Behavior Modification

Tony Clark told the press after meeting with the Twins squad that the players were willing to police pace of play improvements:

“We were moving things a long in a way we were hopeful was goiong to land on some common ground,” Clark said. “There just wasn’t enough common ground to address some of the concerns. It lent itself to the league implementing certain facets of the rules. and it led to players having an interest in focusing in on a number of things they can control themselves.”

There’s no pitch clock, like the league threatened to use. Fines are expected to be handed to habitual offenders of current rules. And now players want to take it upon themselves to change?

If the players want to speed up the game, then MLB has won. Just the threat of installing a pitch clock or punishing teams with by assessing ball and strike penalties has led to behavior modification.

Maybe Rob Manfred is a master persuader. He made an outrageous opening bid in announcing the league would unilaterally impose a pitch clock. He then paced the players by repeatedly saying he wanted a negotiated solution. This got the players talking about how to speed up the game on their own. He finally led the union to a negotiated solution without a pitch clock, and now the players are trying to avoid that option at all costs. Manfred is a trained negotiator, after all, and appears to be very good at moving the players in the direction he desires.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2sTaLfh