A PICKOFF PLAY AT THIRD BASE!

A PICKOFF PLAY A THIRD BASE! In a recent White Sox-Tampa Bay game, Joe Maddon, the Tampa manager (and a very good manager), tried a pickoff play at third base. I had never seen one before, and neither had the Tampa announcers. I have wondered why it hasn’t been tried. It would take a lot of practice, but there are a lot of situations where the defense is trying to cut off a play at the plate, and making a runner at third stay closer to third base would be desirable.

There is another reason to use a pickoff play at third base. There is a play that is seen fairly frequently, and every time it’s tried, the announcer say it never works. In fact, I have seen it work several times, but it is true that it ought never to work. That play consists of the pitcher, with a runner on third and a runner on first, faking a pickoff at third and then throwing to first. It should never work because the runner at first knows that no pitcher ever tries a pickoff at third base. If the pitcher does throw to third from time to time, the fake to third should work better.