Comments on: Justin Verlander made an interesting pitch on Saturday night

By: cur68

cur68 — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:57:15 +0000

dc I’ve had a long hard weekend hurting my head thinking. All this rulifying, while commendable on your part to get to the bottom of this, is making it hurt again. I can’t tell for certain what the infraction was and I saw the highlight a few times but I thought initially it’s wild pitch/hit batter, take your base Mr. DeJesus. But on slo mo I see the left foot going backwards while his right, the pivot foot, goes to towards 3rd. Hence a balk, resume your at bat Mr. De Jesus, and get thee to 2nd Mr. Barton. Isn’t that correct?

By: dcburden

dcburden — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:07:05 +0000

Or did the runner just advance under this rule?

(e) If the pitcher removes his pivot foot from contact with the pitchers plate by stepping backward with that foot, he thereby becomes an infielder and if he makes a wild throw from that position, it shall be considered the same as a wild throw by any other infielder.
Rule 8.01(e) Comment: The pitcher, while off the rubber, may throw to any base. If he makes a wild throw, such throw is the throw of an infielder and what follows is governed by the rules covering a ball thrown by a fielder.

By: dcburden

dcburden — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:04:52 +0000

Nope, I’m wrong.

8.01(c) (c) At any time during the pitchers preliminary movements and until his natural pitching motion commits him to the pitch, he may throw to any base provided he steps directly toward such base before making the throw.

So, I guess this was a balk because of the way he stepped back off the rubber first?

By: dcburden

dcburden — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:00:35 +0000

If memory serves, it’s a balk to throw to a base unless there’s already a runner there or on the base behind. So yeah, this or a throw to third would have been a balk.

By: chrisdtx

chrisdtx — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:00:37 +0000

That was a…I don’t know what that was. Can it really be a balk if his foot wasn’t on the rubber? Can it be a HBP if it wasn’t technically a pitch? I think they initially called it an E1, but then the official scorer changed it to a balk. Anyway…weird.

By: The Common Man/www.platoonadvantage.com

The Common Man/www.platoonadvantage.com — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:48:27 +0000

That’s pretty crazy. The weirdest part is that he clearly hits the batter, but since it’s not technically a pitch, the batter shouldn’t get 1B. Of all the bad outcomes, this was least bad, it seems like.