Brandon Brown
Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here I pontificate weekly on a topic related to Major League Baseball. Some of the topics will be urgent matters, some may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this site is that it is free and you can click to leave. If you stay you will become smarter, that’s a money back guarantee. Let’s go.
Has everyone seen Willson Contreras? broken arm last week?
Have you ever personally noticed in a game that a player very early in the game, most likely the leader, makes a point of digging into the baseline in the batter’s box to basically remove visibility from the line?
Did you know that catcher interference calls are skyrocketing?
All of these things are related and should be, for the most part, preventable.
So far this season, we’ve seen 36 receiver interference calls. This comes after 96 last season, 74 in 2022 and 62 in 2021. If we go back about a decade, there were 25 in 2013, 23 in 2012 and 27 in 2011. Going back several decades, there were 25 in 1983 and 15 in 1982. We could go on, but you get the idea: there was an explosion here in the 2020s and it started at the end of the last decade.
Why? Well, a few more are being caught on video review, but mostly catchers are trying to position themselves a little closer to home plate to steal hits through framing.
An easy solution here is the automated ball and strike system, which renders any attempt at framing completely moot. To me, that’s probably the biggest argument in favor.
Either way, it’s not just Contreras’ fault for the broken arm. Catchers aren’t the only ones taking the blame here for excessive catcher interference calls. Beaters insist on moving as far back into the box as possible for quite obvious reasons, such as the ridiculous speed they are tasked with dealing with. Of course, they will try to get as far as they can, as they feel every millisecond counts, not to mention the longer period of time to see the break on off-speed pitches.
But there is a line back there and it must be emphasized to stop allowing players to step over it so blatantly.
The batter’s box rule states that the batter must have both feet inside the box during his entire swing. Let’s look at JD Martinez’s feet when he accidentally hit Contreras. Pause around the 38-second mark and try to find the outline of the left side of the batter’s box to get an idea of where the line should be on Martinez’s side. It’s difficult, but it seems very clear to me that your whole the back foot is behind the bottom line of the box.
Even if someone wanted to argue that they were touching the line, you can’t tell me that their entire foot is within the limit. It is not.
This is not to pick on JD, but rather to give an illustration, because virtually every player does this and, here’s the important point, they are allowed to do it. No opposing player or coach complains. No referee really enforces the back of the box. The only assumption is that the hitter will get back as far as he can. It is a species of nudge nudge wink nothing to see here.
Meanwhile, the Seekers get closer and closer in an attempt to circumvent the real rules and steal hits.
This is crazy! Anarchy!!
Referees have a lot to deal with these days and I generally think they do a great job, but they could impose the back of the box better. Seekers need to be mindful of their own safety and stop approaching. My biggest complaint, though, is the hitters. Stop placing your entire foot behind the back line. Three extra inches isn’t making the difference you think.
