to me, if a player is ducking out of the way of a pitch and the bat goes over the plate i do not call it a strike sice he is not attempting to swing at the ball.

I had a very similar sitch the other night.  Batter ducked away, but the ball hit the bat.  It went foul, and I ruled foul.  Had to.

But in your case, if the umpire wants to ring up a strike because he believes there was a "swing", he must also judge it was a bona fide "offer" at the pitch.

Sounds to me (HTBT) that this was a defensive move by the batter to avoid getting clocked.  Got to give every benefit to the batter.

Yeah, you rule on the merits of the pitch, but this sounds like it was clearly out of the zone.  Should have been a ball.  This was clearly NOT an offer.

Last year at Kutno in the Euro Regionals, I had a case where an inside pitch came in while the batter had squared to bunt.  He jumped up right in front of me, so I was blocked out.  He got HBP'ed.  While the Polish nurse was applying cold CFC's to the kid's hands, I asked U1, "Did he offer at that pitch?"  Answer:  "Yes he did!"

Batter stayed at the plate with a strike to the count (and a sore hand.)  But the Umpire crew had determined it was a bona fide offer and not a defensive crouch.

There is a judgeable difference!

Mike CUVA