This past offseason, MLB implemented another round of tweaks designed to improve pace of play and whittle down game times. Notable among those tweaks is a first-of-its-kind limit on mound visits. Specifically, teams are now allowed just six mound visits throughout the course of a nine-inning game, plus one additional visit for each extra inning. 

What's a mound visit for these purposes? This ... 

A manager or coach trip to the mound to meet with the pitcher shall constitute a visit. A player leaving his position to confer with the pitcher, including a pitcher leaving the mound to confer with another player, shall also constitute a mound visit, regardless of where the visit occurs or the length of the visit.  

And these don't count as one of the six permitted mound visits ... 

  • A pitcher-catcher conference between batters.
  • An infielder goes to the mound to clean his spikes during rainy conditions.
  • Any visit involving a potential injury.
  • Any visit after a pinch-hitter is announced.

Anyhow, on Opening Day the first two contests -- the Cubs at the Marlins and the Cardinals at the Mets -- saw plenty of early scoring and some high pitch counts. Naturally enough, that raised the matter of the new rule on mound visits. As game-goers soon learned, mound visits are now tracked on scoreboards. Here's a brief look in at the Marlins Park big board ... 

Hey, they track mound visits with glove icons down in Miami. So that's cool. Now let's zoom up the East Coast to Citi Field ... 

Ah, yes, the simplicity of numerals, which relieves the people of the Job-like burden of counting perhaps six whole gloves. You've done us all a solid, Mets. 

So, yeah, mound visit tallies are now part of the scoreboard landscape in MLB. Adjust your lives and assumptions accordingly.