We are going to work for some simple pick-off plays. We are going to talk about three different ones today. I know there are multitudes of pickoff plays you can do and certainly, once you like to incorporate into your practice. We try to keep it as simple as we can and get good at what we do and hopefully, we can at least hold people close. That is the ultimate goal it is just not allowing them to get a big jump.
The first pickoff, play we are going to do is what we called “daylight”, and daylight would be, where a fielder in this case, Brent who is playing short, would get an opening, get behind the runner and have actual daylight between where I would be and where he is at.
He will hold his glove out, if the pitcher feels like he has got an opening here, he will go ahead and break to the bag and try to beat me there with the throw. How far I felt is the sort of daylight. We will start with Brent this way. Boom and he has got me, if he feels like he has got an opening, great, he will take it.
Now, we will run it with Kurt to run at second base and boy, they got to break hard to the bag because they got to try to beat me here. Bang and he is there ready to make the play. Second pickoff play we are going to talk about is the timing play and it is a play that we are going to set up either from the infielder, the pitcher or even the catcher can get involved and call it.
If we feel like, we got an opening with the base runner and we want to run a set pickoff, we are going to again give a sign and you can do it however you like, we just pick here or pick along the pants or pull the air anything that will allow the pitcher and the infielders to know that we got a pickoff going, and we are going to run it that way.
Here is the timing setup, the pitcher is going to come into a stretch position, and he is going to come set. Adam, if you would, let us come set. He is going to come set, he will look back at the bag, he will look home, when he looks home, he is going to count, one, one thousand; two, one thousand. He will wheel and throw.
At the same instant, he looks home, the middle infielders will count one; one thousand and they will run and break to the bag. We can pick either one. They can work that out amongst themselves or we can set that up as coaches, however we like it. So it is for Adam, the pitcher, it is one, one thousand; two, one thousand, turn and throw.
For the infielders it is one, one thousand and they will break to the bag. Let’s try one fellows, Adam gives his sign back. He look back the second. He looks back one, one thousand; two, one thousand. He turns and throws. Hopefully, if we got a nice quiet shortstop for second baseman, they can slide back in behind and may be we even catch the coach sleeping a little bit, but who knows. Adam picks along the pant leg. He looks back. He starts his count. Back they go and were there to get in.
The third and final pickoff that we are going to do involves just a little bit of additional help from the shortstop. It is a timing play again for the pitcher. Actually, the responsibility of the pitcher stays exactly the same. He will look back count one, one thousand; two, one thousand and then he will go wheel and throw. His responsibilities do not change at all. However, the middle infielder’s responsibilities do.
Once the pitcher looks home, shortstop is going to start right in behind me and he is going to freeze me right here. When he comes around me, the instance he comes around, second baseman is going to slide in. He is going to hesitate to me in one second. I am going to hold second baseman slides in behind and they will make the throw.
Again, the pitchers responsibilities are the same. It is the middle infielder’s that changed just a little bit. Okay, fellows, let us make sure we put it on. Adam picks leg, less notes is gone, here comes the shortstop, I heard him. You see, I held up when he got close to me.
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