College strike zone, Sheeeesh

[Westwind]

Yeah..some of us don’t buy our boxers from the Official Undergarment Store of the SEC

I would but I buy all my boxers at garage sales!

 

[_MIA_]

I would but I buy all my boxers at garage sales!

 

[marriard]

My 11 year old DD got an Ump yesterday that had a roving, random strike zone. She wasn’t given the corners or even the center of the plate. Tough to pitch to the ump’s strike zone when there isn’t one.

Fisheye lens positioned left and pretty high & one pitch. From this angle who knows where this pitch really is.
Not saying it was a ball or a strike. Or what kind of zone the umpire I had. Or whether he ws having a good or bad day.
But this is a good example of how you really can't tell.

 

[radness]

My 11 year old DD got an Ump yesterday that had a roving, random strike zone. She wasn’t given the corners or even the center of the plate. Tough to pitch to the ump’s strike zone when there isn’t one.

Good for her she got to experience the reality that the strike zone is the most fluctuating thing on the field. The more experience she can get at recognizing that and working through it,
the better she will be.

 

[radness]

The coach was told it was the ump’s 1st tourney by the other ump. Given the cost of the tourney, that shouldn’t have been the case.

He seemed to make his calls on the batter’s reaction, not where the ball was actually thrown. No consistency one pitch to the next for either team, just complete randomness. Could throw the ball the same exact place twice and get different calls. If a batter was fooled by the pitch, it was almost always getting called a ball.

It wasn’t the lesson she needed that day having been sick in bed the prior 3 days and at well less than 100%. Battling through feeling like 70% was supposed to be the lesson....

Ok pitchers parent! Enjoy

 

[Tatonka]

I am the opposite to you - still seeing way too many "I am calling college, strike zone is going to be smaller" umpires - hate that. They have been telling the umpires for several years to stop doing that, but some people are just stubborn and as long as they continue to get games they are not going to change.

This is more in line with what I (believe) that I've seen at the DIII games I've attended personally and watched on video. It has mostly seemed smaller than the DI and DII games I've watched (not live) this year. The zone has also at times been too "fluid" and at times seemed to be called at the glove not over the plate.

 

[BrianTx01]

I see much more tight zones than big zones these days.

 

[BrianTx01]

Yep, you crazy.

Seen a lot of games, called quite a few. No D1, but some D2
A lot of the same people calling the same zones they always do.
Good curve ball strike on the outside edge will be caught in opposite batter box by the catcher. That's a strike. They WANT us to call that.
If you are in the crowd, it doesn't matter where you are, you don't have the view the umpire has - even if you regularly umpire.
If you are watching on TV, you absolutely can't tell - the angles are so deceiving.

I am the opposite to you - still seeing way too many "I am calling college, strike zone is going to be smaller" umpires - hate that. They have been telling the umpires for several years to stop doing that, but some people are just stubborn and as long as they continue to get games they are not going to change.

I am glad you call that curve ball that hits the outside corner! The best umpires can truly visualize the three dimensional nature of the strike zone.

I was watching this smaller D2 game that had an excellent umpire and very dominant visiting pitcher. She was painting those corners and the fans were complaining about the called strikes but you could clearly see the balls where hitting the very edges of the strike zone.

 

[radness]

Quick little Google search add to the discussion

MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Pitch Calls in 2018. Time for Robo-umps?

After analyzing 4 million Major League Baseball pitches from 11 seasons, researchers at Boston University learned that younger umpires are more accurate in calling balls and strikes and 2-strike counts favor pitchers over hitters, among other fascinating findings.

www.bu.edu

* Learn to be a better hitter!

 

[mmeece]

The question I have about stats like that is how many were within 2 inches of the zone? I saw a video recently of all the "missed" strikes in a few games and they were all 1 to 2 inches outside the zone (or at least the "zone" they projected)