The China Mail - MLB season begins with new rules and familiar contenders

Young slugger Yordan Alvarez will join veterans Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman as the reigning champion Houston Astros try to reach a seventh consecutive American League final and become the first team since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees to win back-to-back World Series crowns.

Aaron Judge, who hit a team-record 62 home runs last year, will spark the Yankees in another title hunt while Japanese pitcher/outfielder Shohei Ohtani and outfielder Mike Trout give the Los Angeles Angels hope to contend for a first playoff spot since 2014.

The San Diego Padres added Xander Bogaerts to a lineup boasting star sluggers Fernando Tatis, Juan Soto and Manny Machado and are expected to be a top contender in the National League along with the 2020 champion Los Angeles Dodgers and 2021 champion Atlanta Braves.

But everybody will have to pick up the pace.

A new pitch clock will force hurlers to confront batters faster and limit their pickoff attempts at runners, who will have larger bases for steal attempts. And defensive alignments can no longer shift to better deny hitters based on batting tendencies.

"We want to restore the pace and rhythm that the game once had, something that had gradually gotten away from us," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said.

"We're not creating something new. We just want to make sure the game remains as crisp and exciting as it has for many decades."

Pitchers have a 15-second clock when the bases are empty with batters having to be ready to hit with eight seconds remaining. Hurlers get 20 seconds with runners on base and 30 seconds between hitters.

"I would predict that once all the attention dies down, most fans won't even notice the clock," Manfred said.

Pre-season games into March lasted an average of two hours and 36 minutes, down 25 minutes from last year. If the pace of play equals that in the regular season, it would be MLB's fastest pace of play since 1979.

"It definitely speeds up the game," Yankees slugger Judge said. "I think this pitch clock is going be a good thing for everybody."

While some pitchers have complained about time limits, New York Mets ace Max Scherzer welcomes the clock.

"I can completely dictate pace. I love it," Scherzer said. New York Mets ace Max Scherzer. "I can work extremely quickly or I can work extremely slow. There is another layer here to be able to mess with the hitter's timing."

- 'Games will be crisp' -

Minnesota Twins outfielder Kyle Garlick was among the batters who would take his time and step out of the batter's box as often as he liked. Now he can do it but once.

"We were always taught, slow the game down, make sure you're comfortable, control what's going to happen, don't rush into anything," Garlick said. "I was always a guy who liked to step out, collect my thoughts, take a breath and get back in."

With batter after batter doing that, games lagged to a record average of three hours and 11 minutes in 2021.

"The game doesn't have to be three, three-and-a-half hours, and we're proving that," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "Get out there and throw strikes, attack hitters, and the games will be crisp."

Miami's Jon Berti, who led MLB with 41 stolen bases last season, sees the clock and pickoff attempt limits as an edge -- not to mention bigger bases as targets.

"We're still figuring out exactly how we can hopefully take advantage of it and just being able to be maybe a little bit more aggressive in some situations," Marti said.

"The bigger bases it makes it a little easier just because it cuts down the distance."

X.So--ThChM