WARNING!! Annual OT Baseball Thread 2011!! Open at Your Own Risk!

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by 26 Year Gap

There wasn't a huge crowd and he didn't make much noise in making the call. So, his partner wasn't even aware a call was made. I probably will never fully understand the balk rule when it doesn't involve a move toward 1B. But it seemed to create a situation where both teams had a beef (rightly or wrongly) because nobody knew about the call till well after the play at 2B.

I agree that Reynolds's mechanics could have been better. The ball was dead immediately on this balk, so there was no reason to allow the rundown to continue. Given the situation (quiet stadium), I don't know why he didn't come in hard with that call and kill it.

The balk rule ain't that hard! Once the pitcher has come set, he can legally do just 3 things: pitch to the batter, step and throw/feint to a base, or step off. There's a little more to it than that, but that's the basis for many balks.

I think that the rule has a bad reputation because at the MLB level many little movements are called, and for some balks the usual camera angles don't show them well. So it can seem mysterious why it was a balk.