John Smoltz Is A Big Pitch Clock Guy, Wishes They Had It When He Played

We're still in the first week of Major League Baseball's pitch clock era. Some people will need to sit with a bit more before deciding whether or not they're in favor of it, however, John Smoltz has seen enough.

He's all in on the pitch clock.

The Fox Sports MLB analyst sat down with TMZ Sports to talk about the start of the season.

"I'm excited about the opportunity that baseball has with these changes and with the rule changes to get the game action-packed again," Smoltz said, "I think it's going to be phenomenal."

Smolts said that while he doesn't like comparing eras, there's no denying that the game has slowed down in recent years.

"The game has slowed down because of a lot of reasons. A lot of data, a lot of information, a lot of processing," Smoltz said.

The Braves legend said that he thinks all of his caused players to slow down through "osmosis." He also said, that while it had a hand in slowing the game down, data is also helping to ramp things back up.

"These changes have been because of data and because the data has shown us how long the game has taken and how little action has really been in the game," he said.

Smoltz explained that players will adapt to the changes. To illustrate that point, he noted how basketball players adapted to the addition of a shot clock.

As for pitch clocks, the 55-year-old who retired in 2009 said he would've loved having that rule back in his playing days.

"Well, I'd have loved it. I have little patience, he said. "I like to get the ball and go."

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.