Why Pitchers Struggle With Runners On Base

When young pitchers start to struggle or even pitchers who have established themselves in the league, it usually begins with when a runner gets on base.

Usually for the pitcher, it's because they now have to contend with that baserunner  and the batter at the plate. Yet, the problem becomes when they become more concerned with that runner than on base than they are with the batter.

This leads to a few things happening. The first one is that they start to throw over a lot and then once they get their attention back on the batter, they can't find the plate and eventually walk the batter putting another runner on base.

Another result is that since the pitcher is more concerned with the runner, they put the ball in a hittable location and end up getting rattled and start giving up even more hits.

In a game today with the New York Yankees the Oakland Athletics brought in starting pitcher Josh Outman to pitch the bottom of the eighth. In that inning Derek Jeter managed to get on based.

Outman became so concerned with Jeter that eventually one of his pick off throws went into the dirt and the ball was thrown away, allowing Jeter to get to second. Even at the time, Jeter was barely getting any lead off of first base.

Luckily for Outman he was able to strike Johnny Damon out and get Mark Teixeira to fly out to left field.

Yes, it is important to keep an eye out on a baserunner to keep them honest so they don't steal a base, but the problem is that in this era not many teams run so what is the actual point of throwing over to first base more than three times during an at bat?

These pitchers then become so enamored with the runner that they don't do their job and don't get the batter out.

If there are two outs the pitcher shouldn't be so concerned with the runner, instead have most of their attention to the batter at the plate. The pitcher should still keep an eye out on the runner, they shouldn't be ignored entirely, but the runner shouldn't be the main concern.

In fact, there are very few base runners that demand that kind of attention and even with them, they don't run often enough. Also, the pitcher should have enough confidence in their catcher to throw out the runner if they do try to run.

Until pitchers—specifically young ones—learn that a base runner is not the end of the world, these pitchers will continue to struggle once runners get on until they realize that the batter is more important.