Batter throws bat

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by Eastshire

If it's thrown carelessly, even if it's a legal attempt to hit the ball, I don't see why you wouldn't issue the warning the same way you would when the player releases the bat on the follow through and sends it flying.

Why warn him? What, by rule, did he do wrong?

There's a reasonable expectation that the batter should hold onto his bat after swinging at a pitch near the strike zone. And there's certainly an expectation that he should hold onto it after making contact with the pitch. When he doesn't, the bat usually goes propellering into the backstop or, worse, against the catcher or umpire. That is clearly careless.

But when a batter actually tosses his bat on a pitch-out, how is that supposed to be careless? He's making a bonafide attempt to contact the ball! And the bat doesn't go flying into the dugout or over the fence. It just ends up maybe a few feet beyond the dirt circle. It might not be the smartest thing to do in terms of successfully batting the ball, but it's not careless. And it's something I certainly shouldn't be warning the batter about.