strike zone

[PeteBooth]

Originally Posted by ToGreySt

When I was getting patched to work high school ball, my trainers had me work on a pitching machine and taped my work. Their initial reaction about me was my zone was too small, they took me aside and said that I can give them an extra ball's width on the inside and two on the outside, both of those conform to what they called the "high school" strike. my question is this, if your zone gets widened for high school and lower levels (mine sure does), at what level do you use the strict interpretation of the zone? do you wait till college ball? or high school playoffs?

Joe

Forget about the book definition of the strike zone.

The game is for the participants, therefore, the strike zone is defined as that which is accepted by the leagues we service.

Therefore, it seems as though your instructors were defining the zone on how that particular HS association wants it called.

Also, IMO, you do not have to differentiate ball widths whether inside / ouside because of the metal bats. Even if a player gets jammed, you often see those hits we refer to as "the metal bat" hit which if wood were used, the bat would probably crack and a weak groundout or pop-up. Therefore, I give the same width on both sides when metal bats are used.

With the exception of high calibur ball my suggestion is to have a "liberal" zone meaning there's not too much you as a PU can do if the pitch is too high or too low but you can expand the zone. Make the batters swing and you will find that the game has a better flow to it.

Also, with the exception of PRO ball most leagues do not like a "postage" for a zone.

Pete Booth