Tmac's Teachable Moments - Picking Up a Crew Mate

[Lindsay]

Friday's Tmac's Teachable Moment concerns filling in for a crew mate to avoid an uncovered play. Sometimes when you take a baseball field at any level, a partner makes a positioning mistake. Now here's the question: Are you the kind of person who can recognize this mistake and pick him...

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[Jimurray]

2 hours ago, Gil said:

Friday's Tmac's Teachable Moment concerns filling in for a crew mate to avoid an uncovered play. Sometimes when you take a baseball field at any level, a partner makes a positioning mistake. Now here's the question: Are you the kind of person who can recognize this mistake and pick him...

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While I was sprinting to 3B to pick up my partner I would be yelling/asking U got third, u got third. I would also be thinking that my PU would cover as he would see everything and when I see him come up the 3B line I'll rotate home. Then when I saw the blur that needed a call I would have noticed that U3 came back with a better angle and eye checked with him before guessing at a call. This crew does not get any medals. PU watched the whole thing. U2 is thinking no one is tagging up and going on that ball. But yes, pick up your partner. And, without replay, when the coach comes out, do you get together? More than likely yes. So sometimes you can't avoid the impression of a goat rope.

[dumbdumb]

and rather than everyone trying to figure out who should have done what.

The big take away for all you young guys is the fact that the junior man on the crew took it upon himself to try and bust his rear end to get over there when everyone is having a brain cramp. He just reacted to the situation, using his instincts. This is the type of situation that allows your stock price to rise. (AAA uses 4 man crews much of the time and this type of play, i would bet dollars to doughnuts, raises your umpiring value immensely all things being equal with onlooking supervisors. (this would have been great for one of the call-up guys to have done what Reyburn did).

No doubt this should never have happened to start with, but I guarantee that if lawump or anyone scouting an umpiring prospect sees this type of instincts, that umpire moves up the list in stock value. Doesn't mean things will work out in the end, but that is what they are looking for, and a great play to show the instincts when you hear that word mentioned.

No, he did not play the game of, "not my job", i got the batter runner only, unless by chance the home plate umpire starts moving to third, and then I go to the plate only, or I don't want to show up my crew. He just used his instincts and reacted to the situation that presented itself.

Now, if there was no replay and they started giving him crapola, in the old days the veterans would be up there in a heart beat to bail him out since he at least tried to get over there after they had messed up.

Textbook for the instincts they are looking for IMHO, not only in MLB, MiLB but for all levels of umpiring.

3 man. 0 outs. runner on third only. Foul ball hit over towards the dugout (that is far from home plate and plate umpire goes way over to make sure catcher/3B catches the ball. 3rd base umpire lines up the tag. Pitcher/1B forgets to cover home, runner tags. Uh oh, plate umpire is too far away from home plate to get back. 1st base umpire is just standing at the normal first base position, having fun watching since batter is not running. So the only umpire who has a chance to make it to home when he sees where the ball is going, just stands there like a knot on a log, rather than go to home for the play. That can easily happen. But, if that umpire immediately breaks towards home and then ends up having to cover the plate, you don't think that supervisor is very very happy at any level. That is what they are looking for, other than ball/strike and "routine" mechanics and field positioning and movement. Umpiring instincts come into play IMHO.

[Jimurray]

16 minutes ago, dumbdumb said:

and rather than everyone trying to figure out who should have done what.

The big take away for all you young guys is the fact that the junior man on the crew took it upon himself to try and bust his rear end to get over there when everyone is having a brain cramp. He just reacted to the situation, using his instincts. This is the type of situation that allows your stock price to rise. (AAA uses 4 man crews much of the time and this type of play, i would bet dollars to doughnuts, raises your umpiring value immensely all things being equal with onlooking supervisors. (this would have been great for one of the call-up guys to have done what Reyburn did).

No doubt this should never have happened to start with, but I guarantee that if lawump or anyone scouting an umpiring prospect sees this type of instincts, that umpire moves up the list in stock value. Doesn't mean things will work out in the end, but that is what they are looking for, and a great play to show the instincts when you hear that word mentioned.

No, he did not play the game of, "not my job", i got the batter runner only, unless by chance the home plate umpire starts moving to third, and then I go to the plate only, or I don't want to show up my crew. He just used his instincts and reacted to the situation that presented itself.

Now, if there was no replay and they started giving him crapola, in the old days the veterans would be up there in a heart beat to bail him out since he at least tried to get over there after they had messed up.

Textbook for the instincts they are looking for IMHO, not only in MLB, MiLB but for all levels of umpiring.

3 man. 0 outs. runner on third only. Foul ball hit over towards the dugout (that is far from home plate and plate umpire goes way over to make sure catcher/3B catches the ball. 3rd base umpire lines up the tag. Pitcher/1B forgets to cover home, runner tags. Uh oh, plate umpire is too far away from home plate to get back. 1st base umpire is just standing at the normal first base position, having fun watching since batter is not running. So the only umpire who has a chance to make it to home when he sees where the ball is going, just stands there like a knot on a log, rather than go to home for the play. That can easily happen. But, if that umpire immediately breaks towards home and then ends up having to cover the plate, you don't think that supervisor is very very happy at any level. That is what they are looking for, other than ball/strike and "routine" mechanics and field positioning and movement. Umpiring instincts come into play IMHO.

I believe that U1 covering HP when PU vacates on a foul fly, etc. is actually a note in the PBUC manual.

[maven]

Sometimes umpires who have only ever worked 1- or 2-umpire mechanics think: "ah, what a luxury to have 4! We'd never have to move, just wait for the play to come to you!"

Well, no. Rotations are crucial, and when you work 3- or 4-umpire mechanics all the time (especially with the same, pro crew), it's easy to assume that your partner will be in the right place at the right time. After all, he as done so for the past 10 years or whatever, maybe thousands of games.

With a smaller crew of 1 or 2, this would have looked less bad, as the covering umpire is not going to be at 3B anyway, and the ball will take everyone to the play. Of course, if nobody makes a call, it's still going to look like crap (and we won't have replay to fix it).