George Springer with a p. I looked at the replay. Clearly a balk. P needs to come to a obvious pause for roughly a second. He never paused. He came down with hands together and in the same movement went to a throwing motion.
:roll: :!: I've never heard of "informing the umpire that the pitcher will use a windup or a stretch." The pitcher can do whatever he wants, as long as there is no deliberate attempt to deceive the runners. I think Hinch pulled a fast one and got away with it...
Sid brings up an interesting point among umpire circles and it is one that's always drawn my ire. SOME umpires construe a change in motion as a pause. That means, if your hands were going down and then you bring them back up, you had to have paused for a moment in order to do that ergo you can get away with quick pitching hitters. Other umpires make you come to a stop. In related news, no matter how many people are in the stands, you can hold some really effective communications with the umpires on the field from the dugout without officially 'showing up' the umpire. I've had many of them.
From MLB Rule 8.01(b), The Set Position: If I'm the Astros' manager, I'm shocked that no umpire called the balk. He was correct to protest the non-call, as the outcome indicated.
Balk off wins. Except for the guy who fell off the mound I would have missed them all! But they were picked up instantly by the umps and the batters. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_v64DsxRz3U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media"></iframe>
Agreed, Terry. I had to look twice on a few of them. As subtle as some of those moves were, it makes you wonder how the Astros-Rangers crew missed the obvious call the other night. Cue Corey's "Team Umpires" comment.
So my question is how early do you start working with kids on this, it would seem to me that as soon as you get to kid pitch you'd be balking all over the place. This seems pretty subtle for young kid pitchers to remember.. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DYu6yoji9_U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media"></iframe>
Terry, thanks for the video. I sent it to my son. He has a 12 yr. old lefty pitcher. You are correct that it's a tough thing to teach a kid, but from what I've seen watching my grandsons' youth baseball, the umps are pretty lenient and provide warnings or instructions to help the young pitchers. If and when they get into "travel" ball, the rules are more strictly enforced. Surprisingly, I don't see many actual balks in the 11-12 yr. old recreational (vs. travel) league, which allows lead-offs.
Oops! He's only 11 playing in an 11-12 yr. old division. Shame on me for momentarily forgetting his age. No one's thinking beyond this year. Just enjoy the game. My son purposely is holding his twin 11 yr. old sons back from travel baseball unless and until they show the kind of development that justifies the time and expense. In other words, unlike many parents I've seen in the past several years, he's putting the horse before the cart. I'm cool with that.
Here come the Dodgers, I see they've finally stuck their heads above .500 and are closing in on the DBacks. Seattle is the surprise team to me this year so far, I figured the competition in the AL West would be between the Angels and the Astros but the Mariners are making it a tight race so far.
:roll: re: Dodgers I have nothing to report. The team began with five outstanding starting pitchers and quickly went down to zero. All five went on the DL. At the current time only one of them is back (Wood) and he's not doing well. They brought up some rookies who looked super, but they got hurt too. The best of them, Walker Buehler, went on the DL last night with a hairline fracture in his ribs. The bullpen went from the best to the worst and back to best again. How am I supposed to analyze that? The offense is led by Matt Kemp, who I never expected to make the team. Nobody did. Leading the team in HRs and providing the power is Mad Max Muncy: who? He's some journeyman infielder the team picked up for nothing when he was run out of Oakland. He now joins Chris Taylor, Erik Goeddel, Justin Turner, and Keke Hernandez as super stars who were uncovered on the scrap pile. In the first month, this team hit fewer HRs than any team in MLB. Now they're leading the league. How am I supposed to make sense of this stuff? the highest paid team who'se best players were obtained off the waver wire? I don't get it...
:idea: Kenta Maeda returns tonight against Texas. He was having his career year when he went down, and he's sorely needed. Hyun-Jin Ryu became the ace after Kershaw went down, but he's on the 60 day DL and probably won't return this year. The same with super boy Julio Urias, whose career may be over. Walker Buehler is on the 10 Day DL and he is something. The rookie from Vanderbilt throws electric stuff at 96-99 mph. Ross Stripling is the current ace and will probably be on the All-Star team with Kenley Jansen. He's another miracle found on the scrap heap three years ago who has finally arrived at age 28. The hitters were pathetic in the first month, but have been incredible for more than a month now. Joc Peterson was batting .130 in May and was candidate to be cut, because no one wanted him in trade. Now he's batting .400 in June and hits HRs every night. The same with Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger. Everbody is hitting now, led by Mad Max...
Watched the replay of the Kemp/Chirinos brawl and it was a clean play by Chirinos and by Kemp really, he ran Chirinos over but it was a clean shot. But they got up and had words and Kemp started the fight but I never saw Chirinos throw a punch so I don't know why he was ejected, Kemp yes he deserved the ejection. But it was a typical baseball brawl, not really much other than pushing and shoving.
:idea: It was a clean play by both players. The umps ejected both of them to end the thing. Nobody understands the new collision rule anyway. No big deal.