@ARCEKU21 posted:"that is what they do in college".
I think that umpire needs to go watch a college game. My experience so far with watching DIII umpires is that the strike zone is small but mostly accurate. as compared to High School. It seems to be pretty accurate over the plate, the occasional missed ball or two off the plate outside that gets called a strike, but up and down is tight. a ball below belly button to a ball above knees is pretty common. They still seem to have the same issue with good breaking balls though.
I've seen quite a few college freshman pitchers perplexed by not getting that call off the corner or the low/high strike. It's' an adjustment. They are learning they have to actually have good stuff that plays in the strike zone and have to be able to hit that corner, not just be near it.
Glad on the crackdown of dugout behavior and chirping, I won't go into all that, I've made my opinion of it pretty clear in the past.
And yes, don't grunt if you don't throw heat, you could get the same benefits of the grunt with a silent "grunt". Usually, for the guy that did it originally, it was an involuntary thing, not a teach or thing to copy. And I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on the actual effectiveness beyond if/then logic. Ryan threw hard, he grunts, if I grunt, then I'll throw hard. I believe if the grunt isn't natural, and you are purposefully doing it, you are probably also muscling up and that's counter-productive to throwing hard. Throw easy hard.