Joe West's Illegal Pitch call in the Cards/Pirates game

[Dave Hensley]

Originally posted by DownTownTonyBrown
8.01(a) The Windup Position. ...From this position any natural movement associated with his delivery of the ball to the batter commits him to the pitch without interruption or alteration.

To not follow that rule is to commit an illegal pitch.

Your last statement, quoted above, is in error. The OBR specifically defines "illegal pitch," in 2.00:

An ILLEGAL PITCH is (1) a pitch delivered to the batter when the pitcher does not have his pivot foot
in contact with the pitcher's plate; (2) a quick return pitch. An illegal pitch when runners are on base is
a balk.

Not following the first statement in 8.01(a) is pitching illegally, but it is not committing an Illegal Pitch.

As Jim Evans states in Baseball Rules Annotated, "Today's rule delineates between illegal pitches and illegal acts by the pitcher. Penalties for these various infractions can be found in 2.00 Illegal Pitch, 8.01(d), 8.02(a) Penalty, and 8.05(e) Penalty."

The infraction under discussion in this thread would be a balk with runners on, but with no runners it is simply an illegal act, penalized by warning to cease and desist, followed by ejection for failure to heed the warning.