[_fat_santa]

The pitch clock got introduced in September 2022 [1]. Their reasoning back then was that games would take 3-4 hours (or longer) and that fans were loosing interest by the bottom of the 9th. I remember being pretty exited when it got introduced as the general sentiment was "no more 4 hour games!". But it seems to me this is just another symptom of the problem of player injuries, I heard a podcast where they said the age of players getting the "Tommy John" surgery (UCL / Elbow Reconstruction) is going down. Before they said it would be rare to see a player in the MLB get the surgery, now they said even players at the high school level are getting it done.

[1]: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/pitch-timer

[elijaht]

Not to get too nitpicky, but the pitch clock actually came into effect in the majors in February 2023 (spring training) or March 2023 (regular season). It debuted much earlier in minor (2015), fall (2014), and college (2010) leagues.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_clock

[interestica]

I remember growing up it was such a rarity to see someone pitch 100mph. Now, it’s way more common. We’ve optimized things and seem to be at a limit in terms of speed, and arms are failing catastrophically. There’s no long term gradual wear and tear for this.