Robot Umps Are Not The Answer

[Skipscards]

I've seen Terminator.

[fulltritty]

Originally Posted by Americards

maybe get robot fans

Well, they already had cardboard cutout fans during COVID.

[fulltritty]

Originally Posted by SupermanBrandon

Im voting for Robot Umps just to simply stop catchers from "framing" a pitch that's 6 inches off of the plate. The glove movement is awful to watch.

Yes. I can't wait for this ridiculous "art" to die.

[Lonewolf]

Robot umps ARE the answer. I'm tired of these crybaby, thin-skinned umps calling pitches 4 inches off the plate (or that much above/below the zone) a strike.

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by jduds

The only argument against them that I agree with is that they'd devalue the art of a catcher framing a pitch. There are guys that have made careers off of this skill and it'd be sad to lose that. I'd get over it quickly though.

Not sad at all. It's annoying, and some catchers WAY overdo it. To the point, it's just stupid to see how much their glove moves to get into the strike zone.

Austin Hedges and Martin Maldonado are two catchers who move the glove around like they are having a seizure to try and get a strike call.

[cholodolo]

Originally Posted by JoshMN

Also, did you guys call your own balls and strikes when you played wiffle ball as kids, or did you set up a "robot", i.e., a lawn chair to serve as an imperfect but 100% consistent strike zone.

My neighborhood fights dropped to zero when we figured that out. Ball hits the chair it's a strike. No arguments.

This guy gets it.

We are attempting to remove the judgement and personalities of these temperamental clowns behind the plate -- AKA THE UMP SHOW.

The lawn chair wasn't ejecting anyone for chirping, either. Perfect solution for the big leagues.

[Bcr]

Originally Posted by JRX

I was at the Charlotte knights game last night and there were 20 walks in 7 innings. They need to at least give it some room for error.

Sent from my SM-A546U1 using Tapatalk

Lol.

[fulltritty]

I think the Nationals are wishing for the automated strike zone after Judge hits his third home run of the game when he should have walked twice if not for 2 crappy calls by the umpire.

[oldgoldy97]

Sounds like the OP has trouble dealing with reality.

[daveyc1]

are there people actually arguing for less accurate/consistent umpiring?

that really confuses me. I mean, ultimately, dont we all just want the right calls made?

[SupermanBrandon]

I was watching this game live. The call was in favor of my Braves. The "strike" was a foot outside of the zone. Atrocious call.

---

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes pleaded with Major League Baseball on Sunday to institute the automated ball-strike system after an obvious missed call and a subsequent conversation with the umpire.

The call took place during Sunday's game against the Atlanta Braves, with plate umpire Bill Miller calling a strike on a pitch shown to be well outside the strike zone as Hayes was starting toward first base after flipping his bat back for what he thought was a walk.

After chatting with Miller as he went back to retrieve his bat, Hayes struck out on the next pitch.

Hayes said he attempted to discuss the call with Miller after the game and shared his side of the conversation on social media along with an image of the pitch.

"Some umpires really don't care," Hayes posted. "3-1 call not even close. I hold him accountable after the game walking off the field and his response is "[shrug emoji] I gave you a chance to hit a homerun" that tells me you don't care at all.

https://twitter.com/PlatinumKey13/st...call-strikeout

[JoshMN]

Originally Posted by theredmenace

Take balls/strikes away from home plate umps so they have more time to showboat calls and act as heels towards the managers/fans/mascots. At the end of the year the BWAA should give out a Frank Derbin MVP award to the most flamboyant umpire. I want to see Laz Diaz and Angel Hernandez cut a promo that threatens bodily harm towards the Phillie Phanatic. Umps are clowns, let them act like it.

[atk825]

Originally Posted by SupermanBrandon

I was watching this game live. The call was in favor of my Braves. The "strike" was a foot outside of the zone. Atrocious call.

---

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes pleaded with Major League Baseball on Sunday to institute the automated ball-strike system after an obvious missed call and a subsequent conversation with the umpire.

The call took place during Sunday's game against the Atlanta Braves, with plate umpire Bill Miller calling a strike on a pitch shown to be well outside the strike zone as Hayes was starting toward first base after flipping his bat back for what he thought was a walk.

After chatting with Miller as he went back to retrieve his bat, Hayes struck out on the next pitch.

Hayes said he attempted to discuss the call with Miller after the game and shared his side of the conversation on social media along with an image of the pitch.

"Some umpires really don't care," Hayes posted. "3-1 call not even close. I hold him accountable after the game walking off the field and his response is "[shrug emoji] I gave you a chance to hit a homerun" that tells me you don't care at all.

https://twitter.com/PlatinumKey13/st...call-strikeout

I think I am fine with setting up an agreed upon margin of error on the strike zone and then allowing challenges. Obviously they have them in tennis, which is easier having a defined line but the tech is there for this to work and really weed out the egregiously bad calls.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by atk825

I think I am fine with setting up an agreed upon margin of error on the strike zone and then allowing challenges. Obviously they have them in tennis, which is easier having a defined line but the tech is there for this to work and really weed out the egregiously bad calls.

Not sure we need a margin of error. There is no margin of error in tennis. It either touches the line or it doesn't.

I suggest a standardized strike zone. No more variance based on player height or stance. Just say this is a strike and this is a ball all the time, and the players will adjust to it. And with the technology, they can't argue about it. It is what it is. They will just adjust to the standard strike zone. Which in reality won't be more than a couple inches from what they are used to anyway (up and down. it won't change side to side at all).

