When I think about balks one of the first things that comes to mind is just how much damage the capricious enforcement of the balk rule did to Carl Edwards Jr. at the beginning of the 2019 season. For those of you who might have blocked out this particular part of Cubs history (lord knows I wish I had), CJ came into the 2019 season as part of the back end of a Cubs bullpen that planned to compete for the division that season. He spent all of Spring Training working on a new move to the plate — a move that was not flagged during Spring Training, only to have this happen the first time he appeared in an MLB game in 2019:
Get ready for increased balk enforcement in MLB in 2023
