Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Tyler
I saw this one in an A's/Rangers game last week.
Situation: R3 only and pitcher in the set position on the rubber. LHB, so F5 is playing a good distance from the bag. Ian Kinsler (R3) gets a good lead and starts like he is going to take off for home. Gio Gonzalez (F1) steps back off the rubber and makes what is very wild throw towards home that F2 doesn't even have a chance to catch. I'm sure he was trying to throw the ball so that F2 would have a chance on a play at the plate. Yep you guessed it, a balk was called by U1, our very own "Balk A Day" Bob Davidson. My guess was that he would have called the balk for simulating a pitch.
However, it looked to me as if Gonzalez just stepped off and was making what would have been a quick normal throw to retire a runner, abliet wildly. Just because Kinsler retreated back to 3B, I don't see any issue why a balk was called.
Did "Balk A Day" get it wrong, or am I missing something here? If the pitcher disengages the rubber first, can't he just throw it anywhere? It didn't really matter since Kinsler would have scored on the wild throw anyway.
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The pitcher was in the Windup Position, not the Set Position. Once he started his motion, he had to continue with the pitch. He cannot step off and throw at this point. The balk call was correct. Either way, by balk or wild pitch, that run is going to score anyway.
What I thought was typically bush was the announcer claiming that the Rangers had been "victimized" lately by overruled umpire calls. Poor Rangers
.