Quote:
Originally Posted by Spence
What are you looking for in order to determine if this violates the "don't hit the catcher" rule? The runner clearly sees the catcher coming up the line. Is that enough? Does the distance away from home plate come into play?
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I'm looking at whether the runner has time to avoid the catcher, wherever he is, in fielding the throw. Distance from the plate does not come into play.
When the runner has time to avoid a collision and does not, that's malicious contact. MC supersedes obstruction.
There are plays where the runner does not have time to avoid the catcher: contact in this case is incidental if F2 has the ball, OBS if not.
If the runner has to deviate much, I'll probably have a call: if F2 has the ball, he's out for being out of the baseline; if F2 does not have the ball, I've got OBS on F2.