Tag up at 2B or 3B?

[Guest Funky Mark]

No outs. Runner on 2B steals 3B and is safe, before the ball crosses plate(long wind-up),  the batter hits that pitch, a fly ball that is caught. What bag does the runner need to tag up at?

[maven]

The runner has to retouch all bases back to where he was at the time of pitch (TOP). If he is beyond 3B when the fielder first touches the ball, then he must return and touch 3B, then go back to 2B and retouch (tag up), or be liable to be called out on appeal at any base he fails to retouch.

The TOP is defined as when the pitcher starts his first motion to pitch, which in your play would be the start of the "long windup" to which you refer. Almost certainly, your stealing runner took off during the start of that long windup, so he had not acquired 3B before the motion to pitch began. He must therefore retouch 2B.

The time the pitched ball crossed the plate is not relevant to any rule in baseball (except maybe some stealing rules for yoots?).

Except in youth ball, stealing runners never get there before the pitch starts. Even when they do, they don't (IOW, that's not how to teach them).

[beerguy55]

4 minutes ago, Guest Funky Mark said:

No outs. Runner on 2B steals 3B and is safe, before the ball crosses plate(long wind-up),  the batter hits that pitch, a fly ball that is caught. What bag does the runner need to tag up at?

The bag they last touched at the time the pitcher started his delivery.

[noumpere]

1 hour ago, beerguy55 said:

The bag they last touched at the time the pitcher started his delivery.

I think it's the base last legally occupied at the TOP.  For example, in the OP, suppose there was R2 AND R3, and that R2 reached third before TOP -- we 'd still require R2 to tag up at second.

[beerguy55]

29 minutes ago, noumpere said:

I think it's the base last legally occupied at the TOP.  For example, in the OP, suppose there was R2 AND R3, and that R2 reached third before TOP -- we 'd still require R2 to tag up at second.

Yes...I was trying to be very simplistic, but perhaps too simple.   That would indeed be an interesting tag up scenario otherwise.