Foul or HBP?

[mike2]

By ASA rules.
Batter is in batter's box. Batter has knob of bat over the inside portion of home plate.
Pitcher pitches. Batter does not make motion to swing for the ball or move. The ball hits the knob of the bat, a slight chance it might have skimmed the finger. Ball goes into foul territory. Is that a foul ball or HBP?

I had this happen to our pitcher. The batter was awarded the base.

 

[honus14]

If it hit (or even "skimmed") the batter before hitting the bat, it's a HBP. Whether the base is awarded or not depends on the umpire's application of the "intent to avoid" rule, and whether the umpire judges the ball to have been in the strike zone (if it was, it's a dead ball strike).

If it hit the bat first, that's a foul.

Hitting the hands is no different from hitting any other part of the batter.

 

[David Carter]

When I umped this was usually a judgement call that came down to what did it sound like and how did the ball bounce off the knob.

Loud ding and hard bounce foul or in some cases fair ball, funny thud followed by a slow rolling ball and usually an instant reaction from girl of pain HBP. Same with intent to avoid...did she lean into it a little or did she flinch away but just could not get away fast enough?

As a coach if it goes against me I'm going to come out and talk to the ump and get his interpretation but just not get very worked up about it since it is all judgement with way too many variables.

Given everything you stated was exactly how the ump saw it and hands were in the strike zone (which usually they are high if you think about it)...a dead ball strike would have been the right call

 

[mike2]

The call wouldn't have made much of a difference to the outcome of the game. We didn't contest the call.

The girl wasn't motioning for her hand being hurt. She had the look of surprise to get the base. The plate ump discussed it with field ump and awarded the HBP.

I wanted to get some information if it happens again in the future.