Three Man Position Question
 

During last night's Blue Jays-Rays game, the umpire crew went down to a three man rotation (twice). I have a question with regarding their positioning with a runner on first. Being Canadian our manual calls for U3 to move inside and U1 to stay on the right field foul line, yet the crew last night had U1 moving inside and U3 stayed on the left field foul line.

Does anyone know if the crew did this last night because PU had been injured in the game and was moved to U3 and they decided to modify the rotation or is this how their 3 man rotation is suppose to work?

U1 is supposed to be at first when there's an R1.

An exception might be with R1 and R2 and an "obvious" bunt situation.

Might have been an adjustment to minimize the risk of Hallion getting dinged again. Frankly, if they're going to do that they'd be better off going to 2-man.

The Angels-Tigers went to three-man the other night, too. It's pretty interesting seeing those guys reach back and pull that off with no notice.

They changed from Polo Blue to Black after Hallion went down. Maybe they were trying to change their luck to ward off the baseball.

The base guys were wearing the smocks, I think. So it was just the plate guy putting on whatever shirt he felt like wearing.

Our chest protectors aren't as long as catchers', and I *do* give the announcer credit for knowing that and being able to relate that to people watching.

In the Angels-Tigers game, Tim Welke took a jaw shot and had to leave with his second concussion in a month. And it wasn't any jaw shot: It was a 99 m.p.h. Justin Verlander fastball that was ticked by a 115 m.p.h. Vladi Guerrero swing. I don't think a foul can get any worse than that.

They are, but I can't see his being THAT short. It hit him around the ribs. Every protector I've seen covers at least that much.

The West Vest Platinum, even in the biggest size available, leaves the lower ribs exposed on larger people. This protector seems to have been designed for little fellahs.