The pitches for walks is really no big deal to me, except for the rare time a pitcher is too amped and can’t do it.
There will be more stuff happening, like you say. But I think if they make the strike zone smaller, especially on the bottom where sinker baller guys work then you are going to probably have much longer games also because of how teams are going to treat their pitchers today. Pitch counts will go up, because there will be less weak contact down there. More pitchers will get used because no team is going to hurt these guys. That takes time within an inning where nothing else is going to be happening.
But I think probably no ump with time in is going to really care about the directive. We’ll see if pitch track makes a dent in them, but I doubt it.
Freegards
It’s just a waste of time. Made worse of course by the fact that it’s the big hitter. You get some anticipation for the big hitter annnnnnd now we gotta watch the pitcher throw 4 lobs to the side. It’ll still be anticlimactic when they signal an intentional walk, but at least it’s over quick.
Yeah the umps are the problem. Doesn’t really matter how they define the zone, each ump has their own. That’s why I think the real fix on the strike zones is mass firing and strict enforcement. Give me 2 seasons where the umps only call the zone that’s in the books and we’ll see if maybe we need to tweak it for more hitting.