Rule Change! Third-to-first fake pickoff is now officially a balk.

[yazfan71]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-bi...9715--mlb.html

Like a professional wrestler hitting his opponent with brass knuckles behind the referee‘s back, the surest way to draw an angry reaction from baseball fans is to break out the old fake-to-third, throw-to-first pickoff move. Of course, the difference is the pitcher’s intent isn’t to draw a reaction from the crowd. Often times there is real sound strategy involved, whether it's attempting to dupe a base runner into making a mistake, a hitter into showing his hand too early, or even just buying some extra time to collect his thoughts or allow a reliever to warm up.
It really has served a purpose other than to annoy. But I guess that doesn’t change the fact the play rarely worked — you can count the successful attempts every season on one hand — and often killed the flow of a game. And that’s not to mention I've always felt the move fit the technical description of a balk since deception was involved.


It was with all of those factors in mind that Major League Baseball began a discussion to eliminate the "pickoff attempt" last spring. Now comes word from the New York Times' Tyler Kepner that the change is official, and beginning this season any such attempt to fake a move toward third base will result in a balk.

Under a rule change imposed by Major League Baseball for this season, pitchers can no longer fake a pickoff throw to third base. Pitchers who did this would almost always follow by wheeling and firing to first — or to second, if a duped runner had taken off in that direction. No more.
The play is now part of baseball’s graveyard, like the bullpen cart, the Montreal Expos, pullover jerseys and World Series games in the sunshine. It simply did not work often enough to be worth the wasted time.

It may not work enough to be worth the wasted time, but as former major leaguer Jeff Nelson alludes to in the same article, it definitely kept baserunners on their toes and will now work in their favor as they no longer have to worry about the embarrassment of being tricked by the move.

“The managers say it’s all about speeding up the game,” said Nelson, now a contributor to MLB.com. “I think now, the runner at first might get a little bit of an advantage. All it’s used for is to keep the runner at first close. I might have done it 100 times and gotten two guys on it.”

Ah, yes, he also mentions speeding up the game. That's another factor. But our own Kevin Kaduk made a pretty good point about that when this discussion first came up eight months ago.

Also, if it's something that's designed to speed up the game, it seems like a token move, at best. After all, if Bruce Chen can still throw 1o regular pickoff attempts in one at-bat, what good does getting rid of an occasional gimmick pickoff attempt do? (Outside of giving us the pleasure of yelling "BALK!" with the previously misinformed, of course?)

We'll probably never know what the true reason for the change is. I think a lot of people would actually accept it if they just said the play was maddening, but it's more than likely a combination of all the aforementioned factors. And perhaps it's even done to make it look like they're working on something while they allow issues such as instant replay to hang in the wind.
Only those who approved the change know for sure.

[Hollywood42]

Dumb move. Just gave 1st base runners a HUGE advantage when there's a guy on third and a righty pitcher

[DaClyde]

A better way to speed up the game would be to call the actual strike zone.

[BigBaller23]

May be the dumbest thing to ever happen to mlb

[jayohhessaych]

As a fan I've had it with pitchers wasting time on the mound. I simply don't have 5 hours to watch a full game and its maddening to see a pitcher going 3 full minutes between pitches after multiple (real and faked) pickoff attempts. This rule will help, but I don't think it's the best strategy if they're trying to speed up games.

In my opinion, a more effective rule would be either banning consecutive pick off attempts, or limiting the number of pick off attempts per at bat to around 3. This would cause the pitcher to value the pick-off and be receptive the the baserunners body language and flow of the game when deciding to throw over to first instead of playing a mindless game of catch with the first baseman. I'm all for giving baserunners a small advantage I would like to see more stolen bases again.

[yazfan71]

As a fan I've had it with pitchers wasting time on the mound. I simply don't have 5 hours to watch a full game and its maddening to see a pitcher going 3 full minutes between pitches after multiple (real and faked) pickoff attempts. This rule will help, but I don't think it's the best strategy if they're trying to speed up games.

In my opinion, a more effective rule would be either banning consecutive pick off attempts, or limiting the number of pick off attempts per at bat to around 3. This would cause the pitcher to value the pick-off and be receptive the the baserunners body language and flow of the game when deciding to throw over to first instead of playing a mindless game of catch with the first baseman. I'm all for giving baserunners a small advantage I would like to see more stolen bases again.

If you limit the number of times a pickoff attempt can be made then you basically give the baserunner a free pass after that number of attempts. So I don't really see that being an option.

Do I miss some outcomes of games sometimes when there are things I have to get done or have places to go? Sure I do, but I don't ever want the game to be changed just because I don't have the time. That's part of the beauty of baseball, it's not burdened by time restraints.

What's next if this doesn't speed up the games? What part do they decide isn't necessary anymore? Perhaps the number of pitches given to a pitcher to get a batter out? These parts aren't broken, so quit trying to fix them!

[jayohhessaych]

If you limit the number of times a pickoff attempt can be made then you basically give the baserunner a free pass after that number of attempts. So I don't really see that being an option.

Do I miss some outcomes of games sometimes when there are things I have to get done or have places to go? Sure I do, but I don't ever want the game to be changed just because I don't have the time. That's part of the beauty of baseball, it's not burdened by time restraints.

What's next if this doesn't speed up the games? What part do they decide isn't necessary anymore? Perhaps the number of pitches given to a pitcher to get a batter out? These parts aren't broken, so quit trying to fix them!

That's exactly what I would want to see. Pitchers wouldn't use their last pickoff attempt unless they were sure the runner was going. And they always have the pitch-out.

Maybe I'm alone here, but when I see 10 straight pick-off attempts, that looks broken to me.

[yazfan71]

That's exactly what I would want to see. Pitchers wouldn't use their last pickoff attempt unless they were sure the runner was going. And they always have the pitch-out.

Maybe I'm alone here, but when I see 10 straight pick-off attempts, that looks broken to me.

But that's part of the game. If that 10th time gets the runner then the other 9 attempts were worth it.

[BigBaller23]

That's exactly what I would want to see. Pitchers wouldn't use their last pickoff attempt unless they were sure the runner was going. And they always have the pitch-out.

Maybe I'm alone here, but when I see 10 straight pick-off attempts, that looks broken to me.

Pickoff attempts are more times than not, not used to get the runner out.

[angel0430]

Baseball is a very boring game to watch on TV anyway, so this might help to get more people to watch it. It's not like they are changing the way the game is played. This is just a simple thing that they got rid off.