umpire opening the strike zone

Question
once again we had an allstar game we were playing del rio tx. we had played them on our first game of the tournament bit them by a score of 33 to 5. we played them yesterday 7-4-06 had different umpire which was notified by the la pryor coach about del rio not having pitchers. the first game was officialed by umpires that used the TASO caps . did not give nobody a break either you earn the strike or you didn't. well anyway this umpire comes in and tells our coach i am going to open the strike zone. i answered how can you oen a strike zone it is either a strike or not. he answered well i am. he knows that our pitcher can pitch be has called other games for us. does the umpire have the right to open a strike zone like that? i have been in many baseball games and no that different official have different strike zones. but no such thing as opening a strike zone. like real low balls or completely out of the strike zone ball which he left some of our in a strike out.because they knew it was suppose to be a ball.

Answer
Hello Janie

Umpires work under a code of ethics to be fair and unbiased and I trust they will call a game to the best of their abilities so I wouldn抰 take it in the wrong way. I抳e had a plate umpires say that to me before and I would simply prepare my batters accordingly.   

It抯 more common to see this in recreation or developing leagues however many plate umpires will open the strike zone to a struggling pitcher regardless of the level of play and regardless if they tell the coaches or not. Balls and strikes are judgment calls by the umpire so they can抰 be contested.

From my experience a plate umpire that opens the strike zone to a struggling pitcher will not call strikes on what he/she judges are obvious balls however he/she is just letting you know that if a hittable ball skirts his/her normal strike zone be prepare for it to be called a strike.