Robo-Umps Now!

[RZNJ]

On 9/2/2023 at 9:38 PM, harp6 said:

Some of the umps are awful, but many of the umps are good.  They are now able to see the umpire scorecard.  Get rid of the umpires that consistently have poor scorecards and keep the ones that are  good.  I still like to see the skill of framing the ball that occurs with good catchers.  That is part of baseball. 

 

Framing is only part of baseball because some umps can be tricked by the catcher into making the wrong call.   Bad calls have always been part of baseball too.  Love the review system.  Looking forward to a fairer and better system for balls and strikes.

[Morgan423]

12 hours ago, Uli2001 said:

I still think hitters would adjust to it. They don't change the rim based on the height of a basketball player, they don't change the size of the goal in soccer or the NHL, a first down requires 10 yards for everybody in the NFL, etc. I understand that this variable strike zone is ingrained in baseball tradition, but there's really not a strong reason for it, other than tradition.

None of those examples you gave really apply the same way, were you to vary the heights of the players.  The reason being, you're giving example targets that are independent of player's bodies.  The regular strike zone is not.  There's a fundamental difference between the two.

For example, Manute Bol and Muggsy Bogues may have had radically different approaches to playing basketball due to one being really, really tall and one being really, really short, but Muggsy had enough skill and talent to shoot on the (relative to him) taller basket. It's a target separate from his body that he could adjust to.  With enough practice, anyone of any height could get good at doing the same.

But the same can't be said about the strike zone.  To make an equivalent argument to Muggsy regarding a universal strike zone, you'd have to say that the shortest players in the league (like Jose Altuve or Tony Kemp) can become highly skilled at hitting armpit-high, or shoulder-high, or neck-high pitches (depending on where this "universal strike zone's" top crosses). 

If you can't see how ridiculous of an ask this is, then I don't know what else I could tell you.  

Edited September 11, 2023 by Morgan423

[ShoelesJoe]

Watching the Yankees / Red Sox game from Fenway this afternoon, and Bob Costas let go with an interesting factoid I was unaware of — MLB assigns an umpire crew to each game, but keeps it a secret which umpire will be behind the plate until just before game time. That’s because gamblers will use that information to set odds on the game. 
 

If MLB is that cognizant of how the competence or incompetence of the home plate umpire skews the sport then it’s only a matter of time before they institute an electronic strike zone.
 

You can bet on it.