crazy strikeout
 

I have never seen this before.

https://screengrabber.deadspin.com/w...-yo-1795606023

Wow. Good reminder to hold the call until the ball is in the catchers glove.

Live action I highly doubt I call that a strike.
There was no attempt at the ball and it was a practice swing "after" the pitch....

Actually, he swings before the ball crosses the foul line so the pitch had not ended. The pitch did not end until the catcher picked it up. The batter could have run to first after the swing since it was technically a dropped third strike.

I understand all of that - I'm telling you what my judgement would have been live.

I agree that at the high school level, the best call would be a "ball". But, since this was a minor league game and these guys are graded on their performance and rule knowledge, Kuddos for making the correct call and not the easy call.

It was a pitch. The batter swung. There is no "it's only a strike if the pitch is within x feet of the batter" rule.

It is a judgement call and in my judgement he did not strike at the pitch.

How far away from the batter is your demarcation point?

Can a batter claim they didn't mean to strike at a pitch? After all they know and you have to speculate. :D

Batter thought he was being funny. He swung on purpose. Call it.

No attempt to hit the ball = no swing in my judgment. However, todd66's comment about grading is a valid point.

I've seen batters swing at wild-pitch third strikes and run to first. It's obvious he missed on purpose so he can run to first. But it's still a strike.

Then why didn't he actually run to first? This kid just wasn't paying attention to what he was doing while standing in the batter's box.

So you agree that he did not attempt to strike at the pitch...

I'm not even thinking of calling that anything other than a strike. Doing otherwise is trying too hard to be a rule book pioneer.

What's the expected call when a pitch is thrown and the bat is swung? A strike. Stick with that.

I think he was trying to be funny by swinging, but someone brought it up, I always was curious when/if ever is the "statute of limitations" on a thrown pitch, so batter recognizes ball is past C, can they then swing and run? We have all seen batters way late on pitches and literally swing when ball is in glove? I guess this comes down to intent to hit the ball?