How the pitch timer can help player health

Brandon Guyer was no lock to achieve and stick within the huge leagues. As a fifth-round Draft pick of the University of Virginia in 2007, he knew his solely likelihood of ascending within the sport could be to coach that a lot more durable, eat that a lot more healthy and play that a lot smarter than these with whom he was vying for enjoying time. 

So when Guyer was in Major League camp with the Rays throughout Spring Training 2011 and a sleep knowledgeable spoke to the membership concerning the significance of a superb night time’s relaxation, the message resonated.

“I remember leaving the meeting thinking, ‘It’s time to outsleep the competition,’” Guyer mentioned. “Ever since then, I approach sleep like it’s a sport.”

Guyer started slicing out electronics earlier than bedtime, setting the thermostat at perfect sleep temperatures (61 to 68 levels) and turning on a white noise machine. On the street, he would journey with darkish tape he may use to cowl any sources of sunshine (be it the crimson standby gentle on the TV or the comfortable glow of the thermometer), and he’d stuff pillows on the backside crack of the door to stop any gentle or sound from coming by way of.

The man was — and, whilst a retired participant and father of younger children, nonetheless is — obsessive about getting as near 10 hours of sleep as his schedule will enable.

He believes that obsession is what allowed him to maximise his potential as a dependable outfielder who spent seven years within the bigs.

“I like to call [sleep] a magic pill,” mentioned Guyer, who now espouses the worth of sleep to younger gamers as a part of the Major League Mindset coaching program he created. “Some players might be playing at a high level but not realize there’s another level they can get to. Sleep is the top natural performance-enhancer there is.”

Most present ballplayers aren’t as zealous about their zzz’s as Guyer.

But all of them have a chance within the coming season to enhance their sleep patterns and, maybe, their well being and efficiency.

As MLB adopts the pitch timer in 2023, the apparent — and quick — profit is that the tempo of play will enhance because the useless time between pitches is drastically diminished. In the Minor Leagues final season, the pitch timer lower down common recreation occasions by about 25 minutes. An identical discount in MLB, the place common recreation occasions have reliably been three hours or extra for the previous decade, could be thought of a crisper and extra attractive viewing product for followers.

Think, although, concerning the longer-term impression the elimination of that useless time can have on the gamers themselves. A single recreation wrapping up 20 or 25 minutes sooner than they’re accustomed to doesn’t make a lot of a distinction. But the cumulative impact of shorter video games over the course of 162 video games could possibly be substantial.

Consider that, within the first 12 seasons of Mike Trout’s nice profession, the typical time of an MLB recreation has been 3:05. So on a given day, Trout could possibly be anticipated to spend 92 1/2 minutes on his ft in heart discipline.

Juxtapose that in opposition to Mickey Mantle, to whom Trout is commonly in contrast on a statistical degree. The Mick performed in an period through which, in his first 12 seasons, the typical nine-inning recreation took 2:28. That’s round 16 fewer minutes within the discipline every day.

“That stuff,” mentioned Trout, whose taking part in time the previous two years has been compromised by elbow, calf, hand, groin, again and foot points, “adds up over the course of the year.”

A discount in recreation occasions would add up, too.

When MiLB adopted the pitch timer throughout all ranges final yr, some expressed concern that rushing up pitchers would end in a rise in accidents. On the opposite, pitcher damage occasions decreased 11% from 2021 to 2022, and a few gamers espoused the advantages of the higher tempo.

“Just from a recovery standpoint, getting back in at a reasonable hour and getting a good night’s sleep is a game-changer,” Dodgers pitching prospect Nick Nastrini mentioned final yr. “It could be the difference between being able to play for five years and being able to play for 12. Because there’s the accumulation of getting back at 11:30 [p.m.] and 12:30 [a.m.] and getting into bed by 1 [a.m.] and having to do it all again the next day for 132 games in our season or 162 games in a big league season, it takes a big toll on your body.”

