Fangraphs: The Year The Orioles Would Not Flinch

[weams]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-year-the-orioles-wouldnt-flinch/

There are certain statistics that get tallied on scorecards such as hits, walks, runs, and strikeouts. These aren't the modern, comprehensive measures of performance we typically use here at FanGraphs, but they are the building blocks of those metrics. Without singles/doubles/triples/etc, there is no way to build wOBA or wRC+. Without strikeouts, walks, home runs, and innings pitched, there is no FIP.

While we've generally moved beyond caring about certain counting stats, we use them to build the things about which we care a great deal. But there is at least one standard scorecard event that doesn't get a lot of attention when we build these metrics because it?s extremely rare and also extremely subjective: the balk.

The layman's description of a balk is easy enough to understand: it's a movement made by the pitcher intended to deceive the runner into thinking that same pitcher is about to throw towards home, when in reality he (the pitcher) is not. Any reasonably informed fan knows that the specifics of the balk rule are complicated and enforced at the whims of the umpire. It's a judgment call, and one that doesn't seem to be uniformly implemented at any given moment in time. But there are trends in balking:

[Phantom]

Well. We've finally found the stat that our pitchers excel at.

[DrungoHazewood]

It's been a few years since I wrote an impassioned three-paragraph screed on how the balk rule is stupid and needs to be replaced with a single sentence that says "you can't stop in the middle of the windup and throw to a base."

[weams]

It's been a few years since I wrote an impassioned three-paragraph screed on how the balk rule is stupid and needs to be replaced with a single sentence that says "you can't stop in the middle of the windup and throw to a base."

Can you re-post it?

[DrungoHazewood]

Can you re-post it?

Ha... I'll do a search. I may have even written an article back in the day. I really don't like the balk rule.

It boils down to the rules experimenting of the 1870s and 1880s still lives on in strange, vestigial paragraphs of the balk rule.

[Can_of_corn]

Ha... I'll do a search. I may have even written an article back in the day. I really don't like the balk rule.

It boils down to the rules experimenting of the 1870s and 1880s still lives on in strange, vestigial paragraphs of the balk rule.

I say let them stop mid-windup and throw to a base. I don't see why it would be a problem, except the Oriole batters still might take a swing at it.

[Number5]

LOL. Funny thing is a balk almost never involves stopping in the middle of a windup and throwing to a base. Most complaints about the balk rules are really a matter of not understanding them. There really aren't all that many balks in MLB. By the time pitchers reach the majors, they know what they can and can't do and rarely commit balks.

[Pickles]

LOL. Funny thing is a balk almost never involves stopping in the middle of a windup and throwing to a base. Most complaints about the balk rules are really a matter of not understanding them. There really aren't all that many balks in MLB. By the time pitchers reach the majors, they know what they can and can't do and rarely commit balks.

Ruh-roh.

Do you mean you can't learn everything about baseball by reading about it on the internet?

[OFFNY]

It's been a few years since I wrote an impassioned three-paragraph screed on how the balk rule is stupid and needs to be replaced with a single sentence that says "you can't stop in the middle of the windup and throw to a base."

Can you re-post it?

I'm not sure if it's a 3-paragraph screed, but I was able to find this:

MAY 22nd, 2009:

1. Eliminate divisions, have each league be one 16-team table.

1b. Make a big deal out of the regular season league champions, but keep the 8-team playoffs as a post-season tournament.

2. Expand the American League by two teams.

3. Eliminate interleague play.

4. Return to the balanced schedule.

5. Eliminate territorial restrictions, especially for media blackouts and franchise movement.

6. Enact some type of market-based revenue sharing that rewards success but keeps large market teams from having a huge inherent advantage.

7. Negotiate with advertisers to put ads on uniforms and other places such that the commercial timeouts between half innings would be reduced to one minute.

8. Vastly simplify the balk rule, basically just saying "Don't stop your windup in the middle to throw to a base, all else is OK."

9. Allow owners to sell their teams to anyone they wish who has the financial means to purchase the team at a fair market value.

10. Establish equal-partner working agreements with foreign leagues (Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Italy, Mexico, etc) to grow the game and maintain viable professional leagues in other countries. Encourage inter-country tournaments and championships for both national teams and club teams.

11. Set a minimum bat weight of 32 ounces, and a minimum handle thickness TBD.

12. Establish an open process where the resiliency coefficient of MLB baseballs for the upcoming season is determined during each offseason, and then set and tested by an independent laboratory working in conjunction with the official baseball supplier.

13. Establish a rule that all ballparks built or renovated after June 1, 2009 have to have a sum of their LF/LC/CF/RC/RF fence distances in feet (measured at 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5, and 90 degree points from the foul line) of at least 1860. For example, 330 + 390 + 420 + 390 + 330 = 1860.

14. Set up a plan to enact a real-time system to automate ball/strike calls and relay the results to the home play umpire in an unobtrusive way.

15. Once #s 5 and 6 have been implemented, eliminate the amateur draft.

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/81392-Commissioner-YOU?