Neighborhood Play

[LMan]

Originally Posted by rei

Good point!

Just want to check. Are you one of those guys that won't call a curve ball caught at the belt?

I call those every time.

What about the fastball at the letters.

Bottom half of the letters? often

..and yes, I've caught some grief for both. Meh.

It is hittable, and hittable for POWER! The low crap is bad for quick games. The angle the ball comes off the bat means a lot of hooks and spins, which means bad fielding.

So, shall we just call the WHOLE strike zone? LOL Nobody is going to do that, except in Little League.

I never said that, in fact, my post implies I would not. I won't call a dirt ball a strike whether it nicked the zone or not. Eeeeeeeeehhveryone knows a dirt ball is too low, Blue!

In my mind, a bit of play in the strike zone is very different than phantom plays. There is no way for the offense to play against phantom plays, and these phantom plays are always "given" when the defense seems to have enough time to do them right.

With strike zone difference, it is a matter of the offense being able to work with/against it. A pitch 3" outside is VERY hittable for power. The low crap in the dirt is virtually un-hittable unless the batter gets VERY lucky.

So, while I will require a catcher to present a good looking strike to get a call, I will not give the phantom tag and neighborhood play. I think they are bad for learning baseball.

I will agree with a bit of your philosophy regarding the strike zone being a matter of interpretation, whereas the pivot man in a DP either touched the bag, or he did not.

However, I would reject your stated rationale for your zone...it all reads as coaching to me, and I don't see a consulting fee tacked onto my game check. {puts on his Rut hat} I could care less what's 'hittable' and what's not, and it's not my job to care about the players learning baseball techniques. That's the coaches job. If the teams learn a little about the rules along the way, its a bonus.