[awz50]

Originally Posted by Skipscards

I've seen Terminator.

Default of every person afraid of technology

[ThoseBackPages]

watch Triple A, they've already implemented ABS

[panamamyers]

So pitchers can't throw strikes and the response is to quit calling a ball a ball?
Maybe widen the plate or something but we have to be able to agree that you can't just call it a strike because pitchers are having trouble finding the zone.

[dani0100]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Not sure we need a margin of error. There is no margin of error in tennis. It either touches the line or it doesn't.

I suggest a standardized strike zone. No more variance based on player height or stance. Just say this is a strike and this is a ball all the time, and the players will adjust to it. And with the technology, they can't argue about it. It is what it is. They will just adjust to the standard strike zone. Which in reality won't be more than a couple inches from what they are used to anyway (up and down. it won't change side to side at all).

100% correct regarding "margin of error." The robot will call a strike when the parameters you define are met. Don't like the parameters? Then change the definition of a strike.

The standardized strike zone seems problematic to me -- Aaron Judge should not have the same strike zone as Altuve. I think that having a strike zone defined by the current rule does require some complication in the robot's programming, but should be very easy to work around I presume the current beta systems have decent ways to do this that are consistently being defined.

I can't wait for the consistency of robo calls. Batters need to be rewarded for being able to tell whether a pitch is actually, objectively in the zone or not, rather than essentially being never ending victims to totally arbitrary judgment calls that can easily determine the outcome of the game. Honestly, baseball is essentially akin to professional wresting until this issue is fixed. Anyone who's ever been in a batter's box must know this.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by dani0100

Aaron Judge should not have the same strike zone as Altuve.

But then we could let the Eddie Gaedels of the world play again.

The reality is, even looking at Judge's strike zone compared to Altuve, the difference is only a few inches in either direction of the zone. When you standardize it somewhere in between those extremes, it's even less of a difference. I don't think it will be as drastic to standardize it as people think.

[Oswoes]

It seems that most of this conversation is only thinking about the problem of balls being called strikes, favoring the pitcher, but the data suggests that the problem is also that strikes are being called balls, favoring the batter, particularly up in the zone. Just from watching pretty much all of the games of my favorite team, there are countless examples of a catcher setting up in one place and the ball going to a place inside the strike zone where the catcher has to reach, giving the illusion that the ball was out of the strike zone. All humans will have some perception issues of objects flying in at 90-100 miles/hour with movement.


There's an interesting study from Boston University about the whole issue. https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb...zone-accuracy/

All this to say that I would guess that runs and offense would remain little changed, and my prediction would be that pitchers would pitch up in the zone more consistently if they could count on the high strike call, resulting in more strikeouts up in the zone.

[Galileo77]

It is harder and harder for the umpires today in my opinion. Back when a pitcher might pitch 9 innings and while i am not an umpire it seems a lot harder to follow thru the strike zone a ball when multiple pitchers from both teams are used versus 2. Pitchers all have different wind ups, different speeds, different breaking balls etc. It has to be much harder I would think than when there were starters who were expected to stay for as long as possible. Its hard enough for the hitters but add variablity on calling strikes and balls well it makes it even harder.

[Galileo77]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Not sure we need a margin of error. There is no margin of error in tennis. It either touches the line or it doesn't.

I suggest a standardized strike zone. No more variance based on player height or stance. Just say this is a strike and this is a ball all the time, and the players will adjust to it. And with the technology, they can't argue about it. It is what it is. They will just adjust to the standard strike zone. Which in reality won't be more than a couple inches from what they are used to anyway (up and down. it won't change side to side at all).

I am not sure that will work as well in the extremes of height say Elly versus Altuve however it should not matter very much in the vast majority. If it gives an unfair disadvantage to the outliers well that would have to be determined -

[fabiani12333]

Originally Posted by daveyc1

are there people actually arguing for less accurate/consistent umpiring?

that really confuses me. I mean, ultimately, dont we all just want the right calls made?

I hope you realize that having a 100% accurate strike zone is problematic. There are plenty of breaking balls that barely hit the edges of the strike zone that hitters would be surprised to be called strikes. Teams are going to try to game the system by training pitchers to do this -- it's going to become a joke.

[johnlocke36]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

But then we could let the Eddie Gaedels of the world play again.

The reality is, even looking at Judge's strike zone compared to Altuve, the difference is only a few inches in either direction of the zone. When you standardize it somewhere in between those extremes, it's even less of a difference. I don't think it will be as drastic to standardize it as people think.

Can’t imagine what adjustments teams would make to altuve if a 100 mph fastball at his shoulders is a called strike. Likewise judge/Elly/Cruz etc would be very lucky to hit .100 if a pitch 3 inches below current zone was a called strike. They lose guys would literally never see an actual strike for the rest of their careers

[Danderlion]

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

I hope you realize that having a 100% accurate strike zone is problematic. There are plenty of breaking balls that barely hit the edges of the strike zone that hitters would be surprised to be called strikes. Teams are going to try to game the system by training pitchers to do this -- it's going to become a joke.

I don't understand this comment...

If a breaking ball catches the edge of the strike zone, it is a strike and should be called a strike. Doesn't matter that some hitters may be surprised that a pitch is called a strike when it is a strike.

Pitchers have always tried their best to paint the corners / edges of the zone. This is nothing new. We will just get a higher level of accuracy on the calls. I don't get what the joke is.