Quote:
Originally Posted by Nathan
Wrong. The rule was cited earlier in this thread.
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I was refering to post #19 where the poster asked what can be done if a pitcher refuses to pitch. He made the comment that a pitcher can be called for a balk for refusing to pitch to a batter which is a false statement. If there is no one on base the pitcher has 12 seconds to deliver the pitch(8.04). If the pitcher does not do it then the umpire will call that unthrown pitch a "ball" and not a balk. (Of course as we all know this never happens.) If there are runners on base and in the umpires judgement the pitcher is delaying the game by throwing to an occupied base when there is no real intent to play on a runner then a warning will be given to the pitcher for "delay of game". If the pitcher continues to do this then he will be ejected and at the same time a balk will be called(8.05h). Again, I would be suprised if this rule has ever been enforced in the history of MLB.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info.../pitcher_8.jsp
In short, if a team desired to do what the OP suggested by prolonging the game in order to give a reliever time to warm up then it can be done by doing what i referenced above. However it is incredibly unlikely the umpires will make this call and even if the pitcher by his extreme actions forced it to happen, it would be considered very much "bush league" and most likely would result in a ball plunking someone on the offending team in the butt.