MLB prepares to correctly impose balk guideline for 2023 season, per report

Major League Baseball means to “emphasize enforcement of the balk rule” throughout the 2023 season, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The crackdown is intended towards corralling “bouncing” or “rolling” shipments, and accompanies the execution of the pitch timer. Said timer is expected to stop at the start of a shipment, and the previously mentioned tics can blur the line.

The league has “slipped a little bit centrally with calling the rulebook illegal pitches and balks,” Morgan Sword, MLB’s executive vice president of operations, stated Tuesday throughout a media instruction, according to ESPN.

The balk guideline go back to the late 1800s and yet stays among the trickiest to discuss to a casual or brand-new observer. The standard essence is that pitchers are not expected to be able to purposefully trick baserunners with twitches or random motions prior to the start of their shipment. The charge for balking is that all runners are permitted to advance a base and the pitch — if one was provided — will be retroactively considered as a dead ball. 

Here’s a list of actions that can be considered a balk, according to Baseball Reference:

1. Starts his pitching movement without finishing the pitch;
2. Fakes a toss to very first base;
3. While standing on the rubber, tosses to a base without stepping straight towards that base;
4. While standing on the rubber, tosses or fabricates a toss to an empty base, unless a runner is running towards that base;
5. Makes an unlawful pitch, consisting of a fast pitch;
6. Pitches while not dealing with the batter;
7. Makes any part of his pitching movement while not touching the pitching rubber;
8. Unnecessarily hold-ups the video game;
9. Stands on or astride the pitching rubber without the ball;
10. After presuming the windup or set position, gets rid of one hand from the ball other than in the course of making a pitch or toss to a base;
11. Drops the ball while basing on the pitching rubber;
12. Pitches while the catcher is not in the catcher’s box;
13. Pitches from the set position without concerning a total stop.

Among pitchers with doubtful shipments who might be required to change their movements this year are Astros starter Luis Garcia and Toronto’s Kevin Gausman.

The previously mentioned pitch timer is simply among a number of brand-new guidelines being set up and implemented this season. The league is likewise avoiding pitchers from “disengaging” more than two times throughout an at-bat, too limiting protective shifts, and putting bigger bases. Earlier today, MLB voted to continue to utilize the “Manfred Runner” in additional innings. Additionally, groups will deal with higher constraints on when they’re permitted to utilize a position gamer as a pitcher, with stated restrictions being based upon ball game and inning.