You're Setting Up for a Ball

Last night, we had a situation I've never encountered and I've coached a long time. The umpire told our catcher that she was setting up for a ball and he was not going to give her a call until she stopped. Pitcher has a very good curve and better than average screwball. She is a "horizontal" pitcher which can be troubling if she misses her spots. Regardless of where the pitch was, he called it a ball until she set up with her mitt behind the white of the plate. When asked about this, the reply was, "I do college games." No matter how many times the umpire was asked if the pitch was catching the plate, he replies in one of two ways. Either "I do college games," or, your catcher's setting up for a ball. I know that the umpires on this site would at least have a decent discussion with a coach over this. I made the comment last night after it was suggested I was going to get tossed, and believe me, I was never loud or disrespectful, I never yelled from the dugout, that I would not get tossed from a game. I felt so angry but left it alone.

Sounds a bit like the umpire we had a few summers ago. He told our pitcher that he wanted to her give those pitches, but "they only caught the corner."

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I've never heard that either. What difference does it make to the umpire where the catcher sets up? The rules don't define the strike zone and then add "unless the catcher sets up for a ball." The ball either crosses the plate or it doesn't. Seems pretty black and white to me.

If he does do college games he must not do them at very good colleges. I kinda thought the objective was to throw balls that start out as strikes, not throw strikes that get left over the plate.

Cannonball said:

Last night, we had a situation I've never encountered and I've coached a long time. The umpire told our catcher that she was setting up for a ball and he was not going to give her a call until she stopped. Pitcher has a very good curve and better than average screwball. She is a "horizontal" pitcher which can be troubling if she misses her spots. Regardless of where the pitch was, he called it a ball until she set up with her mitt behind the white of the plate. When asked about this, the reply was, "I do college games." No matter how many times the umpire was asked if the pitch was catching the plate, he replies in one of two ways. Either "I do college games," or, your catcher's setting up for a ball. I know that the umpires on this site would at least have a decent discussion with a coach over this. I made the comment last night after it was suggested I was going to get tossed, and believe me, I was never loud or disrespectful, I never yelled from the dugout, that I would not get tossed from a game. I felt so angry but left it alone.

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I probably would have come back with the smartass remark "Which college for the blind games do you do....", and then I would have gone and sat in the parking lot....

Yeah...it's stuff like this that always pushes me to the line, I would simply ask very sarcastically "What is the definition of a strike?" I did umpire for about 3 years and if a coach had asked I probably would have shot back with "well the definition of a strike is a ball that in the judgement of the the umpire has crossed oh oh oh wait a minute I think we can just stop right there coach don't you?"

I just file this one under the category of running across an umpire that has failed to follow this rule:
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain

The strike zone is where Blue is calling it... TODAY no different than blue not giving high strikes to a rise ball pitcher or low strikes to a drop ball pitcher. It's frustrating but you (as a coach, pitcher, catcher - or hitter for that matter) have to deal with it. That being said, Blue should call the SZ consistently. I wonder how she asked. Did she say "She hit her spot" - that would be a reason for his answer about setting up for a ball.

If he is judging balls and strikes by the catcher's glove, he needs to work on his craft.

Full disclosure - I ump as well as coach.

When I umpire I don't miss too many pitches that are strikes, we all know that the strike zone is where it crosses the plate not where the catcher catches the pitch. However, I will say as an umpire there are times a catcher can make it hard to call a pitch a strike. And I do know umpires that are more worried about perception and to be honest it is a real thing and a concern at times. What I mean is if it looks like a strike it's easier for me to call it a strike. If your catcher is setting up 6" outside and never moves her mitt perception is that pitch was 6" outside. If she has her mitt under the ball and holds it up on a low strike it's a lot easier to call it a strike than if she pushes her mitt to the ground as she catches it. If she drags it over 4-5" moving her entire arm as she catches it on the outside corner vs rolling the mitt with only a little wrist movement. Lastly if she sets up on the inside corner and the pitch breaks to the outside corner and she has to almost dive to catch the ball it looks real bad when you call that a strike. Now I have called all of these strikes in games before because they have crossed the plate prior to reaching the catcher, but I have also taken some grief for doing so. And I do see that the higher the level the more this perception impacts some umpires. Again is it right? NO call the zone no matter where it gets caught! But there is a thing called believability and it appears this umpire has taken that to a whole nother level!!

This umpire was out of line in telling that to a coach as a reason he wasn't calling strikes.
Dave covered things very well from an umpire point of view and he's a good one.....

I will say that catchers can more often make a good pitch look bad than the other way around.

Lastly...I can't tell you the number of times I have called a ball and hear...."What was wrong with that, Blue? The glove never moved, my pitcher hit her spot!"
Well, yes, coach, but the spot was set up 6 inches off the plate.....

Comocoach said:

He told our pitcher that he wanted to her give those pitches, but "they only caught the corner."

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Oh jeez.

The OP's ump sounds annoying but this is way worse. Potential responses:

"Let her hit, she's only had 3 strikes"

"The ball only beat her to 1st by a step"

"The ball only bounced once before we caught it. Thats an out, right?"

"They only ended up with one more run than us. I call it a tie."

I was still frustrated this morning and so, the thread. My frustration is the lack of a conversation. The Umpire was on the defensive right away and came with his credentials instead of trying to have a discussion. I was in no way belligerent or even noticeable to the average fan watching. The idea that I might be tossed shocked me.