Balk?

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by jicecone

"From the MLBUM: "The pitcher shall be charged with a balk if, while in contact with the rubber, he throws to the first baseman who is either in front of or behind first base and obviously not making an attempt at retiring the runner at first base. However, there is no violation if the pitcher throws the ball directly to first base in this situation."

What part of this statement is not clear here.

Did he throw to the bag? NO

Does he have to hit a 15" strike zone or do you give him a little leeway?

Was F3 obiviously trying to trying to retire the runner prior to receiving the ball? No

How can a fielder retire a runner without the ball?

F3's location relative to the runner and the fact that he tagged him has no bearing on the determination of whether it was a balk or not.

It has every bearing on whether F3 was making a legitimate tag attempt on the runner. Therefore, it has every bearing on whether or not F1 balked

[Manny A]

If you watch the video again, you'll see at roughly the 42-second mark that F1 starts to make his move to first while F3 is completely flat-footed. In fact, it appeared at the 1:55 mark that F3 was starting to get down into his fielding crouch before realizing what F1 wanted to do, and then adjusted to make the catch and start the chase of R1.

Bottom line: Judgment call all the way. And U1 judged that there was a violation of the MLBUM guidance. I agree.