Attended a clinic recently and we had a D1 umpire giving instruction on how wide we should consider strikes. He explained that on inside pitches at the knees, he calls strikes 2 or 3 inches off the plate. Then went on to say that for batters crowding he'd even go farther in than that, calling strikes that were barely an inch off the batter's box, especially for those popping their feet back to sell that it was an inside pitch to show them up. He stated that coaches can't see in and out and he could "get" those to be strikes all day as if it were his goal to make as many pitches as he could to be strikes. It was a well done clinic but I was a bit troubled by those comments and train of thought from an umpire working that level.
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