Yahoo Sports 
Blue Jays' Russell Martin rips MLB's new intentional walk rule
Major League Baseball and the players’ association have agreed to a rule change that would result in automatic intentional walks beginning in the 2017 season, and Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin isn’t happy about it.
While the MLB Players Association has blocked a number of league-proposed rule changes that include a pitch clock, a smaller strike zone and mound visit limits, one rule that did get the green light for this season is the ability to issue an intentional walk without throwing a pitch.
That prompted a rant from Martin, the Blue Jays’ all-star catcher, during the team’s workout in Florida. As reported by Shi Davidi of Sportsnet:
By no means are intentional walks automatic, until now. Now they are. So they’re speeding up the game. My thing is, if they really want to speed up the game, then when a guy hits a home run, to speed up the game should a guy, just like in softball, when he hits it, should he just walk to the dugout? It’d be quicker. I’m just wondering, at what point do we just keep the game, the game? Or, how about this calculation: take all the intentional walks that were made in the last couple years and calculate – or maybe just ask to see if they have that information, to see if they really did their homework. Is it really that important to speed up the game (with this rule)? Because how many games did we play last year where we didn’t have one intentional walk? That’s something I’d like to know.
There were 932 intentional walks in last season’s 2,427 baseball games, which works out to roughly one intentional walk every 2.6 games, according to Davidi.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says he’s introducing the new rules with the intention of speeding up the game, and while his other proposals were rejected by the MLBPA, he still plans to press on and implement them for the 2018 season.
Related: Marcus Stroman could be hurt by proposed changes to the strike zone
Meanwhile, several managers have publicly supported the new intentional walk rule. According to the Associated Press, Yankees manager Joe Girardi argued it’s “not changing the strategy” and Cleveland skipper Terry Francona said it “doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.”
Martin disagrees. From Sportsnet:
“Speed up the game, speed up the game. How about we just give guys – the human being – time to warm up on the mound after maybe something’s happened in the game? I’m not a manager, but I’m just trying to put myself in the position of a manager. … It’s the same thing when you throw over to first base, like, eight times in a row. It’s not like we’re trying to keep the guy close. The guy maybe has two stolen bases in 18 years. It’s because the guy needs time to warm up. At what point does that become a problem with guys warming up in the bullpen? Sometimes it’s just strategy to give guys a little bit of time to warm up.
