BASERUNNING – Take advantage of breaking pitches in the dirt.

The pitcher has a 0-1 count on the hitter. He throws a breaking ball in the dirt, which the batter lays off and the catcher blocks. The runner on first base slides into second base uncontested.

Was it a delayed steal? No, the runner read the trajectory of the pitch and immediately broke or second.

In many cases, pitchers are throwing the breaking ball as a swing and miss pitch. A location they target is at the hitter's knees so he commits to his swing before the ball breaks down and out of the strike zone. This pitching approach often results in the ball bouncing in the dirt. The catcher is taught to drop to his knees to block the pitch. And from his knees, the catcher is attempting to block the pitch, not catch it. This provides an opening for the baserunner to advance.

Because they travel with top and sidespin, breaking pitches bounce up and to the side. Fastballs and change-ups have backspin, so it's a true, predictable bounce in the dirt that the catcher can pick. That is why the baserunner wants to take this risk on a breaking ball in the dirt rather than a fastball or change-up.

To execute this, runners need to anticipate the pitch. Pay attention to the count and the pitcher's patterns. We do it at the plate, so why not on the basepaths? (On base, the runner may also detect the pitcher's grip or catcher's sign which indicates a breaking pitch is about to be thrown.) If the runner senses breaking pitch, he should focus on the trajectory of the pitch out of the pitcher's hand and get an aggressive secondary lead. If the ball is destined for the dirt, take off.

The chances of making it to second base are two-fold. First, because the catcher has dropped to his knees and blocks the ball, he'll have little chance of making a throw. The second way is if the catcher gloves the ball clean and quickly gets to a throwing position, the middle infielders may not react in time to cover the base. It almost serves like a delayed steal.

The beauty of this heads-up play is that if it's pulled off more than once, the pitcher will take notice. He'll think twice bouncing a breaking ball and then becomes prone to leaving pitches up in the zone. That works to the advantage of the hitter.