What do you think is the Average time of a play in baseball? This includes anything from a pitch thrown to an elongated HR trot. My guess is 5 seconds.
I am working on a concept and I would be curious of opinions on this.
What do you think is the Average time of a play in baseball? This includes anything from a pitch thrown to an elongated HR trot. My guess is 5 seconds.
I am working on a concept and I would be curious of opinions on this.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
When does the time begin? If it’s from the 1st movement of the pitcher until the next 1st movement, the time will vary wildly. If it’s from the time the ball is put into play off a bat until the umpires indicate the play is over, it’s quite a different matter.
Why are you asking? That might help determine what a play is.
From the moment the pitcher makes his 1st movement until the umpire indicates the play is over. I get that that the time will vary wildly, however there still is an average amount of time. This is where I am going with it. Nick Saban uses a phrase called "The Process" . Within this Phrase there is the idea that you do not worry about the National Championship or an SEC championship, you worry about 1 single play. He has broken down that the average play, in football, last about 7 seconds. I was curious what people thought the average plays lasts in baseball.
I'm not sure you can compare baseball to football. Football has an actual "end of play" where whistle is blown, refs work to get the football placed, and then play is allowed to continue. In baseball, umpires do not indicate a play is over until some sort of dead ball event - this is either an event (think foul ball) or time is called.
If you assume a strike - play does not end when the ball reaches the catcher's glove, although you could perhaps argue this if there were no baserunners. Once you put runners on base, the ball continues to be live, even if a batter were to strike out for 1st or 2nd out, ball remains live.
Nothing you are saying is new information to me. I get everything in the world can be overthought, I am merely looking for an opinion.
Guess I am saying the "process" depends on the situation. The pitcher - with no baserunners - gets to focus solely on the next pitch - average 5 seconds. Conversely, once kid gets on base, he needs to be "in the game" constantly and could go 4-5 minutes without a dead ball situation.
Aside from that, the majority of plays are pitches not put into play or even fouled off - either a ball or strike with no contact. Assuming no base runner to hold, 5 seconds sounds about right. With runners, a few glances probably bumps this up to 10 seconds. Ball put into play is probably 10 seconds. On average, the 7 seconds used by Saban is probably not a bad estimate for baseball given your parameters.
Thank you
2017LHPscrewball posted:
Guess I am saying the "process" depends on the situation. The pitcher - with no baserunners - gets to focus solely on the next pitch - average 5 seconds. Conversely, once kid gets on base, he needs to be "in the game" constantly and could go 4-5 minutes without a dead ball situation.
Aside from that, the majority of plays are pitches not put into play or even fouled off - either a ball or strike with no contact. Assuming no base runner to hold, 5 seconds sounds about right. With runners, a few glances probably bumps this up to 10 seconds. Ball put into play is probably 10 seconds. On average, the 7 seconds used by Saban is probably not a bad estimate for baseball given your parameters.
The process does definitely depend on the situation. For a few years now I’ve had my program time pitches. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but the average time from the time one pitch is put into play or called is a lot more than 5 seconds. Here’s our pitchers from last spring. See attachment.