It’s where the ball crosses the plate. So the strike zone is a rectangle.
Not true! The strike zone is three dimensional. It includes the depth of home plate, as well as the width of home plate.
https://tht.fangraphs.com/analyzing-the-strike-zone-as-a-three-dimensional-volume/
As called by human umpires it’s 2-dimensional. We have all seen the graphic where the catcher sets up on the edge of the strike zone and a breaking pitch, by the time it hits the glove, is clearly off the plate. But on ocassion they will show an overhead shot and the pitch clips the front edge of the plate.
Umps are like hitters, too. They can only really track the pitch to a point just ahead of the plate. After that it’s an educated guess.
I don’t mind the autozone if it is indeed a hovering three dimensional shape that is height adjusted for the stance of the hitter. I want that weird rear protruding angle for big 12-6 curve balls and even eephus pitches.
I don’t think an autozone will be disruptive, the new rules that seems like they will screw a lot of things up are the pitching change/minimum batter faced and defensive shift restrictions. Those two really seem like a step too far.
Freegards