Rule Balk

As part of MLB’s new pitching-clock rule, a pitcher can throw over and/or step off the rubber a total of two times before getting called for a ball. Anything to speed up the game, except for commercials, of course. It seems to me that smart baserunners—I’m speaking hypothetically here—will tempt pitchers into throwing over without real fear of being picked off. Then, it’s off to the races on the next pitch. This strikes me as totally one-sided. If pitchers are going to be limited in how often they can throw over or step off, why not even things up and legalize the balk except for, say, dropping the ball? That way, the risk equalizes between runner and pitcher. It couldn’t hurt to try.