According to Central League Secretary General Hideo Okoshi, there has been an impact on game times.
"The games have been faster, between seven or eight to ten minutes faster this year," said Okoshi.
A number of hitters and pitchers in both leagues have expressed dissatisfaction with both the size and consistency of the larger zone, but Okoshi says the zone has not resulted in more arguments.
"Going by the umpires reports, players aren't complaining more, but that might be because, unlike before, nobody feels comfortable with what is and isn't a strike.
"I've been told the difference is that most batters are now trying to hit the first strike, because they might not get another one as good and they don't want to let it go to waste. A lot of batters used to try to wait for a good pitch..."
In the name of speeding up the game, the new zone has brought a fair amount of chaos to the batters box.
"You don't know what a strike is anymore," said one PL batter. "One of the first things you learn as a kid is to lay off the high pitches and now they're calling them strikes. That's stupid."
The biggest problem most players are having is with umpires being inconsistent from inning to inning.
"If that's going on, then that's the umpire's fault and something we need to correct," said Okoshi.
Agreed, but something the leagues have not been very successful at in the past.
And rather than using the bigger target to go after hitters with pitches off the plate, pitchers are continuing to throw as many wide waste pitches as ever.
"I guess, they feel they've got a comfort zone, so they are going to use it," said Okoshi.
OK. The games are faster, slightly. The 64,000 yen question is whether or not they are better.
For a lot of people, a better game means pitchers working quickly, the defense making great plays and runners challenging fielders' arms.
Watching batters going to the plate knowing they are in a hole to begin with is no one's idea of fun, at least not unless one is a pitching coach.
The practice of waiting to get a pitch you can hit and then going after it, is like many skills in the game, conceptually simple but extremely hard to execute. Leaving aside the fact that batting requires an extreme amount of coordination and timing, each pitch is influenced by countless other variables: the score in the game, the count, the pitcher's control, the playing surface, the size of the park.
By giving the umpires free reign to call any ball that doesn't bounce in the dirt a strike, the existing relationships between other factors have been altered. Right now the game is in flux as pitchers and hitters experiment to find out what will work and when.
One would guess that the big beneficiaries of the twilight zone would be hard throwers who had trouble hitting the smaller zone with enough consistency to be effective.
Seibu Lions right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka entered last night's game with 66 strikouts against eight bases on balls--somewhat of an improvement over his ratio of 214 Ks and 117 walks a year ago.
But if the zone is larger, which should be helping all pitchers, how can we account for Michihiro Ogasawara?
In an environment in which all hitters should be suffering, the Nippon Ham Fighters' little big man is doing a very acceptable impression of Barry Bonds.
Ogasawara, who delights in swinging from the heels at high heat during the All-Star games, can hit the ball anywhere you can pitch it. Thus, pitchers may have started out wasting pitches up high against him only to see Ogasawara take batting practice.
It could be that, like Ichiro Suzuki or Bonds, Ogasawara is so tough right now that pitchers have little confidence that anything they try will work.
Asked to explain how he has been hovering around the .400 mark all season, he offers no answers. In a brief interrogation behind the Tokyo Dome batting cage, Ogasawara provided little insight into his early prowess in baseball's brave new world.
Asked if his success was due to good form or luck or the new zone, Ogasawara simply tilted his head, maintained his gum-chewing cadence and answered, "No," "Maybe," and "I don't know what it is."
Is it that pitchers are wasting more pitches up high, ones he can hit?
"Could be," said Ogasawara as he tried his level best to feign ignorance--in the tradition of not acknowledging baseball success for fear that any mention will cause the good fortune to evaporate.
Amid all the chaos we have seen this spring, it is reassuring to find that some things never change.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The
Daily Yomiuri .