MLB strike Zone

[mick]

From USA Today

"As strike zone evolves, batters absorb baseballs"
By Mel Antonen, USA TODAY
The century-old battle between baseball's hitters and pitchers is taking on a new twist this season. This fight is over territory — about an inch, give or take a fraction — on the inside part of home plate.

Cubs star Sammy Sosa recoils as a fast ball from Pittsburgh's Salomon Torres shatters his helmet earlier this season.
By Mike Longo, AP

Hitters, who have enjoyed a decade of offensive production, have become accustomed to owning the plate and getting just as close to it as they want. Pitchers, who have been unable to use it, want that inch back.

The result, according to an analysis by USA TODAY, is that batters are getting hit with pitches at an alarming frequency: once every 98.3 plate appearances. That's an 8% increase from last year and a 47% increase from 1990.

Chicago Cubs ace Kerry Wood has hit 10 batters in the first 52 games this season, almost double the pace of last year's major league leader, who hit 17 for the season. Ten pitchers are on pace to surpass 17 hit batters.

Don't blame on the hurlers

It's not that pitchers have personal vendettas against hitters. The reason this struggle is happening has more to do with pitchers trying to take advantage of an evolving strike zone.

Top plunkers through Wednesday
Pitcher Team HB
Kerry Wood Chi. Cubs 10
Brian Lawrence San Diego 8
Garrett Stephenson St. Louis 7
Matt Clement Chi. Cubs 6
Woody Williams St. Louis 6
Chan Ho Park Texas 6
Jake Westbrook Cleveland 6
John Lackey Anaheim 6
Shawn Chacon Colorado 6
Livan Hernandez Montreal 6
Tim Wakefield Boston 5
Rick Helling Baltimore 5
Tanyon Sturtze Toronto 5
Roy Halladay Toronto 5
Vincente Padilla Philadelphia 5
Wade Miller Houston 5
Mike MacDougal Kansas City 5
Brian Duckworth Philadelphia 5
Aaron Cook Colorado 5
Mike Koplove Arizona 5
Leading hit batsmen, through Wednesday
Player Team HBP
Josh Phelps Toronto 9
Angel Berroa Kansas City 8
Fernando Vina St. Louis 8
Craig Biggio Houston 7
Jason Kendall Pittsburgh 7
Jason LaRue Cincinnati 7
• Pittsburgh Craig Wilson led majors in 2002 with 21.
• Record of 50 set, painfully, by Ron Hunt in 1971.



Commissioner Bud Selig has asked umpires to call the strike zone by the rule book — from the armpits to the knees and the 17-inch width of the plate — in an effort to speed up the game. But the zone has taken time to evolve. As a result, umpires are calling strikes on more pitches on the inside of the plate, closest to the hitters.

Hitters, who had become accustomed to leaning into the plate to reach outside pitches, are getting plunked more often.

"Pitchers are saying, 'Enough is enough,' " San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean says. "Pitchers have been giving away the inside part of the plate for too long. Now they want it back."

The shifting strike zone may be subtle, but it will mean noticeable changes to the game.

The new strike zone, with pitchers getting calls on the inside part of the plate, should result in fewer hits, more strikes, less offense, fewer walks and subsequently fewer pitching changes, which all translates into shorter, crisper games.

Games are shorter

This season, because of the changes in the strike zone calls and other speed-up measures, the average time of games is 2 hours, 46 minutes, about seven minutes faster than last season. Hits, runs and walks have all been about the same as last season.

But changes in the way baseball is played can be a glacial process. For now, the increase in hit batters is the most obvious result of the new strike zone.

In the 1990s, batters bulked up through weightlifting and the use of supplements, legal and otherwise, and were doubling and tripling their home run production. Stronger hitters were swinging at outside pitches and, instead of poking weak singles or making outs, were popping opposite-field home runs.

When they went to bat, they moved closer to the plate, wearing shin guards and padding for their elbows and forearms, almost as if they were NFL linemen. Players had no fear of getting hit as they did in the 1950s before everyone wore batting helmets.

"In the last 10 years, batters have moved closer to the plate where their hands are hanging over the middle," Chicago Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild says. "Lineup after lineup, 70% of the batters are on top of the plate. Obviously, you are going to see an increase in hit batsmen."

Bats played key role

Today's pitchers grew up learning their craft going against high school and college hitters using aluminum bats. Inside pitches are far less effective against metal bats, which don't break at the handles as their wooden counterparts do.

Throw a 90-mph fastball inside on a wooden bat, and there's a good chance the bat will break, neutralizing the batter's potential. Throw the same pitch with a batter using an unbreakable aluminum bat, and the result usually is a bloop single to the outfield.

Pitchers learned, as youths, to stay away from the inside of the plate. Now at the major league level, they aren't comfortable throwing inside.

"Pitchers are trying to throw more inside strikes, but they don't know how," Cubs manager Dusty Baker says.

Baker says this generation of major league pitchers was taught from the youth leagues on to throw to the outside of the plate. Other levels of baseball, including college, have allowed aluminum bats since the 1970s, and pitchers are unprepared for the wooden bats required in pro leagues.

Baltimore Orioles manager Mike Hargrove says hitters are equally responsible for the increase in hit batters. While pitchers have been conditioned to pitch outside from a young age, hitters have learned to lean over the plate. In baseball lingo, that's "diving."

"You have a whole generation of hitters that are diving," Hargrove says. "They can't get out of the way because they don't know how to get out of the way."

