Obstruction

[chapmaja]

Originally Posted by UmpireErnie

Not sure I agree. Again we are using the example of batter/runner rounding 1B on a batted ball and being obstructed by F3. The award is where batter/runner would be sans obstruction. If the hit was a double, then at the award should be 2B whether she was knocked down or just took an extra step to avoid F3.

Again, we need to use all the information available, which was my point. What may be a double for one player won't we a double for a different player.

I could hit a ball to the fence and likely would get thrown out at 2nd. A few of the HS girls I umpire could hit the same ball in the same place and it would be an easy double and possibly a triple.

There are so many different factors. This isn't like baseball's WAR statistic that compares fact and fiction. We need to make a call based on everything we know, not the pretend world. If we know runner X is slow, she isn't going to run the bases the same speed as a sprinter would. The speed of the runner is something we can easily see on the play.

It's not fair to say X hit will always be a double because in some cases it will be a single, and in other cases the same ball hitting the same place will be a double or triple, not even considering what the defense does with the ball.

It's easy to say we should be able to award protection to X base simply based on where the ball is hit, but in reality we need to take factors A,B,C, X, Y, and Z all into consideration. Often times we don't even know each factor until after the obstruction occurs because we not be looking at that factor at the moment the obstruction occurs.