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WEST PALM BEACH Nolan Ryan Jersey , Fla. (AP) — Major League Baseball is unilaterally starting the use of pitch clocks for spring training games, while brushing off complaints from players about the slow free agent market.With the sport looking for ways to speed the pace of play, pitchers generally will have 20 seconds to deliver to the plate when teams play exhibition games in Arizona and Florida beginning this week. The intention is to get players and umpires accustomed to the clock in the event MLB makes the rule change for the upcoming regular season.“We will start getting ready for the possibility that we’re going to use the pitch clock on opening day,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said Sunday at spring training media day in Florida. “We have to get going.”After the 2016 and 2017 seasons, players rebuffed management’s proposal for a pitch clock. Owners have the right to implement one this year without consent, but Manfred has been reluctant to initiate on-field modifications without agreement from players and their union head, Tony Clark.“We’re still hopeful that we’re going to make an agreement with Tony on pace-of-play initiatives,” Manfred said. “I just think that whether it’s by agreement or otherwise, the only prudent course for us at this point is to be in a position to proceed if in fact we have an agreement or decide to do it … under our collectively bargained right to do that.”MLB made a unilateral decision on clocks for the exhibition season.“We were recently notified by the commissioner’s office that the pitch clock will be tested in spring games,” the players’ association said in a statement. “This is not the result of an agreement with the players’ association. Discussions regarding several on- and off-field issues remain ongoing.”Manfred said the rules involving the clock will be “phased in” and won’t start immediately with ball and strike calls. But there will be a “functional” clock in Grapefruit League and Cactus League games. Management’s proposals have said a clock would not be used after foul balls.Pitch clocks have been used in the high minors since 2015.With spring training underway and exhibitions scheduled to start Thursday, several players around the majors have taken issue with a second consecutive slow market for free agents. They question why more teams aren’t trying to win.“It would be nice to start with the facts on this topic. There has been no meaningful change in the distribution of winning percentages in Major League Baseball,” Manfred said. “Our teams are trying. Every single one of them wants to win. It may look a little different to outsiders because the game has changed, the way that people think about the game, the way that people think about putting a winning team together has changed, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying.”Two of the game’s biggest stars, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado remain unsigned — along with closer Craig Kimbrel and dozens of other accomplished veterans.“There are 11 players who had a WAR (wins above replacement) above 1 last year that are unsigned. I believe that just like last year, that market is going to clear. At some point here in the next few weeks, those players are going to get signed,” Manfred said. “We negotiated a system that allows the market to operate and I have every confidence that for those players that I just described, that market is going to clear before we get to playing real games.”The current economy for players is all part of the game, he insisted.“I think it’s important to remember that the Major League Baseball Players Association has always wanted a market-based system. And, markets change. Particularly when the institution around those markets change. We’ve had a lot of change in the game. People think about players differently. They analyze players differently. They negotiate differently. Agents negotiate differently http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-tim-tebow-jersey ,” Manfred said.“I think there’s lots and lots of offers out there and it’s a bilateral process. Players haven’t accepted those offers yet. That’s how a market works. So you know, we bargained for a market system, that market’s out there operating, and I don’t have any choice but to live with that right now.”Manfred said just because clubs don’t spend big doesn’t mean they aren’t attempting to win.He pointed out that Oakland and Tampa Bay, two low-payroll clubs expected to struggle in 2018, both had excellent seasons. The Athletics reached the playoffs with 97 wins, and the Rays won 90 games.“I reject the notion that payroll is a good measure for how much a team is trying or how successful that team is going to be,” he explained.That drew the ire of Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander, who tweeted: “Agreed… finally we’re on the same page! Awesome! Removal of the luxury tax it is.” The righty is healthy, again. For now."