I don't understand why hitters don't take advantage of this situation

[steve]

How extreme can a shift be?

 

Is there any rule requiring the use of a catcher? Theoretically, if no one is on base, there could be an advantage to putting the catcher into the field. The umpire probably wouldn't like it, but is there a rule saying you have to have a player catch?

[Thor]

The catcher has to be in his box when the pitch is released. I saw a catchers balk called one time on a pitchout.

[Willihammer]

This may be helpful also: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23950

 

Bunt Attempts/Threats

Recently, Inside Edge reconfigured their software to allow the recording of attempted and threatened bunts to beat the shift in addition to those that were actually put in play. This is obviously pretty important; as many of you have pointed out, looking at how often bunts against the shift in fair territory result in hits tells us something, but the rate at which hitters fail to get the bunt down is also an important part of the picture. Yes, players are batting .625 when they drop a bunt down against the shift so far this season, which would seem to make bunting a no-brainer, but to say so for sure, we need to determine how often attempts come up empty. To that effect, here’s the latest list of threatened/attempted bunts from the past week that led to fouls or taken balls or strikes. Eventually, we’ll have a large enough sample to say something about how often bunt attempts give birth to bunts.

[TABLE=width: 700, align: center]

Date

Runners

Hitter

Balls

Strikes

Inning

Outs

Pitcher

Event

Shift

Pitch Result

6/15

3

Desmond Jennings

4

2

Brad Peacock

Bunt Hit Att.

1

F

6/16

1

Garrett Jones

1

1

1

1

Jason Hammel

Bunt Hit Att.

1

F

6/16

2

Ryan Flaherty

7

1

Joel Peralta

Bunt Hit Att.

1

F

6/17

Lucas Duda

2

1

Michael Wacha

Bunt Hit Att.

1

Taken Strike

6/17

1

Jay Bruce

9

1

Jason Grilli

Bunt Hit Att.

1

F

6/17

1

Stephen Vogt

2

Yu Darvish

Bunt Hit Att.

52

Taken Ball

6/18

Victor Martinez

2

Jeremy Guthrie

Bunt Hit Att.

15

F

6/18

Alex Avila

5

Jeremy Guthrie

Bunt Hit Att.

15

F

6/18

Matt Adams

7

2

Bartolo Colon

Bunt Hit Att.

1

F

[/TABLE]

 

SSS obviously, but I think this snapshot shows how hard bunting is. There are tradeoffs in giving away outs and strikes when you don't get it down. Bunting isn't easy or automatic by any means.

[steve]

The catcher has to be in his box when the pitch is released. I saw a catchers balk called one time on a pitchout.

 

This is discussed in the rules of baseball, 4.03.

 

Interestingly, it also says all other fielders must be in fair territory when the pitch is delivered. This would negate the "invite pitch" made famous in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.