THUNDER BAY — J.M. Kelly isn’t a fan of the pitch clock being implemented across baseball, including the Northwoods League in 2023.
The Thunder Bay Border Cats manager made that loud and clear when asked the question on Saturday at the team’s Hot Stove League event, which brought about 40 fans out to Sleeping Giant Brewery to learn about the franchise’s return to play after nearly four years on the sidelines.
Kelly, the head coach at East Central College, in Union, Mo., said he and his players will make the best of it this summer, but he’d rather the clock not be put in place, despite it shaving nearly half an hour off games this season at the major league level.
“First of all, the pitch clock is stupid,” Kelly said, drawing laughter from the crowd. “Baseball’s been played the way baseball’s been played for 150 years. I don’t know why we’re changing it. There’s too many non-baseball people making decisions. And you can ask any coach in the country and they’ll all tell you the same thing.
“I do think to an extent it’s going to be good for the game, but we’re trying way too hard to fix something that’s not broken.”
Pitch clocks aren’t actually new to baseball. They’ve been used at the college level as far back as 2010, the NCAA instituting it in 2011. A 20-second pitch clock was introduced in AA and AAA baseball in 2015. The current MLB rules calls for 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, 20 seconds with one or more runners on board.
“The good thing is, these guys have all dealt with it. They’ve dealt with it to an extent more so than what the Northwoods League will be. The guys down here are super hard-core about the pitch clock.”
According to Cats vice-president Bryan Graham, who joked about the impact the clock will have on concession sales, there will be clocks installed in the outfield and home plate, giving pitchers, batters and fans alike a clear view as time ticks down between pitches.
Speaking of pitchers, the Border Cats also officially introduced two players with local ties on Saturday, announcing Team Canada U18 righty Jack Pineau and southpaw Will Droll of the University of Pittsburgh are expected to be a part of the team this summer.
Kelly said he’s taking a bit of a different approach with his pitching staff this year, signing a number of players to first-half contracts, and several more to second-half deals. It helps manage inning counts and avoids having hurlers bailing after hitting their school-mandated maximums, leaving the Border Cats scrambling for arms.
Kelly said he looks for guys with proven track records, as opposed to signing low-inning guys from big-name schools, but the trouble is, those high-inning guys usually come with low inning allowances during the summer collegiate baseball season.
“If you want a proven arm, you have to go get the guy whose thrown 30 or 40 innings and can only throw 20 to 30 more. I’m a firm believer in leaving a guy out there. There’s some people who will only start a guy and throw him for three innings,” Kelly said.
“If I have a starter I can send out for six or seven innings, if I have to, if his stuff is working I want to trust him and let him go deep in the game. To do that, we had to be able to sign some of those guys for first- and second-half,” said Kelly, adding he’s been burned more than once by pitchers saying they’ll stay, only to leave before the season ends.
The Border Cats, whose home opener is June 6, also announced the hiring of Mike Tallari as the team’s new general manager and director of corporate sales, the latter role similar to his position with the Thunder Bay North Stars.
