Angle at the plate
 

The caption of this picture states that R3 is scoring or attempts to score from
3B on a bunt attempt. Help me w/ PU's angle on this play. Am I looking at it correctly? Is PU out of position here?


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I find it hard to believe that the picture wasn't miscaptioned. I have never seen any PU take position inside fair territory on a squeeze play.


AFTER FURTHER REVIEW: It appears that I was looking at it wrong. He is in foul territory near 1BLX. Not all that bad of position on a squeeze. Once I looked at the bigger photo I saw where I was mistaken.

johnny,

It's certainly not "textbook" positioning.

Without knowing how the play developed and how he got there, it's hard to comment meaningfully on the mechanics.

To me, it looks like he had an excellent view of everything he would need to see to render a decision, and he appeared to be nicely set to see his call.

JM

Sorry, Steve, he's in foul territory on the 3rd base side of the plate....look at the plate.....OOPS, my goof....you said 1st baseline extended....CORRECT! My bad!

That's what I said...near 1BLX, which is in foul territory on the 3rd base side.

LOL...we posted at the same time...SORRY....

I prefer 3BLX 90% of the time. Funny... The other day, I actually read a throw from the outfield being on line, went to 1BLX, and there ended up being a swipe tag since R2 did a hook slide. So, wasn't in the best position to see the tag/miss OR R2 touching the plate, so I made my best judgment.

Moral of the story, when in doubt, go to 3BLX

When in doubt, stay at the point of the plate. 3BLX will not give you proper angle if the plate is being blocked.

That is good advice, but in this type of play, at point of plate you are blocked and cannot see the tag since the runner has slide around the plate.

So you either have to move a step or so one way or the other. I usually choose to move to 1BLX but that is simply preference.

Thanks
David

Could be, but the PU has fair/foul call first. Nothing is said about the direction of the bunt. This could influence where he made the call at the plate from.

From that camera angle, it's tough to tell how far away from the play PU is, but he may be a tad too close. Being right on top of it usually does not help.

Well, there is no need to apologize, but I accept yours anyway! The BLX's are confusing sometimes when you are trying to think which is which.

I agree, and you get instant rep power for this post. What? Wrong forum? Oh, never mind then.:)

Who told you this? He's not to close. Tag plays are not like force plays. Unless you are actually interfering with the play itself, there is no such thing as too close to a tag.

Who told you this?

Jon Bible, Carl Childress, Paul Runge, Mike DiMuro, Eddie Lopez, Mark Hetland....many others. You are supposed to get much closer to a tag than to a force play. Many times, you cannot see a tag from far away. That is why you see umpires right on top of tag plays (8 to 10 feet) and far away on force plays (15 to 18 feet). This is why you run to the cutout to make the call on steals, but stay closer to B or C for force plays.

8-10 feet on a tag play? Then we're on the same page. To me, the ump in the picture looks closer than that (although parallax can distort things). And yes, you can be too close, and I know you know that. So do your esteemed teachers.

Yes, if you are interfering with the play, you're way too close. It was Carl Childress who said you should get your nose in there on tag plays, but I'm sure he didn't mean between the fielder and the runner!:p

The guy in the photo is on the grass outside of the cut. That is plenty enough far from the play. He's just fine.

Agree. Getting too close causes the play to "blow up" on you.

The flattening effect of photographs is not an instance of parallax, which involves shifting viewpoints. Still, you're right to observe that "parallax can distort things." :p

Try telling a coach, "parallax can distort things"... "I was in the best position to see the play, Coach. Now go back to your dugout."

This guy is toes to the edge of the dirt circle. Aren't we supposed to take tag plays on the bases from the cutout? It shouldn't be any different at the plate.

It's unfortunate that some Umpires always look for the negatives of other umpires. Maybe that's the way they build themselves up. I'm suprised nobody has said anything about the plate umpire's grey ballbags.

:eek: Uh oh, here come the defensive posts where they tell you it's only because of....(insert your own reason) that they do that, not to build themselves up.

By talking about situations on here and by learning from other's errors, that's how we can improve.

Angel Campos just showed a terrific example of where to be on a tag play at the plate from 3BLX. He was right on top of the play, just as I was taught. He was looking nearly straight down at the tag, about 4 feet from the plate, and correctly called the Padres runner safe. He had a perfect look at the play. It was textbook positioning for a tag play, which is right on top of it.

I couldn't have been prouder if it were me own boy!:)

I love it when a PCL guy I've seen work makes it up to the Show and does well. I also saw him in the Northwest League when we had a short-season A team. Thanks for the story.