In a
study published in the online version of Wall Street Journal, the always-interesting Dave Cameron measured the time each starting pitcher in the majors has taken, on average, between pitches this season.
The quickest between pitches?
Roy Halladay. The
Phillies' ace has taken 16.8 seconds between pitches this season.
The league average is 21.2 seconds.
Clay Buchholz of the
Red Sox, on the flip-side, has averaged 27.3 seconds between pitches. My guess for slowest to home would have been
Josh Beckett, based purely upon anecdotal evidence. He can't be far off, though, because Cameron reports the Red Sox
average 24.7 seconds as a staff. Not surprisingly, the
Yankees are the second-slowest, at 24 seconds.
The quickest staff to home is the
Indians, whose slowest pitcher to home is
Josh Tomlin, at 19.2 seconds, which you'll notice still makes him above-average in pace.
Derek Lowe and
Justin Masterson, pictured above, are the second- and third-fastest to home after Halladay in all of baseball.
The Phillies are the second-fastest staff in pitching pace, with the
Marlins -- likely thanks to adding
Mark Buehrle, who would've been my guess as the quickest worker -- checking in at third.
Worth noting: There's a rule that a pitcher must throw a pitch within 12 seconds, but it's not measured in the same manner as Cameron did so. Rule 8.04 in the Major League Baseball rulebook says the following: "The 12-second timing starts when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the box, alert to the pitcher. The timing stops when the pitcher releases the ball."
The problem there is when the batter is "alert to the pitcher" is kind of subjective, so it's hard to tell if umpires are ignoring the rule or if the Buchholz types just take a ridiculously long time walking around the back of the mound. The best bet is a combination of the two factors along with batters stepping out of the box.
Regardless, if you think baseball games take far too long, it's best to steer clear of the Yankees-Red Sox series this weekend.
