Quote:
Originally Posted by Dakota
That still leaves a gap inbetween those two case plays. A double touch is not likely to have been the cause of R1 leaving early, but not releasing the pitch after starting the wind up certainly can be. In that case, I disagree with ruling R1 out EVEN IF there is no judgment of willful intent... How would you judge that anyway? The IP "caused" the runner to leave before the pitch was thrown (because R1 was timing the pitch, and the pitch was never thrown). Officially, the only two options are to call the runner out or eject the pitcher? Not right.
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Agreed. I understand the ejection if this is intentional. However I don't understand penalizing the runner if it was not intentional. The purpose of (some of) the pitching rules is to keep the pitcher from deceiving the runner. If the illegal pitch did, in fact, illegally deceive the runner (even if unintentional), it seems ludicrous to penalize that runner.