Last night Reds v. D’backs ends in a balk. The pitcher didn’t look as of he did anything special. I looked up videos and articles and I still do not understand what is a balk.
What is a balk? When is it not a balk?
In: 168
In theory, a balk is called when the pitcher pretends he’s throwing the ball, but doesn’t actually throw it, for the purposes of tricking the base runners.
Basically the guys on base take a small lead off before the pitch, and as the pitch is being thrown they’ll take a bigger lead. If the pitcher starts throwing the ball but stops mid-delivery, he could theoretically throw the ball to one of the bases to pick off a runner (because the runner is now 5-10 feet away from the base.) That isn’t allowed under the rules because it’s unfair to the runners.
In practice, even long-running baseball fans struggle to explain what a balk is, or why a particular pitcher gets called for one. Umpires have wide discretion on what is or isn’t a balk, and they don’t have to explain themselves to anyone.
Edit: I looked up the video and what happened is the pitcher started his motion, and then he stopped. Even though it was a small motion, you can’t do that. Once you make any movement associated with your pitch, you have to continue the movement and throw the ball. Otherwise you can get called for a balk.
Short version: The pitcher makes the first move to start a pitch but doesn’t actually pitch the ball.
For example: the pitcher is at the rubber, feet together, facing the plate. A standard move toward the plate involves lifting your heel, pulling your leg forward or back (depends on the pitcher and the pitch being thrown), starting your windup, and then throwing the pitch.
If the pitcher lifts his right heel and puts it back down without continuing the motion and throwing the pitch, it’s a balk.
And it definitely seems umpires are being WAY more anal about balk calls this season.
A balk is a movement from the pitcher that appears to be the beginning of the motion to throw a pitch, but that stops.
It is basically a movement that could potentially fake out the runner into thinking a pitch will be thrown. If you look at the video from the game last night, the pitcher begins to move his hand to the mitt and then brings it back and then moved it to the mitt again. That’s the basis of the call. In past years, I believe the rule was much less strict but recently they are calling them more strictly.
There’s several ways to balk centered around the idea that you can’t start to do something and reset. Once you establish your back (throwing hand side) foot on the rubber, there’s certain things you can’t do. These include
* moving your glove side foot with out performing either a pitch or a pick off play at an occupied base. Occupied base could include the base a base runner is attempting to steal aka throwing ahead of the runner.
* bring your hands together then apart.
* turning your shoulders once hands come together without throwing the ball
* Dropping the ball is another. Any time you’re on the rubber, you have to have possession of the ball. Hidden ball tricks become a balk if the pitcher is on the rubber.
There’s more nuance to quite a few of these. Right handers faking a pick off to third but left handers not being allowed to fake to first is a fun one
Baseball has several rules that exist because players realized they could exploit the existing rules to give themselves an advantage so a new rule was created to prevent them from doing so.
The best time to steal a base is just as the pitcher starts throwing a pitch. The ball will have to travel from the pitcher to the catcher and then from the catcher to the player covering whatever base they are stealing in time to tag them out for the steal attempt to fail. Knowing this pitchers could fake like they were throwing a pitch to get the base runner to start the steal and then turn and throw to the base for an easy out.
To counter this the balk rule was created. Once a pitcher begins their pitching motion they are forbidden from not completing the pitch.
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When a pitcher’s foot is on the rubber and has “come set” to throw a pitch after getting the sign from the catcher/dugout, once he begins his movement toward the plate, he isn’t allowed to do anything but continue moving toward the plate and complete the pitch. Otherwise, it’s cheating, because the pitcher could just pretend to throw a pitch to get the base runner to move, or to get the batter to swing/throw his timing off. Even the slightest movement toward home plate qualifies. It’s a very necessary rule to have in place.
There are many ways to commit a balk.
I went back to watch the video from last night to find out what happened here, and to me it looks like it was hand movement when he was trying to come set. When you come set, you have to keep your hands together (throwing hand holding the ball inside your glove. The pitcher flinched his hands during that process instead of just coming set and that’s a balk.
There’s the copypasta answer, but it’s easiest to understand balk if you understand what the purpose of the rule is.
It’s to prevent the pitcher from deceiving the batter.
I don’t have the video of that specific balk, but there are certain things that are automatically balks. For example, if a pitcher gets into a position to pitch, without having the ball. Or, if a pitcher gets into position, then makes a pickoff attempt without stepping off the pitcher rubber (on the mound).
Whoever is downvoting correct answers needs to stop that.
The balk has got to be one of the most confusing and difficult to explain rules in sports. I liken it to Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart’s test for obscenity: “I can’t define it but I know it when I see it.”
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