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Originally Posted by illiniwek8
I guess my question is why should he benefit by getting a ball called and the pitcher be penalized for not getting a strike due to the batters actions..........Shouldn't the batter be penalized for initiating this action? .....I think calling it an automatic strike would stop these batters from "wearing" those pitches. In retrospect, I think we should have ruled strike 3 on that batter and let him take his bruised left shoulder to the bench and tell his teamates that he was dumb to intentionally try to "wear" that pitch.
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I think you are veering into dangerous territory here. The moment you buy into the 'I need to keep everything 'fair' between the teams' and 'how can I call this to 'send a message' stuff, you are going to buy a major-league sh*tstorm of inconsistency, and be wearing coaches like a necklace, inning after inning.
IMO we are not there to "make things fair (our definition, of course)" , because that is a slippery slope that has no definite end and ultimately satisfies no one. You are dead once you have a coach call your assignor about a call, and it was a call unsupported by the rulebook but you made it "to be fair."
We are there to ensure the rules/casebook/AOs are followed by both teams, consistently, from the first pitch to the last. If the rules result in a temporary advantage to one side in a particular instance, so be it. No one will argue that the Rules of Baseball are perfect.