Major League Baseball has let it be known that it’s trying to find a way to speed up games and will be testing out one way of doing it by using a 20-second pitch clock in the minor leagues starting in 2015. MLB has been holding discussions with the league’s players’ union to try to come up with some solutions to put an end to three-hour plus games in the league. Fox Sports has reported that the pitch clock will be introduced at the Double A and Triple A level to test it out.

However, the league has already tried out the 20-second pitch clock among several other time-saving changes this offseason in the Arizona Fall League. According to Fox, the coaches and players who have been interviewed said the pitch clock was pretty effective and it didn’t disrupt the flow of the ball games. This is good news for MLB as the average length of nine-inning baseball games has been getting longer year after year for the past few seasons.

The length of an average 2014 regular-season contest clocked in at close to three hours and eight minutes, which represents the longest on record since 1950 when the length of games started to be closely monitored. However, there are some people opposed to the use of a 20-second pitch clock as they claim it would force a pitcher to rush his delivery and it could potentially be dangerous to their health as it could lead to injuries.

In a related issue, as MLB games have gotten longer annually for the past four years, the league has seen a drop off in offence. Some fans believe this is because pitchers are gaining some type of advantage by taking too much time between pitches. They believe if a pitch clock is introduced then the offence would pick up at the same time. The very least a 20-second pitch clock should achieve at the minor league level is to get young pitchers into the habit of speeding things up.

Therefore when they make it to the Major Leagues they’ll be used to speedy deliveries instead of throwing a couple of pitches per minute. If the pitcher fails to deliver the ball within the allotted time of 20 seconds the umpire will have the power to call a ball.