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2015 Strike Zone Changes


ScubaUmp
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Wanted to start a separate thread to discuss getting consistency in the zone

Strike Zone Time Line to 1996 link- http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/strike_zone.jsp

Proposed FEB 2015 MLB Strike Zone Changes-  http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2015/2/12/8031255/mlb-strike-zone-rule-book

The majority of us won't have Eric Byrnes shoving an ear wig in our ear any time soon. But for some. it is time to ADJUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all need to get on the same page, and it is page number 18 of the 2015 OBR book (page 190 on the MLB pdf) 

 Image result for image 2015 mlb strike zone

"They want the low one, so don't call the high one, that way they don't complain" That's what he said before leaving the locker room for a 5 inning, 2 hr 10 min plate. Didn't know he meant nothing above the bottom of the belt. He had the nerve to say in post "they should have saved their money with pitching like that"

We always say the pitcher needs to adjust, true. As do the "belt to the shin umpires of the 1996 strike zone. As for the guys that work Little League any division their strike zone is armpits to knees circa 1950, bring it down a bit.

This thing is huge GET THAT UP PITCH!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

 

Edited by ScubaUmp
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2015 OBR definitions: "The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball."  This language is unchanged from the prior language.

The 2014 picture had a guy in a hat and stirrups standing on dirt actually swinging the bat across the plate.  This guy is crouched with his bat over his shoulder.  Has MLB changed their definition of "batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball"? This picture would lead one to think that the strike zone has been lowered and made smaller.  And that a batter can make it smaller yet by crouching more.

Bring back the old picture, Sandy!

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(To those who read this comment before, please accept my apology.)

During an actual swing "top of the shoulders" isn't usually a horizontal line, so it's not clear what the midpoint would be.

Pujols takes his legendary swing to SoCal. (Dave Herholz)

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 hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall
be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.

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He's swinging there.  Prepared to swing would be prior to the photo wouldn't it?

Yeah, I think so. 

This 2014 batter has his shoulders at the same height.  I'm not sure if that's meant to be during a swing or a casual practice swing.

 

2014 rulebook batter.png

Edited by basejester
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This is another issue with the rules gurus - some strike zones say top of knees, some say knees, some below the knees - the top is midway between somewhere and somewhere - make them all the same.

High school generally we call the entire zone, but if you call that 'up' pitch at college you get screamed at anything more that a fist above the belt. Please just make up my mind! Pick a rule and stick with it. This is not a safety issue, so just make the zone and go with it. I realize that HS cannot always be kept to the college/pro zone, but maybe the colleges and pros need to move their zone up? NCAA is trying, just need to get the players/coaches to quit their complaining :)

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This is another issue with the rules gurus - some strike zones say top of knees, some say knees, some below the knees - the top is midway between somewhere and somewhere - make them all the same.

High school generally we call the entire zone, but if you call that 'up' pitch at college you get screamed at anything more that a fist above the belt. Please just make up my mind! Pick a rule and stick with it. This is not a safety issue, so just make the zone and go with it. I realize that HS cannot always be kept to the college/pro zone, but maybe the colleges and pros need to move their zone up? NCAA is trying, just need to get the players/coaches to quit their complaining :)

I get a kick out of the knee argument.  Honestly, I have no idea if a pitch was in the middle of the knee or in the hollow below the knee.  I'm simply not that good.  If I think the pitch was higher than the middle of the shins, I'm calling it.

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I get a kick out of the knee argument.  Honestly, I have no idea if a pitch was in the middle of the knee or in the hollow below the knee.  I'm simply not that good.  If I think the pitch was higher than the middle of the shins, I'm calling it.

If I recall correctly (an increasingly rare occurrence), you're a relatively new umpire.  If you keep at it and work on tracking the ball, you can tell where it crosses.

 

And, mid-shin is too low.

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If I recall correctly (an increasingly rare occurrence), you're a relatively new umpire.  If you keep at it and work on tracking the ball, you can tell where it crosses.

 

And, mid-shin is too low.

You are correct.  About everything you said.

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Generally, if that's what is happening, you are getting "tunnel vision" and you stop tracking the ball about 8-10 feet in front of the plate.

 

Get someone to help you track it all the way.

A couple of weeks ago my partner gave me this same feedback and I've been working pretty hard on it since. Today's games were much better and I felt locked in.  I was picking up the outside corner with ease and even got some compliments from some of the parents.  Tomorrow I have two men's games, so we'll see how it goes.

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If ANY part of the ball crossed ANY part of the plate in ANY part of the zone you have a STRIKE! ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!  

