This new strategy is not allowed, a breakdown
What Happened
The Mariners had two pickoffs recently that caught my interest, caught baseball's interest.
Why This Matters
The Mariners discovered some wild pickoff moves that literally broke baseball, and MLB had to step in and say 'nope, not doing that.' Jomboy's breaking down exactly what made these plays so illegal and why the baseball gods said enough is enough.
This breakdown hit 453K views and cracked the all-time top 100, ranking #666 of all Jomboy videos because apparently chaos is very popular.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Cal Raleigh.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentThe Mariners had two pickoffs recently
that caught my interest, caught
baseball's interest. So, let's break
them down. This one is brought to you by
Slashline where you can buy this hat
that I'm wearing that says breakdown on
it. Now, Tuve opens it up with a nice
single in the first inning. He gets a
massage. He hangs out on first base. The
count runs to 3-2 and then you've got
swing and a miss. He's off. Is it strike
him out, throw him out? No. He steals
second and he gets to third base with
less than two outs. So now he can score
on a fly ball. That's nice. It's not
nice because the umpire got in the way.
And the umpire says, "My bad. He's got
to go back to first, though." Al's like,
"What? I didn't do anything wrong." And
he's like, "Yeah, my bad." I'll show you
the replay. Umpire's very apologetic.
His face got in the way. It's umpire
interference. What are you going to do
about it? All they can say is, "That's
my bad. I'm sorry. Not my intent." And
you can see he calls it immediately. He
goes, "Oh, there it is. That's on me.
That's on me. Time out, everybody. I
messed up. That's on me. Sorry, Jose.
You've got to go back to first base."
And now that he's back at first base,
they say, "Let's pick him off." And he's
flatfooted and he's out. And now Tub's
like, "Oh, look at this smile. That's a
knowing smile." Now Tub's like, "You
sons of bitches." Look at this play.
Naylor fakes him back to the bag and
then gets the ball afterwards. I never
seen this. Now you got this. Cal Raleigh
gives a signal to the pitcher by closing
his glove. So if you watch Cal's eyes
here, he's looking at first base. He's
not looking at the pitcher. He's waiting
till Altuve is off balance and starting
to head back and then tells the pitcher
throw. Watch. Here's the wide shot. And
I'll zoom in on both at the same time.
And you can see on the left that Naylor
makes his move to lure him back like the
pickoff is coming and Altuve bites and
then as soon as he starts going back
towards his lead, Cal closes his glove
and you've got Altuve just dead to
rights left standing there. It's a cool
play. Now Naylor said he didn't know
that play was on. I'm not buying it. I
think they just want to keep it close to
their vest because it was cool and it
worked. Now, if you're at home saying,
"I think I've seen my catcher do that
move before. What's so special?" Well,
I'm not talking about the glove. If
you've never noticed that, they're doing
this all the time now. Almost every
team, their catcher is signaling when
that runner is taking his lead and when
the pitcher should turn. I bet this has
happened um throughout history. It just
seems like an obvious way to alert the
pitcher that it moves on. This I've
never seen. I never seen the first
baseman deak him back as part of a
planned play. Now the Mariners couple
games later against the Padres's. We got
Brian Woo pitching and we've got a base
ball which I include in the video
because I love it. It's just so
defeating if you're the defensive team
and if you're hitting it's nice, you
know, God's on your side. So you've got
Bogarts at first and Naylor's keeping
him on. Okay, there he is. Naylor's
keeping him on. We're going through
pitches, but I'm just showing you the
lead. And then Cal looks at the dugout
and they say, "Hey, let's run at play
again. Let's run a play again." It's not
the same play. And you can see Cal got
the signal, giving the pitcher the
signal. Looking at first, looking at
first. He knows the pitch isn't coming.
Looking at first, look. Drops the glove.
They throw it over. That's a B. Go to
second for what? Like, wait, a bach.
What?
Huh? What? Who? What? Umpire's going to
tell him he's too far. Yep. Yep. He's
too far off the base. Yeah, he can't
play off the base. So, he's saying that
this is on Naylor, not on Woo. And he
just smiles. Oh my god. Manager comes
out to figure it out. And I got a little
more chunks of what umpire is saying
here. He says, "Uh, if he steps back and
touches him, it's fine, but he's too far
in front of the base." So, let's take a
look at this because it's interesting.
It's a rule that I think if when you see
it obviously broken, you're like, "Yeah,
that makes sense that it's a rule."
There's the glove flap. So, I mean,
we'll pause for a second. I don't know
what play this is because this time it
seems like Naylor's truly not in the
play. And it seems like Cal Raleigh
gives the signal, but I don't know what
he's basing it off of at all. He's just
like, "Here you go. They told me to do
the move." Naylor takes his steps to the
right there, farther away from the bag
as if it's not a pickoff, as if it's a
pitch being pitched. That's what he does
every time the pitcher's delivery starts
is he takes that little step away from
first and he catches the ball there.
Now, you're not allowed to throw a
pickoff to a player. You have to throw
it to a base and the player has to be
occupying that base to catch it. You
can't just turn and throw to the second
baseman. Or the right fielder can't
creep down behind the guy taking a lead
and he thinks he can take a giant lead
because the first baseman is playing
further off than him.
and then the right fielder sneaks and
you throw it to the right fielder and he
touches him. You have to throw it to the
back because I think it can get just
just get messy. So that's what's being
called here. They're saying he's too far
off the base. And when he says I think
he's saying like if he catches this
and his feet are working his way back to
the bag, then it's fine when he says he
comes back. But he doesn't even do that.
He actually stepped away from the base
and caught it. I think this is very slim
margins on the rule, but the rule does
exist and that's what's being called. I
wonder if there was a memo sent out
like, "Hey, Mariners are doing some
tricky Be careful." We can see he
takes that little creep step away from
the bag. And I think that's what he's
calling. And when he tags him, he's not
within reach of the base. I think that's
probably another factor like he turns to
tag the player and he's not in reach of
the base. And that might be another way
umpires determine this. I don't know if
there's a standard. Umpires, let me
know. Interesting little rule. So, you
might be wondering, wait, was the Altuva
one illegal then? Is that not allowed?
And no, in the Altuve one, Naylor, you
can see he steps back to Deacon, but
then when the actual pitch is coming,
he's right on the base, and he doesn't
leave the base until he catches the ball
to go tag him, but he's not doing that.
And he is closer than he is in the other
one. So, I think it's fine margins, but
that's two pickoff plays. one illegal
and I don't know what the play was and
one I think is very cool and you might
see more teams do it. Thanks for
watching. It's breakdown is brought to
you by the hat I'm wearing and the it's
over here. Ow,
I just dropped it. It fell.