grayhawk

You don't need coffee to answer his questions. You need Shrooms.

Welcome back to the brotherhood!

I like them too. The first one definitely puts some certainty into a rule with too much ambiguity. The second one establishes a procedure that was inconsistently officiated in previous seasons. Good on Randy.

As we can see because of the indictments this year, players are much more likely to be on the take than umpires so ABS does nothing to deter game rigging. To all the fans that think umpires are the bad guys here, it may soothe some feels.

And the reason for this is that it's a clock violation for not making a legitimate attempt to retire the runner.

In 15 years, I have never seen it. Really, try to do this. Gain ground to 2B with your free foot and stay on the rubber. Beware, however. You might tear a ligament. This is baseball, not Twister. It is unrealistic.

It's not realistic. There are two ways to feint to 2B. The inside move and the reverse pivot. In either case, the pitcher will break contact with the rubber which is the same as disengaging. I know they call it the "Spaghetti move," but pitchers aren't really made of spaghetti.

If there is no visible clock, the umpire keeping the timer should be informing the plate umpire when there is 30 seconds remaining (40 is better), and then 15 seconds remaining. When the 30 second signal is given, and then again at 15 seconds, the plate umpire should inform the pitcher, catcher and batter with a clear verbal announcement. This puts everyone on notice equally. I've yet to see a disparity in bullpen locations that creates much of an advantage for one team over the other. A few seconds shouldn't matter. Start the 2:00 clock at at the end of the half inning, but stay alert to see if a new pitcher is entering. If there is, then restart the clock at 2:30 when they cross the warning track.

Can't believe this was even in question. Classic lodged ball.

Yup. Stuff happens. It's an imperfect game. Sometimes you benefit, and sometimes the other team does. So many have said R1 couldn't hear the verbal anyway, so it not being concurrent seems irrelevant. And whether he ignored, missed, failed to notice, or even overlooked the strike mechanic, there is simply no excuse for not staying at 1B until he was certain he could advance. He was clearly confused, so be confused on the bag, not 20 feet off of it.

So...

I think some of these guys have

Players play. Umpires umpire. When players try to umpire, bad things happen. This wasn't a ball that hit the dirt and called a strike. It was one ball up. Certainly not something an R1 from 90 feet away should just assume will be called a ball, turn his back and ignore the strike mechanic.

I was more talking about R1 who may not be able to hear the verbal but can certainly see the physical mechanic. Since he's the one the put himself in jeopardy, he's the one that needs to be vigilant.

IFF? Yes Catch/no catch? Definitely Ball 4/Strike TWO? Definitely not This is complete and utter BS. He has THIRTY seconds to trot 90 feet. Let's say it takes the umpire five whole seconds to give his strike mechanic (it took Wegner 1.5), he still has forever and a day to get to 2B. I'll hold Wegner responsible all day for missing that pitch. It was 3.42 inches above the top. Not a good miss for an MLB umpire. But all the rest is on Bichette, Varsho and the 1B coach. There is simply no hurry. Stay focused, be certain of the call and act accordingly.