Cubs v. Cards strikezone

Everyone is complaining about blue calling strikes in the far batters box in this game.

Looked like the zone that grown men called against twelve year old girls all summer. That is a strike all day long in the tournaments I was at. Making the zone so wide has been detrimental to the game of softball, I have no idea how these umps think a kid can hit a pitch that far off the plate when 6' tall trained hitters getting paid millions don't think they should be swinging at it with two strikes.

Somebody told me that fp umps are being told that if the outside edge of the ball touches the box it's still a strike? Bit too much margin for failure there.

As long as it's a consistent strike zone for both teams it shouldn't matter. The pitchers and hitters need to adjust to the umpires strike zone. Even 10u Rec players can adjust to a wide strike zone. Move up in the box, toes on the line, and don't try to pull the ball.

At younger ages trying to hit really outside pitches canot be challenge with 29 or 30 inch bat. I understand why some parents chase the length before going up in weight.

Interesting read. So, about automating the strike zone ... | FOX Sports

shaker1 said:

Interesting read. So, about automating the strike zone ... | FOX Sports

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Good article. But the reality is that 99% of all baseball/softball is played at the amateur level that cannot afford expensive technology to keep track of balls and strikes. It will be a long time (well past the days of our kids playing) that human umpires stop calling balls and strikes and will be replaced by technology.

Rocketech, I'm usually on the same page with your posts but in the last year I have seen way, way too many young kids rung up on pitches in the far batters box and it is total bull. Called strike 3 on a pitch that they can barely reach is not teaching them anything and it is not about adjusting to the umpires zone. Adjusting to that zone is impossible for almost all of them due to size and most certainly ability.

While DD's work on hitting pitches out of the zone, (I doubt most do) it is pure futility for most hitters and is designed for failure.

The college zone and the youth zone can't be the same thing and I truly can't believe these umpires think it should be.

Westwind said:

Rocketech, I'm usually on the same page with your posts but in the last year I have seen way, way too many young kids rung up on pitches in the far batters box and it is total bull. Called strike 3 on a pitch that they can barely reach is not teaching them anything and it is not about adjusting to the umpires zone. Adjusting to that zone is impossible for almost all of them due to size and most certainly ability.

While DD's work on hitting pitches out of the zone, (I doubt most do) it is pure futility for most hitters and is designed for failure.

The college zone and the youth zone can't be the same thing and I truly can't believe these umpires think it should be.

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Maybe I have a different frame of reference but when DD played 8u and 10u, the ball was 10inch and 11inch, and they pitched from 30feet and 35feet respectively. Many pitchers struggled just to throw strikes, let alone throw movement pitches to the outside. To keep the game from becoming a walkfest, the umpires had a liberal strike zone. Heck, we even had teenagers umpiring many games.

Over the years, technology (composites bats) have leveled the playing field and with many players taking hitting lessons at a younger age has made the game more offensive.

Lastly, the high strike zone has been taken away especially at the travel ball, HS, and especially college level (from below arm pits to now the sternum).

Additionally, this is a game of making adjustments. With a 28 inch bat or longer, almost every player should be able to reach the outside pitch, even if it's a ball width off the plate. Of course they need to work on hitting outside pitches in practice and at the 10u level, the pitchers live on the outside pitch, afraid to come inside and hit batters.

Yep! I think we are using two different frames of reference!

Heck I'm talking 6,8 inches from touching the black.

It seems like the top and the bottom of the zone seem fairly stable from umpire to umpire bud dang those outside pitches sure can be far from the plate and still be a strike with some of the umps. I agree that the top of the zone is called consistently lower than the rules say.

last summer younger dd was a 12. We were at a big tournament and the plate ump was bragging about how she played college ball and she called the zone just like the college umps. Okay, lady, you know they are 12 not 18 plus.... It was unreal what she was calling a strike.... No way in heck they could do anything but foul it off and wait for a mistake, but we had some good hitters rung up on those pitches. You can't tell the kids that the ump sucks but you hate to blame them for not swinging at a pitch that isn't a strike in practice and most games.

Maybe it's a regional thing. Around here I just don't see pitches inside the opposite batter's box called a strike.

As for calling a pitch where the outside of the ball just touches the edge of the other batter's box, up until this year that was the norm for college ball. College umpires were instructed to tighten it up a bit this year. But even before, is that really what you'd call a "gross miss"?

The gap between the plate and the batter's box (commonly known as "the river") is six inches wide. A softball is four inches in diameter. So a ball just touching the edge of the batter's box would be two inches off the edge of the plate. Hold your fingers two in inches apart. Now try gauging that much of a gap on a fast moving ball several feet above the imaginary line extending up into space. Such a pitch is, in essence, catching the corner of the plate if the ball has any lateral movement.

Calling a ball "in the river" a strike was always regarded as "giving the pitcher a good corner". Using the edge of the batter's box as a guide also helped to ensure that an umpire wasn't giving too much off the plate, because a pitch getting past that line, into the batter's box (know as "in the ocean") would be, by convention, called a ball.

If your umpires are calling pitches in the opposite batter's box a strike, it sounds like they might need some training. There's a big difference between giving the pitcher the benefit of the doubt on a borderline pitch and giving them ridiculously out of the zone pitches that no batter could even reach.

I would say our umps do a pretty good job in this area. I try to make sure our girls keep their pant legs pulled up to their knees to help blue see the bottom of the zone. Where our umps struggle is up. I have some tall girls and some short girls. It feels like the top of the zone doesn't change between the tall girls and the short girls.