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

[OFFNY]

20 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

 

Yes, unless they change the rules, the electronic strike zone would have to be 3-dimensional.

 

o

 

There is a 5th dimension ........ beyond that which is known to man ........

 

 

 

o

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think it will be ushered in with the next CBA.  They aren't waiting a decade, not with the way technology is advancing.

This is Major League Baseball we're talking about.  46 years ago they decided that maybe it wasn't a great idea to have guys with a .320 OPS that strike out 50% of the time regularly batting, and from the blowback still reverberating today you'd have thought a giant asteroid struck the earth and destroyed all life.  MLB changes on-field stuff at a geologic pace.

Which happens first: electronic strike zone, or Target Field in Minnesota is enveloped by encroaching glaciers in the next ice age?

[byrdz]

2 hours ago, TAMC said:

Probably showing my ignorance, but as long as we're setting up a computerized system, shouldn't the strike zone be 3 dimensional, so we know whether the pitch passed over a portion of the plate and/or through the required vertical zone?  This is technically feasible, I think, but might require a lot more cameras/computing requirements.  The one on TV seems to be a vertical plane located at some point over the plate.

Just another reason why a 2D box is misleading. Unless they show the path of the ball all the way through the zone. I know some broadcasts show a plan view though not sure if Fox is doing that. Also, if I'm not mistaken the box doesn't change height based on the hitter that's at bat. Just some nitpicking I know.

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

This is Major League Baseball we're talking about.  46 years ago they decided that maybe it wasn't a great idea to have guys with a .320 OPS that strike out 50% of the time regularly batting, and from the blowback still reverberating today you'd have thought a giant asteroid struck the earth and destroyed all life.  MLB changes on-field stuff at a geologic pace.

Which happens first: electronic strike zone, or Target Field in Minnesota is enveloped by encroaching glaciers in the next ice age?

Under the current commissioner they are nimble enough to change the composition of the balls mid-season.

[Sessh]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Under the current commissioner they are nimble enough to change the composition of the balls mid-season.

The composition was never changed at all. The ball is just rounder with less drag, but AFAIK, nothing was changed composition wise.

Quote

In August 2017, in response to a recent surge in home runs, MLB empaneled a committed of physicists, statisticians and mathemeticians and other experts to examine the possible impact of the ball itself on the increase in homers. 

The committee found that the ball as currently manufactured produces less drag as it flies through the air, allowing it to travel farther.

“The committee concluded that the increase in home run hitting since the 2015 season was due, at least in part, to a change in the aerodynamic properties of the baseball (i.e., reduced drag for given launch conditions, as opposed to a change in launch conditions),” MLB said. 

The scientists could not determine, however, exactly how the newer balls produce less drag. The difference could not be attributed to any changes in the manufacturing process or materials at the Costa Rican factory that makes the balls. 

The size, weight, seam height and COR (coefficient of restitution—a measure of the ball’s “bounciness”) of the newer balls do not account for home run spike, the study conculuded. One hypothesis for the decrease in drag, which could not be proven, is that “the rubber pill may be more centered within the baseball since 2015 and that the ball may be staying rounder while spinning since the 2015 season.”

As far as the electronic zone, I tend to agree that it's unlikely to be in the majors in the next few years. Then again, we're talking about Manfred here... anything is possible.

 

[Sessh]

What's also interesting about that is apparently, the baseballs being used in the postseason are not the same ones that were used in the regular season. This is just ridiculous. You're changing baseballs for the postseason? Changing baseballs every year? It's really going to screw with player statistics AND analytics because who can tell what's the player's doing and what's the ball's doing. Pick one and stick with it. This by itself is doing harm to the game. Changing the ball has to stop and I don't really care where it stops. There has to be consistency with this whether it's the ball from 2019, 1999 or whatever.

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Sessh said:

The composition was never changed at all. The ball is just rounder with less drag, but AFAIK, nothing was changed composition wise.

As far as the electronic zone, I tend to agree that it's unlikely to be in the majors in the next few years. Then again, we're talking about Manfred here... anything is possible.

 

Quote

composition:  the nature of something's ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up.

