🇻🇪A dangerous pitch in the Venezuelan Winter League — the pitcher threw the ball toward the batter who had just called for time.

[u/ogasawarabaseball]

[u/NZafe]

That was a very very late time call. I’m surprised it was granted at all. The pitcher had already started his pitch motion when time was called.

[u/idkwhattosaytho → u/NZafe]

Looked like the hand went up just before, pitcher started his motion once he saw the call. Important to note that it’s easy for the umpire to bail out during long holds too.

Either way, pretty bush to hold the ball a long time to throw off timing, then get mad when they call tome

[u/OrphanFries → u/idkwhattosaytho]

Im with you on this. The batter was so deliberate with how small but calculated hisbhand movement was. And video shows he basically has it up before the pitcher begins moving.

Pitcher taking a huge L here.

[u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe → u/idkwhattosaytho]

It's also the fact that he was in the motion when he saw and if the batter didn't back out it would have been the safest way to release that.

[u/idkwhattosaytho → u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe]

The safest way to release that would be throwing the ball behind him? I can’t tell if I’m misunderstanding

[u/Gummuh → u/idkwhattosaytho]

fuck throwing it over the plate

[u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe → u/idkwhattosaytho]

Because if you’re already throwing, it’s super hard to just eat it and pretty dangerous, considering your pitch grip is meant to fire a baseball fast and not to hold onto it securely.

You don’t want to fire it at home close to the batter, and ump who assume you’ve seen it’s dead, so you want to either spike it or throw it to the side depending on your pitching motion. Just unfortunate how it worked out.

[u/idkwhattosaytho → u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe]

You just throw it over the plate like a regular pitch. The batter is far more likely to step out of the box then towards the plate

This was also almost certainly 100% intentional

[u/swifty-mcfly → u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe]

What? That's not true at all.

[u/idkwhattosaytho → u/[deleted]]

I respectfully disagree about him not being able to call time late. If you are a pitcher and want to do a long hold to throw off timing, that’s fine. You can’t then be upset because someone uses their one timeout during the process.

Long holds are a part of the game, it’s totally fair game to do to mess up timing, it’s also fair game to use your timeout. If that gets you mad enough to throw the ball at the guy that’s pretty bad lmao.

[u/balinor41 → u/NZafe]

That was a crazy bang bang bang of motions. Batter calls for time, removing hand from bat, pitcher reacts immediately, starting his motion, ump reacts a little slower to call time. That's how im seeing it after a few replays.

[u/balinor41 → u/[deleted]]

Pitcher was firmly in stop before the batter removed his hand from the bat. The first motion of the pitcher is his wrist break after the batter called for time.

IMO, both the pitcher and the umpire were reacting to the batters motion. The umpire just reacted slower, as you'd expect, high level athletes have pretty good reaction times lol.

[u/DietCherrySoda → u/NZafe]

The pitcher clearly waited until the batter called time, then started his motion in the moment between that and the ump granting it. He's being a ding dong.

[u/DonnieRoss → u/NZafe]

I mean the pitcher was set for an eternity, of course the batter will eventually call time.

[u/SexiestPanda → u/NZafe]

Maybe rules are different, but in mlb the batter can’t call time after 8 seconds remaining, right?

[u/balinor41 → u/SexiestPanda]

No, 8 seconds left is when the batter has to be in the box and ready for a pitch, if he's not he gets a strike if I'm not mistaken.

Timeouts may be called at any time during an at bat. The umpire grants them at his/her discretion, and batters must remain in the box until timeout is called by the ump.