correct way to steal against lefty

[tg643]

Tg,
Did you decide ahead of time?

It was predetermined 75% of the time. I didn't have a good move to first. I threw over to take away a step if I thought a runner was "out there." Sometimes I caught them leaning. I never really dealt with many baserunners until college. If there was WHIP in high school mine was way under 1.00. My ERA was around 1.00. In college I was a reliever the first two years constantly dealing with baserunners. The technique wasn't as effective in college. The good baserunners were too smart.

[CircleChange11]

As a LHP with a very good Pickoff (err, balk) move, I would say that I would decide as I was raising my leg. Once my leg moved downward, I had already decided. Don;t get me wrong, I still stepped 65 to 75 % toward home when throwing to 1B.

However, if you took off on 1st move, I could easily just throw to 1st. The problem would be very fast runners that could beat the rundown to 2nd. Those guys just piss me off.

My advice for a LHP with a good move is just to take off as the knee nears it's highest point. Furthermore, the pitcher will be thinking "How did that SOB read my move?"

As for the "look home, throw to first" or "look a runner, he's going home" thing ... I used to do the horrible (look to home, throw to first with a deliberate step with toes pointed to sky" as my "set you up" move. I'd do that, throw a pitch, and then come with the good one, and you'd jog back to the dugout thinking how stupid you must have looked. To be fair, you would have probably gotten revenge on me later as I hung a deuce. So, don't sweat it.