I was using the word in the bolded context.  That to me includes shape and seam height.

 

I was also referring to the way the balls were changed at the all star break in 2015.  I think that change did include the way the materials were used.

[AZRon]

3 hours ago, TAMC said:

Probably showing my ignorance, but as long as we're setting up a computerized system, shouldn't the strike zone be 3 dimensional, so we know whether the pitch passed over a portion of the plate and/or through the required vertical zone?  This is technically feasible, I think, but might require a lot more cameras/computing requirements.  The one on TV seems to be a vertical plane located at some point over the plate.

3 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Yes, unless they change the rules the electronic strike zone would have to be three dimensional.

The same automated ball/strike system (ABS) was tested this year in the Atlantic League and the AFL and is a 3D system.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/robot-umpires-how-it-works-and-its-effect-on-players-and-managers-in-the-atlantic-league-plus-whats-to-come/
"TrackMan, or "robot ump," sits up above home plate (at all eight Atlantic League ballparks), and looks like a black box from afar. In reality, the box is a 3-D Doppler radar dish that analyzes each pitch thrown. Using a three-dimensional strike zone, TrackMan is able to calibrate each batters' size and stance, adjusting the strike zone accordingly. So, the system works so that it doesn't allow a 6-foot-7 player to have the same strike zone as a 5-foot-7 player."

https://www.mlb.com/news/major-league-baseball-tests-robot-umpires-arizona-fall-league
"The system has also been used in the independent Atlantic League this season as part of a partnership with Major League Baseball."

 

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

Under the current commissioner they are nimble enough to change the composition of the balls mid-season.

On purpose?

I think they probably change the balls on purpose from time to time.  But it wouldn't surprise me if they were telling the truth when they've always said they never changed the ball, and it just happened because they had bad QC procedures or no procedures at all or let some 3rd-level manager at the ball plant set the tension on the winders. Most of the time what is thought of as conspiracy is, in fact, incompetence.

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Sessh said:

What's also interesting about that is apparently, the baseballs being used in the postseason are not the same ones that were used in the regular season. This is just ridiculous. You're changing baseballs for the postseason? Changing baseballs every year? It's really going to screw with player statistics AND analytics because who can tell what's the player's doing and what's the ball's doing. Pick one and stick with it. This by itself is doing harm to the game. Changing the ball has to stop and I don't really care where it stops. There has to be consistency with this whether it's the ball from 2019, 1999 or whatever.

Is there evidence that the postseason balls are different?

[Can_of_corn]

7 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Is there evidence that the postseason balls are different?

The first week of the playoffs BP put out a piece and one team openly questioned them.  Another GM off the record also made a comment.

It seems they unjuiced them.

 

Here is the thread I posted about it.

 

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

On purpose?

I think they probably change the balls on purpose from time to time.  But it wouldn't surprise me if they were telling the truth when they've always said they never changed the ball, and it just happened because they had bad QC procedures or no procedures at all or let some 3rd-level manager at the ball plant set the tension on the winders. Most of the time what is thought of as conspiracy is, in fact, incompetence.

I think so.

Offense was down in 2014, low scoring games are "boring" so around the all star break of 2015 more HR.  Then this season more HR until the playoffs then it was less HR.

[backwardsk]

Heard a radio interview with Manfred before the game tonight.  He’s all for robo umps.  Said that there is an updated version of the technology that they’ll roll out in the lower minors next season.

[Uli2001]

On 9/9/2016 at 9:47 PM, Uli2001 said:

I don't want any "human element" from the umpires. Let the "human element" come exclusively from the players. Their mistakes are part of the game, not the umpires'. I repeat, the umpires' mistakes are not part of the game. They are always bad to the game, even if unavoidable. The worst part here is that they are avoidable. The technology is available to avoid them, and it's puzzling, to say the least, why it's not being used.

I see that the thread has been bumped, and with good reason. This is what I posted three years ago and I still think exactly like that.

[Chavez Ravine]

A question I have about the box...and the robo Ump system in general....is what is the measurement error? Is the thickness of the box lines supposed to represent the error? What is the significance level for determining a strike? Is some of the error related to systematic park effects? Weather effects?