All this crap about how the catchers catch it be damned!  That's for borderline stuff and even then I could give a flying F*#K. How they catch it may influence me if I'm not sure it's a strike. But if I'm sure it was in the zone somewhere then I call strike. 

I can take whatever whining they want to call out, once. Then I warn. I do not restrict in FED for balls and strikes. Ever. (Stupid ass rule that doesn't work.) Then I eject. 

The ignore portion includes my joke to catchers about dugouts being second worst place to watch a ball game after parking lots. Haven't had to eject since I started using that joke. Amazing game management technique for me. 

Be a man.  Be an umpire with balls. Establish the zone and take no SH*#  and offer no quarter for whiners and bitchers. 

My .02.  YMMV. 

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To add to what Majordave is saying, please stop talking about Fight Club. When I was a kid playing and umpiring we understood you didn't ask, (argue), about balls & strikes. Now somehow coaches think they can ask about every pitch that doesn't go their way. We only have ourselves to blame. If we all just shut it down and refuse to talk about balls & strikes coaches would stop asking. The other team would not be worried they were losing an advantage and would stop asking. Any legitimate reasons for wanting to know where I thought a pitch was can be answered by F2 or B1. "Sorry coach we don't discuss balls & strikes" Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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If ANY part of the ball crossed ANY part of the plate in ANY part of the zone you have a STRIKE! ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!  

All this crap about how the catchers catch it be damned!  That's for borderline stuff and even then I could give a flying F*#K. How they catch it may influence me if I'm not sure it's a strike. But if I'm sure it was in the zone somewhere then I call strike. 

I can take whatever whining they want to call out, once. Then I warn. I do not restrict in FED for balls and strikes. Ever. (Stupid ass rule that doesn't work.) Then I eject. 

The ignore portion includes my joke to catchers about dugouts being second worst place to watch a ball game after parking lots. Haven't had to eject since I started using that joke. Amazing game management technique for me. 

Be a man.  Be an umpire with balls. Establish the zone and take no SH*#  and offer no quarter for whiners and bitchers. 

My .02.  YMMV. 

WOW!

Are you really saying presentation mechanics by F2 don't matter on corner zone pitches? So if it is a marginal pitch and F2 pulls the pitch you striking it anyway?

I completely agree with you, establish the zone, be consistent and don't put up with any garbage from the dugout. But don't over do it, and next year year write down all your FED warnings before you eject HC's from the dugout. 

 

 

 

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I judge pitchers. Not catchers. These days, in some games, strikes are so rare I'm not going to lose one because of a SH*#ty catcher. So, YES, most emphatically I call STRIKES, on anything that goes through that zone in my judgment.  This includes borderline pitches that the catcher botches up. 

I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what they think of me as an umpire. I KNOW what a strike is. I KNOW I am a pretty competent and at least a decent umpire.  I get strikes and I move games along as much as I can. I don't stretch the zone to ridiculous limits.   However, if a catcher makes a pitch on a border look good and it's a bit off the edges (in or out) then I reward that IF the pitcher isn't "all over the place" (think Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham "How was he Millie?" "Well, he effs like he pitches. Kinda all over the place.") But, I do not take strikes away due to catchers. It's usually the pitcher crossing them up or just not being able to pitch to the spot they desire to pitch to anyway.

I am perfectly comfortable with how I work a ball game. I work A LOT of ball games a year from D2 conference ball down to 14's travel ball and I always have a full schedule and usually get the "good/great game blue" from both teams and fans as I leave a field.  Not bragging, I just have confidence in myself and my abilities on my strike zone and plate work.

As KenBAZ said, I don't discuss the zone. I ask my catchers to share my comments with their coach. I haven't ejected or even officially "warned" for balls and strikes in a high school or a college game in so long I can't remember. I did warn once in a 14 year old daddy coach tourney game early this summer. 

Do whatever you want. I'm telling you what works for me. Try it if you're having trouble with coaches and strikes or non-strikes. 

 

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This is what I try and do. 1. Call strikes. 2. On borderline pitches call strikes. 3. If a pitch misses and there is any doubt where it missed, tell F2 where you had it. 4. Tell F2 you won't talk to anyone but him about balls & strikes so if his bench or F1wants to know anything, they should talk to him. 5. Tell F2 before we start he can help F1 by keeping strikes looking like strikes. Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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Are you really saying presentation mechanics by F2 don't matter on corner zone pitches? So if it is a marginal pitch and F2 pulls the pitch you striking it anyway?

 

1) Yes, it doesn't matter, assuming I saw the pitch.  2) There's not such thing as a "marginal pitch."

