It’s my impression that when a batter crouches down in the strike zone, the zone measures based on his measurements in the crouch, not based on his measurements if he was standing straight. (I recall that Ricky Henderson was said to get a lot of walks because he batted out of a deep crouch.)
Question is what happens if a guy walks up to the plate and crouches down to where his shoulders touch his knees, such that it’s impossible to throw him a strike. Is there anything in the rules to accommodate this? Or do the umpires have some sort of discretion in such cases?
In theory, a guy could make a career out of learning how to bat out of an extremely deep crouch. If he wanted to swing at a given pitch, he would quickly straighten himself up and swing, but if not then just get walked.
WAG I believe the strike zone is determined by a player’s stance as he swings; he can contort himself any way he wants while standing in the batter’s box waiting for the pitch.
Now, if he can figure out how to consistently swing the bat while crouched all the way down, making good contact and getting the ball into play, well I say go for it.
And considering that the observed strike zone, as evidenced by actual balls-and-strikes calls, seems to often have nothing whatsoever with any landmarks in the batter’s box. I think it’s just whatever the voices in the ump’s head tells him to call.
When the 3’ 7"-tall Eddie Gaedel made his only MLB plate appearance, he was instructed to get into a tight crouch just as the OP suggests. He walked on four pitches.
Lots of players have crouched or had weird stances like Rickey Henderson. Rod Carew would sort of lean forward and back and lay his bat out like he was trying to balance something on it. He didn’t walk a lot, though. Jeff Bagwell spread his legs out incredibly far - further than most guys have their feet apart when they’re done swinging - so far that it probably lowered his height to Hendersonesque size. The “lean wayyyyy back” stances were very popular in the 1980s. The Blue Jays had a great platoon at third base, maybe the best ever, of Rance Mulliniks and Garth Iorg, both of whom leaned so far back they could have struck up a conversation with the fans sitting behind home plate.
Yeah, pretty much. I honestly don’t think the strike zone for 5’9" Dustin Pedroia is any different than it is for 6’5" Jayson Werth. If you think about it, Werth is 8" taller and with home plate at 17" wide, he should have 136 sq in of extra strike zone compared to Pedroia. However, I do not believe that to be at all the case. In practice, the strike zone is the arbitrary zone that the ump decides it is.
Gibson would never have gotten the chance because if you actually squatted down with your knees at your shoulders, the umpire would suggest you stand up or else invite you to find something else to do with your afternoon. If you could squat the strike zone out of existence guys would have done it by now and they’re create a more specific rule overnight.
The practical interpretation of the rule is that whatever stance a batter takes, he or she must come to the plate to make a good faith effort to hit the ball, and the strike zone is determined by the position they are in immediately before moving the bat to strike the ball. Rickey Henderson might have crouched down, but he had more hits than walks and hit 297 home runs so he wasn’t up there screwing around.
