Running Baseball Scoring Question Thread

It comes down to should the third baseman have fielded the ball. You can't judge that without having seen it. If it was too hot to handle or took a bad hop, then it's a hit and it's dumb luck that the guy got a double on a ball that never left the infield. But if the scorer decides he should have fielded it cleanly, it's a two-base error.

 

The key part of scenario 2 is that the third baseman appeared to field the ball cleanly.

 

The runner in scenario 2 is pretty fast -- fastest on his team, and fast enough that he's going to play wide receiver at a major D-I school next year. Any major bobble and the third baseman would've had a tough time throwing him out. On this play, the hop ate up the third baseman a good bit. But if he had trapped the ball against his body, instead of it going in his shirt, it was hit hard enough that I think he still gets him.

 

The question is, should he have a) fielded it cleanly or b) was it a difficult enough play that you can say it would have been tough for him to field it without bobbling it?

If you're answer is a) than his inability to field it results in a two-base error (the bobble leads to it falling down his shirt, which leads to the extra base). If the answer is b) then it's a double. You are saying the difficulty of the play led to the bobble and, through bad luck, the ball falling down his shirt.

Again, the litmus test is in the opinion of the scorer, should he have cleanly caught the ball without the bobble that led to the ball going down the shirt.

 

This one came up during my son's t-ball playoffs last year:

We were always telling the kids to watch out for batted balls on the bases because they'd be out. In this one game there were runners on first and second and the ball was hit to the left of third baseman who went after it but it hit his glove and hit the runner from second in the leg. Other team's coach argued he was out, I said the fact the ball hit the fielder's glove negated that rule. In the end, nobody knew what the rule was so the runner stayed at third.

What is the ruling there?

 

Alright....say I've got this minor-league baseball team, little four-team local indy league. They keep their starters on pitch counts and if a pitcher is taken out before completing five innings due to pitch count, leaves with a lead that stands to the game's conclusion, then the starting pitcher is given the win instead of a reliever. Is this commonplace? Not that I really see anything wrong with it...

 

They do play nine. I know, I was thinking the same thing.

 

MLB was considering giving at least a one-month reprieve in 1990 for the five inning minimum because they had a truncated spring training (instead of 30-odd games, they only played 15). They were going to make the minimum number needed to qualify for a win three innings in the first month or so of the season. Then they decided not to.

Wonder how many arms were wrecked that year for that decision...?

 

Probably not many. I'm sure that, despite contract issues, managers were more worried about handling their pitchers properly than who gets the wins and the losses.

I know in college baseball, they have a rule where a starting pitcher who is predetermined to go less than five (pitch count or innings) can be eligible for the win if the plan is declared to the official scorer before the game. This often happens in mid-week games, but not as often from what I've seen this year. Because teams are having to play so many games in a week (usually five), they don't often have a game where they are trying to get half the staff some work.

 

Two clarification-type questions;

Defensive indifference vs. stolen base - the official scorer for the NCAA team I cover claims there's no such thing as defensive indifference in college baseball/softball. If a runner advances during an at bat, it has to be accounted for somehow (i.e., passed ball, wild pitch or stolen base). Since he's the official scorer that provides the NCAA stats, I use his rulings.

Does this same standard apply to high-school games?

Winning pitcher in run-ruled games - Does the standard for innings pitch drop to four innings for a seven-inning run rule win in baseball/three innings for a five-inning run rule win in softball? What about run rules that end in six or eight innings? Can you go exactly half and get credited for a win?

Also, how do you decide the winning pitcher in this scenario - five-inning college softball game. Home starting pitcher throws two-and-a-third third innings while her team builds a 15-1 lead, then she gets hit in the throwing hand trying to field a line drive. Reliever comes in and gets the next two outs of the inning, third girl comes in next inning for the final three outs. Lead never changes.

These are just... not my sports.

 

The official scorer at the school I cover told me that catcher's indifference (and, by extension, fielder's indifference) is a rule in the college game but there's an unwritten rule that if a guy takes off for second and the catcher eats it, it's a stolen base because everybody else calls it a steal and if you don't, you're cheating your own guys stats.

I'll have to look it up in the NCAA book and see if other SIDs agree, but I do notice that it seems to be scored that way at most college ballparks.

 

Clueless stat-padding SIDs exist all over the place.

When I covered a DI women's soccer team, we found some goalie in upstate New York had an ungodly amount of saves -- something like 25 saves a game (it's unusual to have more than 8-10 shots *on goal* during an NCAA DI women's soccer game).

The SID figured that she was getting credit for a "save" every time she touched the ball, whether or not she was stopping an attempt on goal.