 

IMO, some of us (and I'm not necessarily implying that this is you, jkumpire) have gone way overboard on the "the way the catcher catches the pitch matters."

 

As I like to teach it, "I try very hard not to let the catcher fool me.  But, I'm not dumb enough to think that it doesn't happen.  And, a catcher can fool me into striking a ball or into balling a strike."

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Ken and Major,

Thank you for the kind posts. But to be clear, you are not going to strike a curve ball that F2 short hops because he is too far back in the catcher's box right? Your language is saying that presentation mechanics don't ever matter to you, but on some level they have to matter. I get every strike I possibly can, even when F2 yanks his glove across half the plate after catching the ball because that's what his coach wants him to do. 

But if F2 is pulling every pitch three inches to make it looks like it crossed the corner you are not going to call it a strike, correct?

 

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@jkumpire

My philosophy is sort of like the crappy video see a balk.....call a balk. I see a strike, I call it. Regardless of what F2 does to it or with it, if I think it's a strike..... I call it.

It's a philosophy of mine.  I get strikes, punto! 

I've even called strikes that some sorry F2's let through straight to my belly (current MLB pitcher Robbie Ross, Jr.-RedSox got me as a HS Senior in 2006-Cubs scout there with a radar gun said "the one that got you was 87.  He's hit 94." When I asked him how fast the kid was throwing.), my inner thighs-too numerous to count, my biceps-again too numerous to count, chest protector-too numerous to count.......if it's a strike. I call it.  

If it's borderline but not a strike and F2 does a good job receiving it and F1 has been consistently around zone then I usually get those too. If it's not a strike but he's "pulling" it three inches I tell him to "cut that SH*# out.  If you stick those I just might call strikes on some of them."  The competent ones pick up on that and I get even more strikes. Some don't get it and they don't get strikes.  

Curveballs, especially the true 12-6 and the "heavy", late-moving ones that cause F2 to turn his mitt under or get dropped and the "backdoor" ones that actually cross the plate from the outside in the side/middle of the plate and not the front edge .......can be troublesome......but, I get those too if I think it's a strike.  

I hear some bitching on occasion but they usually figure it out and start swinging......and making contact.

I say again. It is a philosophy I've developed and adhered to. It works for me. I work 250-350 games a year. I work more plates than bases because I like it and am confident in my abilities. When there are games of significance such as HS district and/or college conference matchups, HS regional or any other level of playoffs or tourney championships I am usually assigned to work the plate by my assigners. On regular games, if my partner defers to me for plate or bases, I take plate. 

You may disagree with me. This philosophy is not for everyone but it works for me. YMMV.  

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I have no problem calling a breaking ball that bounces a strike if I think its a strike.  I miss a few strikes here and there, usually those are early in a game when I'm still getting mentally into the game.  There are days that my brain takes more time to warm up than others.  Craptastic pitchers tend to mess me up more than anything else, especially if one F1 is dealing and the other F1 can't even bounce one over the plate. 

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I had that the other night. 25+ men's league game. Losing pitcher was good but winning starter and his closer were great. Crafty would be my word for starter. Just fast enough.  Very accurate, changed speed and location and always around the plate. Curve, fastball and change up all working well. In command would be the scout's word for him.  Closer was pure gas   and smoke.  I'm guessing 95 on some pitches.  I didn't understand what he was doing in this league with that kind of velocity.  My partner had just worked an invitation only showcase at Kaufmann Stadium the night before with almost every MLB team represented with scouts and the scoreboard radar on so he's seen 90 plus pitching within 24 hours.  He comes to me after first inning gas man throws and says it's as fast and harder/faster than anything he'd seen the night before. I knew it was up there but not exactly sure other than I have no doubt it was above 90.  The buzz sound the ball made sounded just like a mad hornet buzzing by.  

Losing team starter went the whole way and was good but not nearly as accurate.  

Some grumbling from losing team when I rang them up and when calls didn't go their way for their pitcher. Still a very competitive, 1:45 full 7 inning, 3-2 final score ballgame. 

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I'll work 250+ plates this year and how a catcher receives is of huge importance to me. Not necessarily to if I call a pitch a strike but to how much grief I get for calling strikes. I've told youth catchers, "stop pulling pitches, you're confusing the fans" or "that pitch is a strike, when you yank it in it makes it look you didn't agree with my call". Last night in a good Men's league game I called a couple of breaking ball strikes that the catcher dropped. I have to listen to the offense complain and I just asked F2 to help me & his pitcher out by holding them. I let every catcher I work behind know I want to call strikes and he can help by keeping them looking like strikes. Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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