batter interference

[Manny A]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

I hear you, but I'm not sure you're hearing me.

In the play we're discussing, we're talking about a catcher who did not throw the ball ... with the runner 1 step away from the base she did not throw to.

Are you really trying to say that if the batter bumped her inadvertently, you'd assume that the BUMP was the reason she didn't make a throw --- and not the fact that there was no good reason to throw the ball?

No, I hear you as well.

The vast majority of the time that a catcher makes a play at third base with a right-handed batter in the box, she is going to pop up after receiving the pitch, and make an immediate throw to the base. She usually doesn't take the time to look around the batter and see if the runner is already there.

So when she pops up and takes that step to go to third base and then doesn't throw because the batter moved back and bumped her, I'm not going to assume that the reason she didn't do so was because she had the time to look over there and see that the runner was already close to the bag. I'm giving her the maximum benefit of the doubt here that she really wanted to make that throw and the batter prevented her from doing so.