Minor-league hitters will have to be careful about enjoying their walkup music for too long or taking an extra swat at the dirt in their cleats this season.

Baseball wants them ready to start swinging away in a more timely manner.

According to International League president Randy Mobley, Triple-A, Double-A and the Class A Florida State League will all experiment with a new rule at the request of Major League Baseball.

After the first and second outs of every inning, a 30-second clock will be started. By the time that clock has ticked down to five seconds, the next hitter has to be ready to face a pitch.

If he's not prepared, the umpire can call a strike. If he's ready but the pitcher isn't, the umpire can call a ball.

"It's going to motivate the hitter to get up to that plate area sooner,'' Mobley said.

Mobley said if an out is recorded but results in an argument or an injury, the umpires can waive the start of the hitters clock to allow for extra time.

After the third out of an inning, the allowable time of 2 minutes, 25 seconds before the start of the next frame remains the same. The 20-second pitch limit between pitches within an at-bat is also unchanged.

The pitch clock will be going into its third season of application. Mobley said in 2015, the first year of the rule, the duration of IL games dropped an average of about 12 minutes down to 2 hours, 40 minutes. He said last year's average game time was 2:42.

In terms of penalties for violations of the pitch clock, those have dropped dramatically. Mobley said in 2015 102 total violations were called: 72 balls on pitchers who weren't ready and 30 strikes on hitters who weren't prepared.

Last season, Mobley said that total dropped to 34: 30 on pitchers and four on hitters.

"It has caused us to be more efficient,'' Mobley said of the pitch clock. "We've gotten rid of a lot of the lolly-gagging and it hasn't really affected the game at all.''