I never understood this rule. Yesterday in the Sox game someone on the Indians stole 2nd in the 9th, in a 3 run game. Defensive indifference was called and he wasn't credited with a SB.

I'm not aware of any other sport that does something arbitrary like that with a stat. In basketball if the clock is ticking down in the 4th and one team starts to walk off the floor and someone walks in for an uncontested layup, they still get 2 points. Similarly if someone chucked up a 3 and another guy grabbed the rebound, they still get credited with a rebound.

It was only a 3 run game. I still wouldn't agree with the premise but I could at least understand if it was 14-1 or something. Granted, the run was insignificant, but if they came back and tied or won the game would they retroactively credit them with a steal? Eh, whatever, the whole thing makes no sense to me

The way the White Sox staff holds runners on, you can conclude that 75% of steals against them were subject to this interpretation.

_________________
“Mmmm. Move over, eggs. Bacon just got a new best friend - fudge.”

Same holds true for the Cubs (might even be a little higher).

This rule isn't used very much. If a scorer wanted to be a prick, he could use this every time a base runner wasn't held. Also, no one would ever get credit for a delayed steal.

_________________
Arguing with a fool proves there are two.

Defensive Indifference gets called fairly often when dealing with steals where the catcher doesn't even throw out to second in the late innings. I don't have a problem with it.

The scoring quirk that I do dislike is the dropped third strike business. If you strike out the batter, but he advances to first on a dropped third strike, you shouldn't be credited with a strikeout. StrikeOUT. He's not out. Also, 'reached on error' should be factored into OBP. I think it takes a certain amount of skill to reach on an error sometimes.

_________________