Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeth
20 years ago Bill James argued for a rule that a pitcher gets two freebies on throws to bases per inning, and after that if he throws to a base and doesn't pick the runner off, it's a ball for the batter. I agree with him. As maddening as the throws to first are in OOTP, they're ten times worse when you're actually trying to watch a baseball game.
|
Which means the runner would just take off after the second attempt. If you've pitched at any competitive level you know that your job is prevent the other team from scoring runs, not to entertain the audience. If the pitcher has a very good reason to believe the runner is going to steal then the pitcher's job is to try to prevent that happening. If he can't pick the runner off, he can at least prevent him from getting a good jump and giving his catcher a fighting chance to throw the runner out. If that means throwing over multiple times, so be it. The last thing the pitcher is thinking, "I shouldn't throw over, it will bore the fans."