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The correct mechanic in professional baseball on an uncaught third strike is for the plate umpire to point straight out with his right arm to indicate that the ball was not caught. If it is a very close call as to whether or not the catcher caught the ball or if it hit the ground, the plate umpire will usually make a regular "safe" mechanic sign to sell the call. With that being said, the guys in the bigs can basically do what they want, but this is the correct procedure for the rest of pro ball.
With regard to the point about umpires verbalizing where a pitch was: for instance by saying, "ball-that's out," or "ball-that's down." This is acceptable in pro ball. I believe the upside to doing this is to let everyone (ie.the dugout) know where that close pitch was. It shows that the umpire is recognizing it was close, but he knows exactly where that pitch missed and is confident of such. On the other hand, the downside of saying where the pitches missed opens you up to comments from the dugout saying that the ball wasn't "out" or wasn't "in." Obviously, you would only want to do this a few times a game, not on every pitch.
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