Gray Area Strikes
 

Have been contemplating the gray area for 2009.
At lower levels of baseball I call every strike I can resonably get.
As the talent level moves up, my strike zone tightens up.

High School Varsity
Pitch low in the strike zone that could be called either way. (Gray Area)
You want to be consistant so would you lean toward strikes or balls and why.

High in the strike zone?
Inside/Outside??

Before someone claims the strike zone is the strike zone, umpires are human and you have to decide what you just observed and your decision will be inaccurate at times.

I'm tight without trying. I've grown up as a hitter, and a hitting instructor and my son's a big slugger, so I've naturally developed into a hitter's umpire. I have heard guys who say they call the plate, plus the width of two balls on either side. I virtually always call only a strike a strike, and I don't care how long the game is. I know that at some of the higher levels, the pitchers expect a wider zone, and I hope not to make those guys throw too many pitches, but I take the strike zone seriously and I don't want to cheat 18 hitters.

High School varsity and above:

Corners: I call the ball that's scraping the black a strike. If the guy nails his spot a couple of inches off the corner (3 in. tops) and the catcher sticks it, it's a strike. Otherwise, I ball it.

Bottom: If the top of the ball appears to pass at the bottom of the guy's kneecap, I have a strike.

Top: If the bottom of the ball appears to scrape the top of the belt, I have a strike.

I also think I am a little less apt to have a strike on a high fastball than a high bender.

I do hear the C-word a hell of a lot: Consistent.

I think Finnerty has a good zone philosophy and....
 

way of explaining it.

I subscribe to the same zone as Finnerty for high school varsity, legion and college.


I will move it up for younger players to just under the letters of the shirt (approximately one-half the distance between the armpits and the belt).

An NCAA D-1 head coach (SEC) (former pitching coach) and I discussed strike zones this fall during fall ball. He had asked the other umpires working to call any pitch that they had even the slightest bit of doubt about- a strike. He looked at me and said, you I don't need to ask you that. I considered it a complement. Of course he had seen me before and knew my philosophy.

Sometimes the college hitters early in the game will ask "is that as low as it gets?" when i call a lower end of the zone strike. I usually tell them if it is. If it isn't I will say "I'm not sure yet".

So far no complaints from anyone.

My opinion and advice-call everything that is close a strike and later in the game you don't have to call anything close as the batters become hitters and swing the bats. I usually have five or six called K3's in the first 3 or 4 innings of a game (both teams) and after that, rarely do I have to ring anyone up.

I like it Kevin. I also try to ring up every pitch I consider borderline, unless F2 makes it look like a ball.

strikes baby!

Every ball that leaves the pitcher's hand is a strike unless it proves itself to be otherwise!

Really? None? Never? No one has ever complained about a strike or ball call, EVER?

You da man!!!!!

Wow, and I thought I was good!;)

If, as you wrote, I saw the pitch being in the strike zone, it's a strike. I don't see pitches in the strike zone as being in a gray area.

Regarding borderline pitches I would agree with Kevin F.

Maybe because you write paragraph after paragraph of nonsense, did you ever consider that? Hmmmmm???????

Sounds good to me.

Call strikes. Yes, be consistent, and don't get ridiculous, but call strikes. Don't think about being a hitter. Pause, Read, React. Your timing is the key.

I tend to call pitches along the same lines as Kevin. I try to give a little on the corners, but I think I tend to be tight. It's something I'm always working on. My zone has been called consistent for many years by many different people, so I guess the work I put into my plate game has been paying off.

Lastly, Ozzy offers some good advice I've heard more than once.

Thank you, gentlemen.

The validation feels pretty good, that's for sure.

We were told us at a college camp that the plate is 17" and the ball is 2.5" wide so really you just expanded the plate by 5" wider, cause any part of the ball that touches the plate should be called a strike right? So if that outside pitch touched the outside of the edge of the plate it should be called a strike right?

Plus you can even go almost another ball outside of that, the coaches and fans cant see inside and outside just up and down in the strike zone right?