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The rules seem pretty clear that if the ball hits the batter while the ball is not in the strike zone then it is a ball. Whether the pitch would have been a strike (had it not hit the batter) or not seems irrelevant. I don't have PBUM so maybe they shed some more light on the subject.
As with much at the pro level I am sure this kind of stuff is self-correcting!
What do you do about though in youth ball? It's pretty rare a young player will deliberately get hit. But those mid-teens plus a win or die coach and we can easily see it happening. A slower F1, batter gets well forward in the batter's box and leans way in. So he's hit by the pitch. By rule it's a ball. If you take it further into TWP territory the batter could stick his hand out in front of the plate and touch 4 belt high middle of the plate pitches and get a BB. Legal sure but not at all the intent of the game or the rules.
[Edited by jxt127 on Mar 2nd, 2006 at 12:02 PM]
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