Poll: Will these rules speed up baseball games?

The average major league baseball game time in 2016 was longer than 3 hours.

Credit: Curtis Compton

Credit: Curtis Compton

The average major league baseball game time in 2016 was longer than 3 hours.

The average major league baseball game in 2016 played for 3 hours, 2 minutes with only two teams averaging a game time of less than two hours -- the Atlanta Braves were not one of them.

In 2015, baseball cut game times by six minutes after it adopted speed-up rules that required hitters to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box and a 2:30 stadium clock used in-between innings and during pitching changes.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is intent on getting that games under two hours. The league is pushing a series of changes it hopes will be approved unilaterally by teams.

While Manfred wouldn’t discuss proposed changes specifically, here are some of what has been publicly voiced as potential changes.

The strike zone 

Hall of Fame Braves manager Bobby Cox had regular discussions - often leading to his ejection - with umpires about the strike zone.

Credit: SCOTT ROVAK

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Credit: SCOTT ROVAK

• The league has considered restoring the lower edge of the strike zone from just beneath the kneecap to its pre-1996 level — at the top of the kneecap.

Pitch clock

A 20-second pitch clock has been used in Triple-A baseball for two seasons.

Credit: Bill Wippert

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Credit: Bill Wippert

• The league wants to install a 20-second pitch clock. Violators of the clock are penalized with balls and strikes. The pitch clock has been used at Triple-A and Double-A games for the past two seasons. According to MILB.com, the clocks helped shave nine to 15 minutes off the average game time.

The no-pitch intentional walk

• The signal from the dugout to the umpire would allow a team to call for an intentional walk without the pitcher having to throw pitches. The downside is moments like this are less likely to happen:

Limiting mound visits

Mike Foltynewiez (center) in his Braves debut and first major league appearance as a starter in 2015, gets a visit from then pitching coach Roger McDowell in the first inning.

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• Another reported proposal calls for a limit to the amount of mound visits coaches and catchers are allowed to make. The number pitched is three per game.

Extra-base runner to start extra innings

ajc.com

Credit: Rob Foldy

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Credit: Rob Foldy

• Starting runners on second base in extra innings will be experimented with during the World Baseball Classic and perhaps at some short-season Class A leagues, though Manfred concedes the special-purpose rule would likely not be used in the major leagues.