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Farmers onlyFeaturesPlayoffsHistory/Hall of FameOff-seasonPeer into the FutureWhat if the Cincinnati Reds finally get a healthy Anthony DeSclafani?New,35commentsThe righty is healthy, again. For now.ESTShareTweetShareShareWhat if the Cincinnati Reds finally get a healthy Anthony DeSclafani?The Cincinnati Enquirer-USA TODASonny Gray is 29 years old, is fresh off a new contract extension, and while he has topped 3 fWAR in MLB seasons before, he’s never once topped 4. Alex Wood has a similar story, a 28 year old who just won his final arbitration hearing who has managed to successfully top 3 fWAR in a season, but not 4. Tanner Roark is the eldest of the new Cincinnati Reds starters at age 32, and he’ll take home $10 million in 2019 after having a pair of MLB seasons with more than 3 fWAR...but never more than 4. Those three paired with the fireballing Luis Castillo sure seem to have Reds fans in a furor that the club might finally, finally field a respectable starting rotation.Of course, that conveniently disregards one Anthony DeSclafani who, if I’m reading my scribbled notes correctly, could well have been the Reds Opening Day starter for three years running had things gone his way. That despite he Asdrubal Cabrera Jersey , too, is 29 years old with a 3 fWAR season already under his belt (but never more than 4).An elbow issue shut him down for the entirety of the 2017 season, you’ll recall. Oblique issues in 2016 limited him to just 123.1 IP - though they were largely excellent - and also popped up again in 2018 to help delay his return from said elbow troubles. Those injury foibles have helped kick the memory of his excellent form from 2015 almost completely out of our minds, or precisely how excited we were that the Reds had landed a rotation cog for the future while flipping a broken Mat Latos to the Miami Marlins after the 2014 season.Once again, though, Disco is healthy. He’s had a full, healthy offseason, one that even included a wedding. And while the track records of health from each of the other four projected starters certainly appear to me more rock solid entering spring training than Disco’s, the reality as that their upside performances when healthy are very much in the same ballpark.What if the Reds do get a healthy DeSclafani in 2019, though?Disco, even with the oblique issue back in 2016, entered camp in 2017 with a combined 109 ERA+ in 308.0 IP in his Reds career, his 3.78 FIP endorsing the 3.74 ERA he’d posted in that time as legitimate. While his overall numbers after returning in 2018 were far from good - his 4.93 ERA was nearly identical to the 4.90 ERA that got Sonny Gray run out of New York - there was that 5 start stretch of brilliance in August where he fired 34.1 innings of 2.62 ERA ball before stumbling in September under the ever-quickening hook of interim manager Jim Riggleman. He looked rusty and absolutely wore down, but there were certainly flashes of the pitcher who had emerged as the best of an otherwise busted Reds staff prior to his injury troubles.There was plenty to suggest he’s rebounded well from that lost 2017 season, too. Last year, for instance, his fastball averaged 93.6 mph, which was 0.7 mph higher than he’d ever averaged before. It got hit harder than it had in previous years - he allowed a .354 average, 10 dingers, and a 1.129 OPS against him on fastballs in 2018 compared to a .260 average, 7 dingers (in almost twice as many offerings), and a .764 OPS against in his breakout 2015 - but his slider was once again consistently one of the better among all right-handed starters http://www.metsfanproshop.com/authentic-tim-tebow-jersey , as it has been throughout his career.In other words, if his fastball returns to even close to what it was before his elbow troubles - and its velocity last year suggests that’s a decent possibility - the rest of what made Disco the Reds best starter in 2015 and 2016 sure seems to still be there. Perhaps limiting how often he throws fastballs might be a help, as it could well be with the entire pitching staff (as I looked at closer back in November). Not to mention that Disco will have Derek Johnson as his new pitching coach, who just so happened to help resurrect Jhoulys Chacin with a customized approach that included a 6% reduction in how often he threw his fastball in cahoots with a 10% jump in slider use.I say ‘customized’ because that’s exactly how Johnson approaches each pitcher under his wings, as CBSSports.com’ Jonah Keri detailed in his discussions with Johnson earlier this month. In theory, that ‘customized’ approach will likely include a return to emphasizing the fastball of Sonny Gray, something that we also explored in depth in November back when Gray was merely a Yankees pitcher on the trade block.In reality, the Reds traded for rotation stability in Alex Wood and Tanner Roark, bringing in a pair of guys who have made their name on their consistency. In Gray, they rolled the dice on a wild card, hoping that a bounce-back was in his 29 year old right arm, one big enough to help lead the new Reds rotation. In DeSclafani, they’ve got another wild card, but also one with a pretty solid pre-injury track record that might well be every bit the bounce-back candidate that Gray represents, too. And if the Reds can manage to get that best-case scenario out of the guy who is generously penciled-in as their #5 starter, their rotation might not just be good, it could be very, very good.