Sleep is baseball’s secret X-factor. Being the one skilled sport through which groups play a recreation with no timed ending nearly every single day of the season has its charms but additionally its challenges.

“Baseball is still somewhat unique in the sports landscape for its steady, methodical march through the year,” mentioned Dr. Scott Kutscher, a scientific affiliate professor at Stanford with a concentrate on sleep drugs. “It’s the constant stress of a game with no clock and how to fit sleep into that puzzle of not knowing how the game is going to end.”

The 2022 Phillies, to seize an instance at random, had a stretch of 14 video games in 13 days in June.

On the entrance finish, in a five-day span, that they had two night time video games after which a four-hour day recreation in Milwaukee, adopted by in a single day journey to Philadelphia (dropping an hour within the sky with the time change) for a three-hour, 24-minute night time recreation, adopted by a day recreation.

On the again finish, there was a house collection in opposition to the Nationals that included 4 video games within the span of fifty hours.

Try getting 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep someplace in there. 

“That is one of the challenges the baseball schedule creates for players,” Guardians president Chris Antonetti mentioned. “A lot of sleep advice revolves around having a consistent bedtime and a consistent wake time. None of that is really possible in professional sports. So we have to find other ways to adapt to that, given some of the constraints of the schedule.”

The result’s the evolutionary demise of the literal “everyday” participant.

In every of the final two seasons, solely two gamers punched in for all 162 video games (Whit Merrifield and Marcus Semien in 2021, and Matt Olson and Dansby Swanson in ’22). Last season, solely 88 gamers appeared in 140 or extra video games — the fewest in a full season since 1972, when there have been six fewer groups. Cal Ripken Jr.’s file video games performed streak is as safe as Fort Knox.

The end result for followers is much less alternative to see the very best athletes on the sector.

A pitch timer clearly can’t repair all that. But it may enhance our odds of seeing the very best gamers carry out at their greatest.

That is, in the event that they heed the recommendation of Guyer and different bedtime backers.

“You’ll only get 30 minutes more sleep,” mentioned Kutscher, “if you actually get 30 minutes more sleep.”

Kutscher cited a research of medical interns whose most consecutive work hours was lower from 24 hours to 16 hours. The research discovered no distinction of their sleep patterns. They had an additional eight hours at their disposal however didn’t change their bedtime habits.

“You only get a change if you promote it,” mentioned Kutscher. “If a team is bringing in sleep doctors and explaining why it’s important that you’re not using that extra time playing video games … why it’s important for your health and longevity.”

In 2013, Kutscher, then an assistant professor of sleep and neurology at Vanderbilt, discovered that slumber impacts the lumber. He used a database of each pitch in each Major League recreation from the earlier season to find out that strike-zone judgment deteriorated over the course of the yr, suggesting fatigue from the journey and disrupted sleep patterns. Another research revealed that very same yr by Dr. W. Christopher Winter of Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center in Charlottesville, Va., had tracked self-reported scores of sleepiness on 80 gamers in a three-season span and located a powerful correlation between the sleepiness of an MLB participant and his longevity within the league. Furthermore, a 2014 research revealed within the Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics discovered that top college athletes who slept lower than eight hours per night time have been 1.7 occasions extra more likely to undergo an damage than those that have been extra rested.

“I can go give a talk about sleep, and whether I’m at my 50th percentile performance or 90th percentile performance, no one’s going to be parsing the timing of my delivery or how good my jokes are,” Kutscher mentioned. “But that’s not true on a baseball field. Everything counts there. At the elite level, tiny differences in performance have a big impact on outcomes.”

Perhaps, then, tiny — or not so tiny — variations in recreation occasions can have a big effect on efficiency.

So don’t sleep on that advantage of the pitch timer.

“In baseball, your sleep schedule is not going to be the same every night,” Guyer mentioned. “But if you can make it as consistent as possible, that’s a huge lever to pull for recovery and energy levels.”