It's time to cry about the strike zone. Everyone should watch Real Sports Balls & Strikes

[sportsfan8703]

You can find it on demand. Real Sports found that home field matters. During the STL/TEX WS, STL got 14 favorable calls and TEX only got 3.

I think we saw this on full display last night. Russel Martin was framing pitches in the other batter's box and therefore getting the pitches off the plate all night.

For MLB they should probably go to the Pitch/Fx system. For the O's, we should probably cut ties with Wieters.

Pitch framing is obviously a huge part of the game. It turned around several of our AB's last night. Without looking at any data, I'm going to say that TOR had at least a +10 advantage on favorable calls.

[clapdiddy]

Martin is a great pitch-framer, but he is annoying with how long he holds the ball after the ump calls it a ball.

It's really a shame that Caleb can't hit, because I think he calls a better game and, with the naked eye, appears to be a better framer than Wieters.

That all being said...we could do a lot worse than bringing Matt back on a short-term deal.

[Can_of_corn]

You can find it on demand. Real Sports found that home field matters. During the STL/TEX WS, STL got 14 favorable calls and TEX only got 3.

I think we saw this on full display last night. Russel Martin was framing pitches in the other batter's box and therefore getting the pitches off the plate all night.

For MLB they should probably go to the Pitch/Fx system. For the O's, we should probably cut ties with Wieters.

Pitch framing is obviously a huge part of the game. It turned around several of our AB's last night. Without looking at any data, I'm going to say that TOR had at least a +10 advantage on favorable calls.

I'll bring up my normal counter argument.

If framing is huge why:

1- Is it not rewarded on the free agent market to a significant degree?

2- Are pitch framers not viewed as defensive replacements?

Since I don't think teams are stupid and I do think teams have access to proprietary information I will continue to believe that framing, while a real skill, is not as impactfull as some would lead you to believe.

[esmd]

I'd be in favor of getting rid of the ump calling balls and strikes, and do it electronically. We all see it done on TV, why not just use that as the strike zone? If the ball touches the line, it's a strike. If it's completely out of the box, it's a ball. I know, I know, you purists out there will want to draw and quarter me....but seriously....problem solved.

[Can_of_corn]

I'd be in favor of getting rid of the ump calling balls and strikes, and do it electronically. We all see it done on TV, why not just use that as the strike zone? If the ball touches the line, it's a strike. If it's completely out of the box, it's a ball. I know, I know, you purists out there will want to draw and quarter me....but seriously....problem solved.

And it will be great fun watching what pitchers and hitters can best adapt to the new environment.

[Stotle]

I'd be in favor of getting rid of the ump calling balls and strikes, and do it electronically. We all see it done on TV, why not just use that as the strike zone? If the ball touches the line, it's a strike. If it's completely out of the box, it's a ball. I know, I know, you purists out there will want to draw and quarter me....but seriously....problem solved.

The TV strikezones are not accurate, they are uniform across all hitters. But, yeah, the technology is there to call balls and strikes electronically if that's the way the sport wants to go.

[SoCal]

The ump was absolutely being influenced by the crowd last night, albeit most likely more at a subconscious level as opposed to any kind of effort to intentionally screw the O's.

[Frobby]

The TV strikezones are not accurate, they are uniform across all hitters. But, yeah, the technology is there to call balls and strikes electronically if that's the way the sport wants to go.

Pitch f/x seems to have a very different read of the strike zone than the TBS graphics did. Pitch f/x shows that Stroman only had 2 pitches called strikes that were out of the strike zone, and both of those were very close to being strikes.

[ExileAngelos]

If you're going to use replay (which I'm not a fan of) then it's illogical to not use roto ump.

[ExileAngelos]

Oops robo ump. Too much fantasy baseball for me

[frankhxp]

It's been time to cry about the strike zone for decades. Last night's umpire seemed to do pretty well for a human, but that's not good enough. Unfortunately, they would need to break the umpire's union again to bring automated ball and strike calls into existence, and I don't think there's any will at all in MLB to do that. The measures they have taken to secretly "grade" the umpires seems to have closed the gaping wound that used to be there. Now it's just a festering sore, grossly irritated by the pure awfulness of "pitch framing" being recognized as an actual baseball "skill."

[Dark Helmet]

Just curious. Why should pitch framing matter? Isn't it supposed to be where it crosses the plate and not where the C catches the ball?

[Can_of_corn]

Just curious. Why should pitch framing matter? Isn't it supposed to be where it crosses the plate and not where the C catches the ball?

It shouldn't. But when you have humans calling balls and strikes it does.

[Dark Helmet]

It shouldn't. But when you have humans calling balls and strikes it does.

Yeah. I really don't want to take the human element out of the game. I just wish these guys would be held more accountable. I guess I should say "could" be held more accountable.

[atomic]

McEnroe use to argue about the machines that said whether serves were in. If it were 100 percent accurate I would be all for it. If an umpire is influenced by pitch framing he should be fired. He shouldn't be looking at glove. I don't have any problem with human error but if the catcher is influencing your call you are a bad unpire.