Major League Baseball is making plans to ban the old fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff move by making it a balk. You know the one -- every time a pitcher tries it (which they do far too often), someone yells "that never works!" Or "That's a little league move."
And of course, both of those accusations are true.
So why is MLB going to make the pickoff move illegal, some are asking.
Well, probably because that move never works. Which means that it slows the game down without serving any real purpose. And Major League Baseball will do anything it can do to speed up a game, especially with more instant replay coming inevitably on the horizon.
There are generally two reasons why a pitcher does it, and neither reason is because he's actually trying to get an out.
When there are runners on first and third, second base becomes susceptible to the stolen base, because of the risk that if the catcher throws down to second, the man on third can dash home. So as a way of holding up the runner on first base, he will step towards third and fake a throw just to give the runner a little something extra to think about.
The other reason a pitcher does the move -- and this is probably why it is done the majority of the time -- is because he is in a first-and-third jam and he is afraid the throw the ball to the plate. And it is completely reasonable for MLB to put a stop to this silly practice.
I'll kind of miss though. Only because I love to yell "That never works!" Guess I'll have to reserve the phrase for whenever the Baltimore Orioles are dumb enough to throw Josh Hamilton a strike after he's already hit three bombs off them.
--
Follow Bison Messink: @BisonMessink
Follow SportsOlogy on Twitter: @OlogySports
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!