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MLB standings based on team pitch clock violations

By John Buhler

Craig Kimbrel, Philadelphia Phillies. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Craig Kimbrel, Philadelphia Phillies. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /
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Not all MLB teams are adjusting to the newfangled pitch clock the same this season.

While some MLB franchises are doing just fine with the league’s implementation of the controversial pitch clock, that blanket statement cannot be applied to all teams.

There are early adopters, and then there are The Other Guys. We don’t need to go chasing waterfalls in this, we also don’t want no scrubs giving our favorite teams less-than-advantageous situations at the plate or from the mound. You can take your sweet time in other aspects of life, but baseball is a game of great speed now. Rate of play, rate of play, rate of play, rate of play!

Here are the number of pitch clock violations all 30 teams have committed at this point in time.

"All teams ranked on how many pitch clock violations they’ve hadby u/Interforce7 in baseball"

Some of these come as no surprise, while others could be a cause for concern down the line.

MLB standings based on the amount of pitch clock violations teams have gotten

Here are the standings based entirely on pitch clock violations these dumb dummies committed.

AL East

  1. Baltimore Orioles: 17 (15 pitcher, 2 hitter)
  2. Toronto Blue Jays: 22 (17 pitcher, 5 hitter)
  3. Boston Red Sox: 23 (12 pitcher, 11 hitter)
  4. New York Yankees: 24 (22 pitcher, 2 hitter)
  5. Tampa Bay Rays: 35 (25 pitcher, 10 hitter)

AL Central

  1. Detroit Tigers: 13 (7 pitcher, 6 hitter)
  2. Kansas City Royals: 16 (11 pitcher, 5 hitter)
  3. Chicago White Sox: 22 (19 pitcher, 3 hitter)
  4. Cleveland Guardians: 23 (18 pitcher, 5 hitter)
  5. Minnesota Twins: 23 (16 pitcher, 7 hitter)

AL West

  1. Seattle Mariners: 9 (5 pitcher, 4 hitter)
  2. Texas Rangers: 18 (13 pitcher, 5 hitter)
  3. Oakland Athletics: 23 (15 pitcher, 8 hitter)
  4. Houston Astros: 25 (16 pitcher, 9 hitter)
  5. Los Angeles Angels: 25 (20 pitcher, 5 hitter)

NL East

  1. Atlanta Braves: 16 (8 pitcher, 8 hitter)
  2. Washington Nationals: 20 (11 pitcher, 9 hitter)
  3. Philadelphia Phillies: 26 (15 pitcher, 11 hitter)
  4. New York Mets: 30 (18 pitcher, 12 hitter)
  5. Miami Marlins: 33 (21 pitcher, 12 hitter)

NL Central

  1. Cincinnati Reds: 19 (15 pitcher, 4 hitter)
  2. Chicago Cubs: 22 (16 pitcher, 6 hitter)
  3. Pittsburgh Pirates: 24 (19 pitcher, 5 hitter)
  4. St. Louis Cardinals: 24 (21 pitcher, 3 hitter)
  5. Milwaukee Brewers: 26 (20 pitcher, 6 hitter)

NL West

  1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 16 (8 pitcher, 8 hitter)
  2. Arizona Diamondbacks: 20 (13 pitcher, 7 hitter)
  3. Colorado Rockies: 23 (19 pitcher, 4 hitter)
  4. San Diego Padres: 28 (18 pitcher, 10 hitter)
  5. San Francisco Giants: 29 (21 pitcher, 8 hitter)

When it comes to not totally embarrassing yourself, the Seattle Mariners are doing the best job of this. The M’s have the fewest pitch clock violations in baseball with only nine on the ledger. No player on the team has more than one. The Detroit Tigers are good at something and have the second-fewest with 13. The Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers have an NL-least 16.

Now for the teams and people who are oh, so bad at this…

The Tampa Bay Rays lead all of baseball with 35 pitch clock violations. 25 of them are from the pitching staff, including six from starter Tyler Glasnow. That is the worst mark in baseball. Tampa Bay also has 10 such violations from the hitter’s perspective. To date, only six franchises have suffered double-digit violations from their fine men who occupy the batter’s box. It sucks to suck.

The worst team about handling the pitch clock in the Senior Circuit happens to be the surprisingly pretty good Miami Marlins. Southpaw Braxton Garrett is the biggest detractor for the Fish. He is responsible for five of the Marlins’ 21 pitcher violations and 33 in total. Miami is not only one of the six teams in double figures in the batter’s box department but they lead all of baseball with 12.

As far as the worst person alive in this, it is undoubtedly Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel. With his Kraken-looking stare at the plate, he lives to take his sweet time delivering either a fastball or a slider to the plate, and nothing else. He is responsible for nine of the Phillies’ 26 violations. Keep in mind that he accounts for more than half of the team’s 15 pitcher violations.

So what does any and all of this mean? I’ll tell ya!

It is still a really small sample size, but if these trends continue, it could leave breadcrumbs for later on. Yes, I 100 percent mean October baseball. Teams that are inherently reckless with the pitch clock such as Tampa Bay, Miami and the San Francisco Giants (29) could be in for a bad time with an ill-timed violation in a game that really matters. You don’t want to do this to the fans.

As for teams on the other side of the spectrum, you can probably count on teams like Atlanta, Los Angeles, the Baltimore Orioles (17), the Texas Rangers (18) and the Cincinnati Reds (19) to not screw the pooch in the biggest of moments. Then again, if they were to do so, it would come as quite the shock. Nobody is infallible in this, but we are certainly starting to see some trends, aight.

Thankfully, we have another three full months and change to collect such precious data from this.

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