For crying out loud, can MLB please implement an electronic strike zone already?

[terps19]

Take an electronic picture of every player before the season standing straight up and your strike zone for the whole year is from the knees to letters (or whatever). It would all be digital anyway. Seems doable to me.

SMH- standing straight up? Maybe that zone would fit Reimold and Davis and about 2% of all major league players. But batters crouch down into a batting stance. Altuve would be called out on strikes on a ball above his head when he is in his crouch... lol

[justice98]

If they wanted to bad enough, they could come up with a better way to call balls and strikes than letting the umpires just do whatever they want.

[Three Run Homer]

SMH- standing straight up? Maybe that zone would fit Reimold and Davis and about 2% of all major league players. But batters crouch down into a batting stance. Altuve would be called out on strikes on a ball above his head when he is in his crouch... lol

This brings up an interesting question: can a player actually make his strike zone smaller by crouching? I would think that the strike zone should be defined assuming that the player is standing up straight. If a player wants to crouch to improve his swing path or leverage, then fine, but he shouldn't be able to shrink his strike zone by crouching. Is there a rule covering this?

[pastorfan]

I doubt MLB is going to fire an umpire for this.

I did not mean someone would be fired for last night. I meant that these are the types of performances that are going to lead to an electric strike zone, thus costing some jobs.

[Redskins Rick]

I did not mean someone would be fired for last night. I meant that these are the types of performances that are going to lead to an electric strike zone, thus costing some jobs.

Thanks for the clarification.

IMO, i truly doubt we will ever see an electronic strike zone.

Time will tell.

[DrungoHazewood]

This brings up an interesting question: can a player actually make his strike zone smaller by crouching? I would think that the strike zone should be defined assuming that the player is standing up straight. If a player wants to crouch to improve his swing path or leverage, then fine, but he shouldn't be able to shrink his strike zone by crouching. Is there a rule covering this?

Rule 2.00- Definition of Terms

The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.

[DrungoHazewood]

Thanks for the clarification.

IMO, i truly doubt we will ever see an electronic strike zone.

Time will tell.

I think it's nearly certain, and umps guessing and missing 10% of pitches and making up their own strike zones will be one of those things we laugh about the old days.

[Crabcakes]

This brings up an interesting question: can a player actually make his strike zone smaller by crouching? I would think that the strike zone should be defined assuming that the player is standing up straight. If a player wants to crouch to improve his swing path or leverage, then fine, but he shouldn't be able to shrink his strike zone by crouching. Is there a rule covering this?

Ever hear of Eddie Gaedel? For clarities sake the Official MLB 2016 definition of the Strike Zone is:

"The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of

which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders

and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the

hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from

the batter?s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball."

Unfortunately for the fans watching on TV, we see an off-centered zone due to the camera being placed at an angle, & not directly behind the pitcher. One can see a better angle of interaction between pitcher & batter this way. On Trumbo's K the audience could see the ball out of the zone because of the side-view camera, which obviously showed a ball below Trumbo's zone.

I believe an electronic fix would not be that complicated, using hi-speed computers & cameras at the proper angles with sensors embedded in home plate. Computers could even compensate w/ off-center angles that might be used in each particular park.

Off topic, but same logic; I always wondered why the NFL still use chain-gangs instead of a computer/laser apparatus. Much easier & faster.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Crabcakes

[El Gordo]

They could easily place motion capture sensors in the uniforms to adjust for stance. Get 'er done!

[El Gordo]

I think it's nearly certain, and umps guessing and missing 10% of pitches and making up their own strike zones will be one of those things we laugh about the old days.

We will probably be to old to laugh or dead.

[DrungoHazewood]

We will probably be to old to laugh or dead.

Isn't baseball known for its ability to quickly and proactively address obvious problems?

[CanadianOriole]

I think it's nearly certain, and umps guessing and missing 10% of pitches and making up their own strike zones will be one of those things we laugh about the old days.

I agree, I think it's certain as well - and likely soon. Maybe not within 5 years - but I'll take the under on a 10 years over/under bet.

[24fps]

My crackpot proposal is a relegation system.

Called balls and strikes are compared to actual balls and strikes as measured electronically and certified by an outside agency. At the end of each season the bottom 33% of ML umpires in measured accuracy are reassigned to AAA and replaced by the top AAA 33%. Pay and benefits are adjusted accordingly.

I think we would see a marked improvement in accuracy.

[TGO]

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks some curmudgeons pushed to implement replay in an NFL-challenge way so that it would be clunky and they eventually do away with it. Another part of me says they just lacked imagination and took the What Would The NFL Do path of least resistance.

The obvious way to help with balls and strikes is a real-time indicator that only the home plate ump is privy to, indicating if it was a strike. We'll see if they do something more ill-conceived.

If the system is only going to "speak to" the home plate umpire, they could easily do this in part very quickly. Have an electronic system that indicates to the ump whether the ball crossed the plate. Then the umpire only needs to determine whether the pitch was too high or too low. That's still a lot of discretion but it's a step in the right direction.

[DrungoHazewood]

My crackpot proposal is a relegation system.

Called balls and strikes are compared to actual balls and strikes as measured electronically and certified by an outside agency. At the end of each season the bottom 33% of ML umpires in measured accuracy are reassigned to AAA and replaced by the top AAA 33%. Pay and benefits are adjusted accordingly.

I think we would see a marked improvement in accuracy.

Or you'll quickly find out that it wasn't poor umps so much as a nearly impossible task. What would happen if the bottom 33% of MLB rosters were banished at the end of each year? My guess is a small but noticeable decline in MLB talent.