Hardball Times: A Redefined Strike Zone

[weams]

http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-commissioner-speaks-imagining-a-redefined-strike-zone/

"It's a work in progress (referring to fact that the zone got smaller and then bigger over the course of the first two months). First of all, all of these changes you're talking about are minuscule in terms of magnitude. Having said that, there has been absolutely no direction given to the umpires this year that is different from what we've given them the last few years, which is to call the strike zone consistent to the rules. Our focus with respect to the strike zone has not been on changing it in any way; to the contrary, it has been on making it more consistent across umpires. We think we've made progress in that regard.

Conceptually - that was the facts, what's out there - conceptually, I would be reluctant, even if someone said you have X problem, and the way to fix it is to give instructions on changing the strike zone, I would be reluctant to do that. Because when you talk to baseball people, baseball people you respect, and you say to them what happens if I do this with the strike zone, you don't get any consistent response. I am very disciplined to make changes with respect to the play of the game on the field where we don't have a pretty good idea of what the outcome is going to be."