Major League Baseball has implemented some rule changes for the 2023 season that will feel pretty radical to a good number of people. Perhaps the most controversial is the pitch clock. Yes, the sport that has long been known for its avoidance at using clocks will now have one on every single pitch, starting Thursday on MLB Opening Day.

A summary of the rule: 35cm Wall Clock

MLB pitch clock: New baseball rule explained, how it worked in spring training and who could be affected - CBSSports.com

It'll be an adjustment for everyone involved and there will likely be growing pains early in the regular season. We saw a few high-profile violations in spring training, but for the most part it ran fine. We also tokok a look at which pitchers might be most affected hered

The three highest seasons in MLB history in average time of a game played were 2019, 2020 and 2021 (the leader at 3:10). It dropped down to 3:03 last year, but that's still the fifth-longest in league history (2017 was fourth). We saw a drastic cut in the time of the game in spring training action (games were averaging two hours and 36 minutes in mid-March), though it'll increase some in the regular season once there are full commercial breaks.

While cutting down on the time of the game has been a big issue in particular for commissioner Rob Manfred, one of the main reasons for the clock itself is to cut out downtime where a pitcher is just holding the ball for long stretches of time or a batter stands outside the batter's box for upwards of 20-30 seconds. Essentially, the goal is to cut out the time watching players doing nothing at all without cutting out any of the actual baseball. Even if the time of game isn't decreased significantly, we'll presumably be watching a lot more action instead of inaction.

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20 Inch Wall Clock Images by Getty Images and US Presswire