The result is more plunkings.

"Hitting has always been about figuring out what half of the plate the pitcher wants. Babe Ruth and Grover Cleveland Alexander were asking the same questions back in the 1920s," Hargrove says.

While the number of batters struck by pitches has been increasing for more than a decade, the last three seasons have seen the greatest increase. Since 2000, there has been a 19% increase in hit batters. This coincides with baseball's crackdown on the way the strike zone is called.

The strike zone has been the most elusive, if not confusing and varied, part of the game. Umpires have been allowed to interpret their own zones. By the early 1990s, the strike zone had changed into a rectangular box from a player's upper thigh to a little below his knees. It often stretched a little off the outside of the plate and would at times exclude the inside corner of the plate.

Looking over ump's shoulder

The baseball commissioner's office has become serious about making umpires return to the rule-book strike zone. The umpires, whose union lost a labor struggle with baseball at the end of the 1999 season, formed a new union but were put under more strict control by the commissioner's office. Since then the commissioner has been urging the enforcement of the strike zone, becoming more insistent each year.

Baseball regularly evaluates umpires' performance, especially how they call the strike zone, and have started using a computerized evaluation system called QuesTec in several stadiums to measure how umpires are calling the strike zone.

Umpires claim the technology is inaccurate but believe baseball is using the data to determine choice assignments and promotions. It clearly has affected how they call the strike zone.

This week Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling complained about not getting strikes called on the outside part of the plate. He said umpires have told him they believe the pitches are strikes but the machine says they're not so they won't call them. Schilling then proceeded to smash one of the QuesTec cameras near the dugout.

Says umpire supervisor Jim McKean: "The strike zone has definitely changed. We are conforming to the rule book. We brought the outside pitch in a little. Pitchers realize now that they aren't going to get that outside pitch anymore."

Tampa Bay Devil Rays catcher Toby Hall notices the change. He's caught many pitches this season just off the outside of the plate that used to be called strikes. "I've had umpires tell me they aren't calling that pitch anymore," Hall says.

In the pitchers' hands

But having that inside strike called by umpires is not enough to change the game. Pitchers must learn how to throw it.

Of the 386 pitchers on this season's Opening Day rosters, 176 had less than three years of big-league experience. Young pitchers are reluctant to admit they can't pitch inside, but coaches and managers say it is a big problem.

Pitching coaches say it usually takes three to five years for a pitcher to become a consistent winner in the big leagues. Pitching inside to wooden bats is one of the toughest adjustments.

Pittsburgh's Kris Benson, 28, in his fifth season with the Pirates, has added more inside pitches to his repertoire: "Batters are adjusting to us, so pitchers are adjusting to them. Batters are looking for pitches away. ... You've got to pitch inside to be effective."

Seattle Mariners pitcher Joel Pineiro says, "Throw the ball in. Let them know that's your plate, your little house, your little corner, and if you hit them, you hit them. You get the next guy."

The model pitchers for throwing inside are Schilling and Boston's Pedro Martinez. "Schilling throws inside strikes and keeps you away," Pirates outfielder Kenny Lofton says. "And he's not throwing at a batter. He's just pitching inside, and that's good baseball."

Martinez, who has won three Cy Young Awards, learned the value of pitching inside from talking to Hall of Famer Juan Marichal, a San Francisco Giants pitcher who played in the 1960s. Martinez says it's not easy to learn to pitch inside, but his No. 1 piece of advice to young pitchers: "Get rid of the fear."

"You can't have any fear of hitting a batter," he says. "It takes a long time for a pitcher to feel comfortable throwing inside. You can't be afraid to hit somebody. The reason you pitch inside is so that you can pitch outside and get the batters out. It's that simple."

Tempers can flare

It is simple, except when batters take offense to pitchers throwing inside. Batters aren't used to getting pitched inside so they lose their tempers and charge the mound, thinking the pitcher is trying to hit them.

Major League Baseball has implemented rules to keep teams from brawling. If an umpire thinks a pitcher is throwing at a batter, that pitcher and his manager can be ejected or given a warning.

"When I was playing, Bob Gibson could knock you down as many times as he wanted," Baker says. "But now there are warnings to keep players from fighting."

This season, warnings are up, ejections down. Umpires issued 117 warnings in 2002. This year, about a third of the way through the season, the number is at 32.

Bob Watson, baseball's vice president of field operations and a former player, is trying to keep players from fighting. He's frustrated that players don't know how to get out of the way of a pitch.

"When I came up in 1966, one of the first things Willie Mays asked me was, 'Do you know how to get out of the way of the ball?' "

[GarthB]

"Commissioner Bud Selig has asked umpires to call the strike zone by the rule book — from the armpits to the knees and the 17-inch width of the plate..."

Now that's sad. Either the commissioner of baseball does not know the rule book strike zone, or the author of the story about the strike zone didn't take the time to learn the strike zone. Must be a coach.

[cmckenna]

Now I would never defend Bud but...

From MLB.com

The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hallow beneath the knee cap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball. (For diagram of STRIKE ZONE see page 23.)

Would you not define the horizontal line as referenced above to be roughly at the armpit level??? Give or take an inch...

At the bottom of the page listed below is a picture for reference.

http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/of...strikezone.jsp

[GarthB]

"Would you not define the horizontal line as referenced above to be roughly at the armpit level??? Give or take an inch...

No I would not. At least not on normally proportioned human beings.