Men's SP - Illegal vs. No pitch

[greymule]

My belief is that this effect is in place when this action takes place sans delivery.

That may well be. The case book play implies such when it specifies "before the umpire can stop play."

It wouldn't hurt for the book to state that explicitly.

The entire debate shows the importance of calling the illegal pitch immediately. To me, this is one of the hardest parts of officiating SP. After an hour of routine pitches, F1 steps on the rubber and pitches without pausing. It is easy to get caught and not get "illegal" out in time.