Quote:
Originally posted by fwump
[BOur organization held its annual field clinic today. Clinicians were Minor League guys, one from Texas League and one from AAA PCL.
We were rotating in and out of a scrimmage game between a couple of 14U local teams. During my turn as PU with R3 I balked the pitcher for not coming to a stop. At the conclusion of the inning during my evaluation the PCL ump told me he probably would'nt have called that balk. His point: Is R3 going anywhere? Probably not. Was there any real attempt to deceive? Also probably not. He went on say in essence, that balking a pitcher with R3 should be treated differently than in other situations.
I was wondering what you guys think. Do you consider things like age of players or the inning or the score before you call the balk in this sitch or does it or should it matter?
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No better time for a pitcher to learn to stop than in a scrimmage game. And your clinician said he "probably wouldn't have called that balk". That's a definite-maybe-not if I ever heard.
But back to your question, I would consider the age and at 14U I would be more lenient, a NO STOP balk would have to be obvious. The inning and score and position of the runners would not be taken into consideration.