[harmbu]

After reading about this and doing some thinking, here is what I have come up with to do about this:

We don't prepare for things like this in practice because I would rather spend time on baseball activities that will make my players play the game the right way. Let's first assume this scenario:

R1, outs don't matter. The runner takes a normal lead from first when the defensive coach decides he wants to talk to his pitcher. He requests and is granted time. After his conference on the mound play resumes with R1 once again taking a normal lead. I think we can all agree that this type of thing happens all of the time.

Now let's look at the situation from the original post. R1 has gone into short right field and is standing in front of F9. When he stops he is no longer advancing toward second base so it can be assumed that he has taken his lead. At this point, as the defensive coach I will request time. It should be granted because the runner is not advancing and we are not making a play on him. If the request is denied, then the umpire must also deny any future requests where the runner has taken his lead. If this is the case, any time I am on offense and I sense that the opposing coach wants to have a conference or replace a pitcher, I will make sure that my baserunner is at lease a step off the base and the umpire will not grant time.

I know some of you will say that this will just prolong the game because the offense will do the same thing when the ball is put back into play, but I would be using this conference to instruct my players as to exactly what I want them to do in this situation.

How would all of you handle this?