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Balk or Not


Guest Greg Stangness
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Guest Greg Stangness

A pitcher is throwing from the stretch.  As he comes set he brings his free foot back slightly (towards first base) keeping his shoulders square with the batter.  He is now set, pauses and throws the ball.  Balk or no balk?  Some view this as a motion to first.

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1 hour ago, Guest Greg Stangness said:

A pitcher is throwing from the stretch.  As he comes set he brings his free foot back slightly (towards first base) keeping his shoulders square with the batter.  He is now set, pauses and throws the ball.  Balk or no balk?  Some view this as a motion to first.

If his shoulders are square to the batter I am picturing this as the windup not set position and he should not stop.  His shoulders should b square to first or third in the set.  Moving to set with the free foot slightly towards first should not be a balk, I have had in recent games seen pitchers move the free foot towards first before coming home like a rocker step before pitching this can cause a balk

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6 hours ago, Radwaste50 said:

I have had in recent games seen pitchers move the free foot towards first before coming home like a rocker step before pitching this can cause is a balk

FIFY

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6 minutes ago, Rich Ives said:

Not in LL majors and lower. It's legal there.

The code matters in what is being described. LL allows a sideways pitcher with a parallel to the rubber pivot foot to windup from the set at any level. OBR allowed that until this year when they made the David Price rule modification which was just recently kicked by Nelson and crew. NCAA requires the pitchers initial chest orientation to determine the windup or set. If an NCAA pitcher is more square to 3B than the batter in his initial position then you know he's in the set and he could come to a more open set position. If he is more square to the batter in his initial position, even with a parallel to the rubber pivot foot, he is in the windup and can rocker step. While I could continue to parse the various codes pitching rules, I think some umpires know it when they see it and others don't. The codes are trying to address the guys that don't know it when they see it. FED uses foot position, NCAA chest orientation, OBR tell us if it matters. Three codes trying to help unknowing umpires with completely different criteria. Tells you something.

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