Cubs fall victim to first ever double pitch clock violation (Video)

Me oh my, MLB baseball in 2023 is a doozy. The Cubs are off to a bad start, being a part of one-half of the first double pitch clock violation.

A new stat might have been birthed during a spring training game between the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks: Non-traded pitch clock violations.

Because just like a tree falling in the forrest, if the pitcher gets a pick clock violation, and the batter does on the very same play, did it actually happen?

Well, based on the stats, yes. Because one at-bat between the Diamondbacks and Cubs started at 1 ball and 1 strike:

The reason was that Arizona pitcher Joe Mantiply did not finish his warmup pitches in time as the third inning was starting, and Chicago batter Brennen Davis was also not in the batters’ box on time.

On the very next pitch, Mantiply’s first of the game with the count 1-1, he got Davis out on a fly-out. Technically, that’s efficiency.

Cubs and Diamondbacks show us pitch clock will be weird for a bit

I can’t wait to see the madness when the first game ends on a pitch clock violation. Or, how about when a bases-loaded walk occurs to score a go-ahead run because of a violation?

Also, get ready for the pitch clock drama if there are any inconsistencies at all between different umpires and their litigiousness with the clock. This whole thing doesn’t exactly work when it needs to be enforced by humans.

But back to this particular instance from Monday, it begs the question… Why not just consider the violations offsetting in a case like this?

The answer, of course, is the reason the pitch clock was introduced in the first place: Game time. The league wants to limit the total length of games, and adding a ball and a strike to the count gets the at-bat closer to complete than its start. If the rule were to wipe the count clean, it would technically take longer.

There are a lot of rule changes coming in 2023. Let’s hope that these aren’t the main character all season long.

Thankfully, spring training will serve as a trial run for the new rules to get players, managers and umpires adjusted. Hopefully a few weeks into the regular season these things are hardly noticeable.