Ball or strike on attempt to avoid HBP

[Guest RMJ]

Little League rules; To avoid a pitch that is 2 feet inside, a right-handed batter jumps back while rotating leftward (such that the batter's left foot moves toward third base), loses his footing, and falls backward out of the batter's box.  The batter's rotation and fall causes the bat to drop below the batter's shoulder and rotate across the plate.  The ball does not touch the bat.

 

Ball or strike?

[BalkHawk]

Mlb 2.0

A STRIKE is a legal pitch when so called by the umpire, which—

(a) Is struck at by the batter and is missed;

When you judge a check swing, the criterion is aggressive attempt or not.

The batter made no attempt to strike at the ball.

Ball.

Of course, the same play could be seen differently by the next umpire. He would describe it different in his op.

[afaber12]

I would tend to think that most umpires will give the benefit of the doubt to the batter as to whether or not he swung when a pitch goes through the batter's box.

Of course if it winds up being a curve ball and actually goes through the zone...

[Dash Riprock]

Ball.

[Rich Ives]

Ball.

 

The bat crossing the plate means nothing.  It's only a strike if the batter was attempting to hit the pitch.

[noumpere]

Way too  many umpires, players and coaches take the "bat crosses the plate" guideline (and wording in NCAA) too literally.  The guideline is assuming some sort of "normal" attempt.

[TStokes97]

I generally do 10U when I have the plate so I normally would not call a strike when a batter attempts to avoid a pitch in older ages a strike might be a possibility

[th3]

I generally do 10U when I have the plate so I normally would not call a strike when a batter attempts to avoid a pitch in older ages a strike might be a possibility

i actually think you see an attempt to hit (strike) on a ball that hits them much more at 10u than at an older level..