PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- On Wednesday, Rays manager Kevin Cash spent time with MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Joe Torre, who is making his annual tour of big league camps.
According to Torre, the between-innings time clock will likely be shortened by 20 seconds, as it appeared last year that most pitchers were ready well before the allotted 2:25 in most games had elapsed.
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Also, a 30-second clock will start every time a manager or pitching coach visits the mound.
"We're doing this in conjunction with the Players Association, and the players understand that there's a reason why we're doing this -- for the fans' sake," said Torre moments after the meeting. "It's not so much shortening the game as it is eliminating the dead time, and I don't think any of us like that."
Torre also addressed the subject of player safety, noting that he is pleased with the rules governing home-plate collisions, while conceding that the development of rules concerning take-out slides -- spawned largely by Chase Utley's collision with Mets' shortstop Ruben Tejada in last year's playoffs -- is still a work in progress.
"There's playing hard and then there's playing dangerous, and we want to eliminate playing dangerous," said Torre, who described Utley's slide as "excessive."
Torre drew a big laugh from reporters when he was asked if he noticed any difference in the comfort level of the rookie manager Cash he met last year and the second-year version he encountered on Wednesday.
"He's a catcher, man, he's smart," smiled Torre. "I'm a little biased. I'm sorry, I'm a little biased to catchers."