Quote:
Originally Posted by jicecone
From what I hear this is becoming more of the norm. Not quite sure I agree with doing play by play but if it works for some, that is their business. I believe that most of the time when someone is asking the location of the pitch, it is because they don't agree with your call. Especially a catcher or pitcher. Just my opinion.
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There's a difference between asking to get disagreement across and asking in order to do a better job. A good catcher asks because they want to know where you're working so they can work within your view. If you're not seeing the low and out pitch, there's no reason for him to pound those spots if it's not going to work. If he's just asking to be an a-hole, then "outside of the zone" is a simple answer.
A little context simply lets them (hitter included) know where you have those borderline spots. Do you have that pitch low or do you have it out? For a ball at the knee but a tad outside, "ball, that's out" means to bring that back in and you got it.
If you're going to verbalize positions, you have to work hard on consistency because you're giving out more information. When you ring someone up on a pitch further out than your last "ball, out", you're going to catch some heat.
I've been verbalizing for a while now and it works well for me. At higher levels the catchers seem to expect it.