peter_15

Are home plate umpires allowed to talk/yell besides calling timeout while the pitcher is beginning his windup? During this situation, the batter was asking for time verbally and raising his hand, and beginning to back out of the box. At the same time, the pitcher begins his windup. As this occurs, the umpire responds that he is not granting time by physically pointing to the batter and verbally yelling, “no no stay in the box!” the pitcher strides towards home but did not release the pitch, as he was confused by the umpire yelling and making hand gestures to the batter. He thought the umpire was granting time. Resulting in a called balk by the umpire. Is the umpire allowed to make these gestures and comments while the pitcher is in his process of delivering a pitch?