The art of "going" to a relief pitcher

When it's time to take a pitcher out of the game there is an interesting way of how experienced coaches make this change. The manner in which they do this is pretty basic and very consistent. The premise is to give the pitcher some extra time to warm up.

Here is how it works.

Pitcher tires and a decision is made to go to a different pitcher. The head coach asks the catcher or another position player to go speak to the player. The player walks to the mound and takes as much time as is granted by the umpire. The umpire strolls to the mound and says "come on guys, let's play." The catcher agrees and walks back to the plate. As the catcher squats, the head coach pops his head out of the dugout and does the same routine. This time, the visit becomes an official visit. The head coach takes his time and waits as long as he can until the umpire makes that same stroll. The head coach might even use this time to voice is not so popular opinion with an umpire. Finally, at this time, a pitching change is made.

This whole process could take about 5 minutes. If you are aggressively warming up, you can get about 25 pitches in in that time.

The art of "stalling" by baseball.