Originally Posted by IEBSBL: True, but maybe an umpire can chime in that has some youth (below high school) experience. I have heard that an umpire in youth ball is taught to call an outside pitch (the width of) two balls off the plate a strike, but not call an inside on the corner pitch a strike. And kids learn to throw to the strike zone. For "safety" purposes...
More importantly it forces hitters to speed their barrel up to get to the inside pitch. Once the hitter has sped his barrel up he opens himself up to not being able to stay back on off speed or even a fastball to the outside of the plate. The reason the inside of the plate is neglected is because most youth ball coaches do not understand this and don't want their pitchers to leave a pitch over the plate or hit the batter. Unfortunately most HS coaches I have run across feel the same.