'Are You F'n Kidding Me?' - Curt Schilling Responds To Kevin Millar Calling Pitchers 'Mental Midgets'
"Really? Are you f'n kidding me with that?"
3x World Series Champion and 6x All-Star Curt Schilling was not amused by former Red Sox teammate Kevin Millar's comments that pitchers would have a harder time with Major League Baseball's new time clock than batters.
Millar's reasoning? Well, pitchers are "mental midgets."
Oh boy.
But it didn't just stop there.
"Clearly, Kevin Millar was never associated with Mensa. And from an IQ perspective, clearly in the low level digits."
Some fighting words from Schilling and it's only the third episode of his new The Curt Schilling Baseball Show podcast!
With the start of spring training last weekend, everyone has been talking about the multitude of new rules that MLB is implementing for the coming season. Some make sense; for example the new infield "shift" rules that mandate two players on both sides of second base and no outfielder can come onto the playing field dirt. That makes sense.
Others, a little bit more controversial. There's been plenty of debate amongst baseball fans whether the new extra-inning rules that include an automatic "ghost runner" on 2nd base to start the 10th inning are beneficial. (Personally, I think the ghost runner should start in the 11th or 12th inning.)
But the one that has everyone arguing, including the likes of two World Series Champions in Curt Schilling and Kevin Millar, has to do with that damn pitch clock.
PITCH CLOCK BLUES
Under the new MLB rules, once the pitcher receives the ball from either the umpire or catcher, he will have 20 seconds to pitch. If there's runners on base, he will have 15 seconds. In both instances, the batter must be in the batter's box with 8 seconds remaining.
Kevin Millar thinks the pitchers will have a harder time.
"I think this benefits the hitter because we are not as 'mental midgets' as pitchers, and that's a fact. Because as pitchers they think a lot more. When you're a hitter, you're trying to establish, get a fast ball to hit in a hitter's count and let's roll. So I think a pitcher's going to be the hardest ones, because they're all routine-disoriented," Millar told OutKick's Mike 'Gunz' Gunzelman.
"Ya know, it's their fifth day, once every fifth day it's my start. You can't talk to me, I've got my headphones on, at 4pm I'm going to get stretched, I'm going to get rubbed out. So it's more of a routine. As a hitter and a position player, we can adjust a little quicker I think. So I think the advantage goes to the hitter," Miller continued.
Needless to say, Schilling did not agree.
"Here's the problem that he's not thinking through. And he was a guy too that stepped out of the box. Good hitters have used stepping out of the box as a way to control the tempo of the at-bat," Schilling began.
"Baseball's very mental and hitting is very mental. Although, you either have to be mentally strong or mentally absent and Millar was kind of a mentally absent kind of guy." Schilling continued.
"Good hitters like Manny see the ball, hit the ball and all that goes with that. But they'll use stepping out as a tempo. Guys used to do it to me all the time because I worked very fast. They'd step out of the box, step out of the box, it didn't bother me."
And sometimes there was payback involved in the old days.
"Guys used to do it to Nolan Ryan and he would drill them, so that went out of fashion," Schilling quipped.
BATTERS LIKE TO CONTROL THE TEMPO
Curt went on to reference another one of he and Millar's Red Sox Championship team mates in Nomar Garciaparra.
"How would Nomar's at-bats go now? He stepped out and readjusted his gloves every pitch... Lenny Dykstra was a guy that took his time and he told you that the pace of the at-bat was the hitter dictating it. Not anymore."
Schilling concluded his thoughts by saying that "the only pitchers that this is going to affect are guys that aren't any good. Because good pitchers work quick already."
There's no question that the pace of the game has picked up tremendously in just the first week of spring training.
It's come with it's "Woah!" moments such as Yankees pitcher Wandy Peralta pitching a strikeout in 20 seconds:
To the "You've got to be kidding me" reactions like when the Braves were issued an automatic strike (and subsequent third out) by not being set in the batter's box with 8 seconds left.
BASEBALL NEEDS THAT YOUNGER AUDIENCE
The Peralta clip above backs up what Curt was saying. The batter barely had any time at all to even set while the pitcher is just zooming the ball. It's such a bam-bam type momentum that all of a sudden it is 3 strikes later and you're like "Wait, what just happened?"
That is something that batters will have to adjust to. (There's also the possibility for injuries from quick, awkward swing motions to pitchers having to go-go-go. It will be interesting to see what happens on the injury front for sure).
But the clock can work against the pitchers as well.
If they just had a tough at-bat that went 10 or 11 pitches, they are used to being able to at least take a breather, walk around the mound and regroup. Now, they won't really be able to.
There is one thing that Schilling and Millar both agreed on - the game of play will go a lot quicker.
And that my friends, is exactly what Major League Baseball was hoping for.
Follow Gunz on Twitter: @TheGunzShow