12 seconds. It's just never been enforced, which gets me to this.

This is something I, uh, I spoke to the, uh, like Durham bulls and some advertisers. This goes back, I don't know, six or seven years ago, Ozzie Timmons was still the hitting coach then, because I remember Ozzie Timmons reaction when I said this, Mike, with all the talk about pitch clock, why can't we just say, Hey, home plate umpire, it's on you keep this show moving. And Ozzie Timmons just like, yeah, it's about time. Somebody said that hasn't it always been on them? Yeah. Well, what they used to do is they would, they would give an audible clap to try and move things along. But I mean, they just go get so sick of it, but believe it or not that the people that are in charge of that, Adam, like I'm going to give you a throwback, Steve tracks.

Okay. Move like molasses. Every single he got the ball. Uh, I played with a guy named Mitch Talbot that every day he pitched, even my wife knew it was going to be a four hour game. You know what I mean? And so like there, you know, I like, I like the idea in theory. I don't like the clock. I'm going to be completely honest, but if it does pick up the pace of play and it forces action, it's actually been interesting.

The more I watch it, the more I've liked it. I like the fact that there's less thinking it's more go less thinking about, you know, stepping off. Like there was an overlay I saw on Twitter with Pedro Baez, who stopped throwing a pitch, like stepped off and had a guy, you know? So I think they do need to be a little bit more understanding of the situation when there's a guy on second was stealing signs, right? That type of stuff that goes on. But I mean, there's going to definitely be some kinks, but I never going to be agreeing that it should influence the outcome of a game when we're getting down to six, six in the bottom of the night and the base is loaded full count, and they call a ball or a strike and games over.

I think that's going to be absolutely terrible. LA Johnson is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. I saw that overlay on Twitter. It was a full half inning of a game like yesterday or two days ago, and one pitch with Pedro Baez. And it took the same amount of time.

Wasn't all unbiased. The hitter also stepped out. There were all sorts of things going on, but yes, a half inning and one pitch took the same amount of time.

It was, it was bizarre real quick. And this is not, I guess it's sort of about Manny Machado because the Padres are spending money. So we've got about two minutes left or so in this, in this segment. I apologize for that, but major league baseball owners and the commissioner are having this economic committee now to discuss how to deal with Steve Cohen. And he just said, I'm following your rules.

What's going on here? Are they really trying to band together for a salary cap? So, I mean, that's what they've been trying to do since 95, right? They've been trying to push the 94 season. They've been trying to shove a salary cap down the player's throat.

You know, Tony's never going to go for the players, never going to go for it. There is effectively a salary cap right now. Steve is just going ahead and just said, look, you know, whatever the ramifications are, I'm still going to pay them. And I think what's upset the small market teams and the big market teams is it's proven that your owner is going to dictate what, how much money you spend regardless. So we, or there's like, you know, Freddy Freeman talks so much about how it's good for the game, what they're doing. I think that it's proven that maybe they need to be a little bit more careful with who they allow to own a team rather than putting all of these huge ramifications for how they want to run their organization. I mean, Steve is being a fiduciary to the Mets and their fan base.

And I can promise you every Mets fan I've talked to over the last few months, year has absolutely loved how he's doing things. And it's a stark difference from the Wilpon family. And you know that all too well.

A hundred percent. Look, all of these guys are, well, I mean, they're all billionaires. They can all supplement their teams if they have to. I just don't understand why teams don't try to win. The Padres are trying to win, which is why they threw another, what, five years on Manny Machado's contract. Not that he needed five more years, but they did it because they want Manny Machado to be a Padre for life.

I don't see the problem with it. I think the bigger problem that we have is teams like the Pirates not spending money versus the Mets spending money. So I understand you probably want to have some sort of guidelines, but to make it hard and fast, like nobody really has a problem with the Astros going through the rebuild. Nobody had a problem with them when the Cubs did it. Nobody had a problem when the Rays did it.

Of course, they had to do it to be sustainable, and now they are. The problem is the consistency of how much you do it and the unwillingness to spend those dollars that get distributed to the smaller market teams from the large market teams at revenue share not being distributed to making your team more profitable or more watchable by having more talent on the field. It's that simple. They're putting it in their pocket. That's the real problem, but they're never going to talk about it.

Winning, winning gets you fans and gets you more money. We need to have a conversation just about this next time, Elliott Johnson. Is that cool? Of course. Thanks for having me on. You're the man, Elliott Johnson.