Pitcher throwing to unoccupied base

[parrothead]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

The rules are the same for lefty/righty.

Yes but the coaching strategy is different, a lot of teams/baserunner philosophy is as soon as the lefty moves, they go. So lefty looking at 1B, lifts front leg, runner takes off on first move, the lefty seeing this could swing the leg back step towards 2B and throw there since the runner went to 2B so he is making a play on the runner.

Actually thinking about this, whats interesting is for a RHP, in the younger divisions of tourney ball, where they steal 2B on seemingly every pitch when on first a righty could in theory do something similar?

So knowing a runner is going, RHP on mound.
* RHP in stretch, left leg goes up to balance point, he swings it around and throws to 2B.
- If runner didnt steal, its a balk obviously, stepping to unoccupied base.
- If the runner is going, he is making a play on the runner?

These are basically running a pick that steps to 2B with a runner at 1B, which for years I always thought would be a balk, but with the "making a play on the runner" provision, that is potentially a strategy that comes into play and honestly at the youth level, they are gonna steal it anyway, so who cares if you guess wrong and its called a balk.