Umpire accuracy in rec/LL

When you get an ump who only calls strikes when its a straight, flat pitch over the fat of the plate, is there anything you can do? Pitcher gets frustrated to the verge of tears. do you say screw it, give up the game and let a non-pitcher pitch because she has a better chance of getting strikes called? any advice?

thanks

Actually I meant to post this under "Softball Discussions", oops.

We have the same umpires year after year, game after game.

IDK, you get used to their strike zones and their idiosyncrasies.

If you have an Issue with an ump I would not try to change how they call their game, I would ask that they do not ump your games anymore.

(We pulled DD from a game for a similar reason, when I went to inform the umpire we were switching pitchers the person in charge of the umpires had come on the field and was having a conversion with the umpire that they were not doing their job properly. IDK, I thought they were doing their best just poorly, which was noticed, so we switched pitchers. No use yelling at them.)

IME with umpires, the better the competition the tighter the strike zone. In rec softball and PONY baseball, the first few years of kid pitch, the umpires have a very large strike zone (likely to reduce the walkfests that can and will happen). As the pitchers get older and more accurate, the umpires tighten the zone. Pitchers (and batters) need to adjust to the umpires strike zone, no matter what it is. I generally don't care as long as long as they are consistent for both teams throughout the whole game.

The zone has been super tight this year at 10uB here, we have only played 2 tournies at 1 location. DDs pitching coach commented that she attended a 10u tourney there and the zone was borderline ridiculous. Wouldn't be as big of a problem if the corners were included in the zone. I saw many pitches from many pitchers that were called balls when from where I was the ball appeared fully over the plate. I'm not sure where the top of the zone is, but it's certainly lower than it should be. This is frustrating when you have a kid who can finally hit their spots but those spots are called balls. Lots of hits this year though, since the kids are forced to put it down the middle of the plate.

This is a conversation that needs to be held between Coaches and the governing bodies, ie; NFHS, ASA, USSSA, etc. The NFHS 2015 Rules Book defines the strike zone as " the space over home plate which is between the batter's forward armpit and the top of the knees when the batter assumes a natural stance". Umpires calling armpit high strikes when a batter assumes a natural stance will NOT EVER get assigned a NFHS State Final.
The beef should never be with a consistent umpire on this one.
The rule makers need to man up and fix this.

Rocketech1 said:

IME with umpires, the better the competition the tighter the strike zone. In rec softball and PONY baseball, the first few years of kid pitch, the umpires have a very large strike zone (likely to reduce the walkfests that can and will happen). As the pitchers get older and more accurate, the umpires tighten the zone. Pitchers (and batters) need to adjust to the umpires strike zone, no matter what it is. I generally don't care as long as long as they are consistent for both teams throughout the whole game.

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^^^Exactly.

IME with umpires, the better the competition the tighter the strike zone. In rec softball and PONY baseball, the first few years of kid pitch, the umpires have a very large strike zone (likely to reduce the walkfests that can and will happen). As the pitchers get older and more accurate, the umpires tighten the zone. Pitchers (and batters) need to adjust to the umpires strike zone, no matter what it is. I generally don't care as long as long as they are consistent for both teams throughout the whole game.

Click to expand...

I could see that as far as not calling the river or being more selective of pitches on the black. The issue here is this particular ump is only calling strikes that are entirely over the fat, white part of the plate. if the ball is moving up or down or curving/screwing, the zone is even smaller. I'm paying good money for DD to learn to hit the corners and keep it away from the fat part of the plate. she doesn't want to throw it fat and I don't want her to either. When I see this ump it looks like I should minimize her time and bring in another" less complicated" pitcher. these umps generally allow a larger strike zone for the less accurate pitchers.

honestly, all umps have variations on their perception of what they consider the strike zone to be so I don't really have a big issue with this. I just find it to be detrimental to a pitcher's development to only call strikes that are belt high and straight over the middle of the plate.