Cubs’ Matthew Boyd has mastered the balk pickoff move

Billy Heyen

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Cubs’ Matthew Boyd has mastered the balk pickoff move image

Matthew Boyd leads Major League Baseball in pickoffs.

To do so, he's pushing the limits of a legal move.

The Chicago Cubs' southpaw picked off his eighth base-runner of the season when he nabbed a Baltimore Oriole off first base on Saturday.

But when you watch the move, it's clear Boyd is pushing the envelope.

That looks a heck of a lot like a balk.

It's a move that southpaws have been getting away with for generations, though.

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For a pickoff move to be legal, a pitcher is supposed to step toward the base they're throwing toward. Otherwise, it's a balk.

For lefties throwing to first, there's essentially an imaginary 45-degree line off the center of the rubber, and if that front foot steps beyond that point, it's meant to be called a balk.

Boyd clearly steps way forward, forming almost a 90-degree angle with his front foot practically stepping straight toward home plate.

There's a reason they call this the "balk move."

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Umpires generally don't call this. It's why lefties with a good move can be so difficult to run against. It's hard to have a more deceptive pickoff move than one that technically isn't even legal.

But for as long as it keeps being OK to do, Boyd will keep doing it. He hasn't been called for a balk all year, but even one once in a while wouldn't be bad if he still kept erasing base runners at this rate.

If a call isn't made, it's not cheating. It's strategy.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle