One of the changes MLB has made this season to try and speed up games involves how much futzing about batters can do between pitches. If a batter swings and misses, or ducks out of the way of a beanball, he can wander off and do all the glove-tugging and cleat-cleaning he wants, but if he takes a pitch, he'll have to keep one foot in the batter's box while he adjusts whatever he thinks needs adjusting, all under the watchful eye of an umpire who's under orders from the league to keep it moving, already. In the spring, batters will merely get warnings as everyone gets used to the new rules. Once the regular season begins, however, warnings will become fines that go towards a charity Hokey-Pokey tournament during the All-Star break, probably.
In all likelihood, this won't be a big deal for anyone. However, batters are creatures of habit, and disrupting those habits could get into their brains and prevent them from getting comfortable. If the new rules do cause any hitters some discomfort, and that discomfort affects their performance, who are the players most likely to be affected? The ones used to taking the most amount of time between pitches, of course.
Below is a list of some of the batters you might want to keep an eye on this spring, to see if the new rules are messing with their routines or not (stats courtesy of Pitchf/x via Fangraphs). I mean, we all know how important spring stats are, so something that impacts those spring stats must be, like, absolutely crucial:
Hanley Ramirez: a notorious dawdler, Ramirez topped the majors last year by taking an average of 28.1 seconds between pitches, and the only seasons he fails to crack the top 10 are the ones in which he misses too many games to qualify. If you plan on incorporating 'Fines accumulated for leaving the batter's box between pitches' into your league, Ramirez could win you the category single-handedly.
Victor Martinez: another perennial slowpoke, Martinez averaged 27.2 seconds between pitches last year, up a tick from his 26.6 seconds in 2013. The knee injury he's recovering from won't help either, as he'll miss a lot of valuable adjustment time in the spring.
Jose Abreu: the ChiSox slugger clocked an impressive 25.2 seconds between pitches last year in his first campaign, good for 14th in the majors. There's a joke in here somewhere about the frenetic pace of capitalism versus communist Cuba's bucolic approach.
Denard Span: Span has really taken his tarrying game to another level recently, going from 23.9 seconds between pitches in 2012 (still in the top 20) all the way to a third-place 26.7 seconds last season. That table isn't going to set itself, Denard. C'mon now.
Yasiel Puig: In 2013 he clocked in at a fairly reasonable 22.8 seconds, but last year Puig was absolutely milking it, averaging 26.7 seconds between pitches. That's like the guy at the poker table Hollywooding his full house before oh-so-reluctantly coming over the top of a bet. We know you're going to crush the ball. Just get in there and do it.
David Ortiz: If anyone's going to challenge Hanley in the cumulative fines category, it might be Ortiz. Then again, do you want to be the guy who tells him to hurry up, or to try and collect the fine afterwards when he doesn't? Good luck with that one, MLB.
Allen Craig: Whatever else is going on around him, Craig needs his 25 seconds. 25.7 second average last year, 25.3 seconds in 2013, 24.7 seconds in 2012... dude's got his between-pitch routine down.
Hmm. Craig, Ramirez, Ortiz. The Red Sox might have a problem keeping their guys in the box this season. Call it the Curse of the Nomar-bino.
Jonathan Lucroy: Like Craig, Lucroy has been amazingly consistent, averaging between 24.7 and 25.8 seconds each of the last three seasons. Those are, incidentally, the three seasons in which he's been good. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Really. He won't go back to being a .265/.313/.391 hitter just because of a couple of seconds of preparation. Pfft. That's ridiculous. <quietly moves Lucroy onto Players To Avoid list>
Robinson Cano: He used to be one of the worst offenders, but Cano actually got a jump on the new rules by shaving over two seconds off his time from 2013 to 2014. Maybe, in the harsh glare of the New York spotlight, those precious between-pitch seconds were the only time he had for himself, while in his new, more serene Seattle environment, he could simply go out there and be, man.