Thought Exercise: How to Improve Strike Calling W/O Robo Ump

[Mooreisbetter27]

So Willson Contreras has a broken forearm because catcher's are now moving up on the plate to try and frame/steal pitches.  JD Martinez (who stands way far back in the box), crushed him, swinging at a pitch.

If it was automated strikes, there would be no reason for him to stay so far up and this wouldn't have happened.  I know this is a weird outlier, but I thought it interesting nonetheless.  

Edited May 8 by Mooreisbetter27

[Rbiggs2525]

18 minutes ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

So Willson Contreras has a broken forearm because catcher's are now moving up on the plate to try and frame/steal pitches.  JD Martinez (who stands way far back in the box), crushed him, swinging a pitch.

If it was automated strikes, there would be no reason for him to stay so far up and this wouldn't have happened.  I know this is a weird outlier, but I thought it interesting nonetheless.  

I saw a stat saying catcher interference is escalating every year recently. Interesting to think about the safety of the hitter and catcher.

[Can_of_corn]

27 minutes ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

So Willson Contreras has a broken forearm because catcher's are now moving up on the plate to try and frame/steal pitches.  JD Martinez (who stands way far back in the box), crushed him, swinging at a pitch.

If it was automated strikes, there would be no reason for him to stay so far up and this wouldn't have happened.  I know this is a weird outlier, but I thought it interesting nonetheless.  

 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Explosivo said:

Ding ding ding. The union is the problem. It is the impediment to incentivized behavior in the sense that if you don’t do well at your job, you get fired.

What happens if you're already to the far right of the talent distribution curve and there is a scarcity of people who can perform at the desired level? Don't you just get into a continuous cycle of firing the worst performing X%, and replacing them with similarly- or lower-performing people?

Like, for example, if you wanted everyone on the team to hit .330, and you fired everyone who couldn't hit .330. But there's no pool of readily available .330+ hitters to replace them with. So you end up replacing "under-performing" .300 hitters with other .250, .270, .300 hitters, who'll soon also be fired.

I'm not convinced that incentives will do much of anything to improve umpire performance, nor that there are a bunch of umps in the minors (or elsewhere) who're better.

[DrungoHazewood]

59 minutes ago, Mooreisbetter27 said:

So Willson Contreras has a broken forearm because catcher's are now moving up on the plate to try and frame/steal pitches.  JD Martinez (who stands way far back in the box), crushed him, swinging at a pitch.

If it was automated strikes, there would be no reason for him to stay so far up and this wouldn't have happened.  I know this is a weird outlier, but I thought it interesting nonetheless.  

Oooh... maybe with robot umpires we could go back to how catchers used to position themselves 100+ years ago. More-or-less standing up, five feet or more behind the plate. In the 1800s they'd stand even farther back, just kind of smothering pitches if there were less than two strikes. Trying to save themselves from pitches and foul tips, since they had primitive protective gear. Might save wear and tear on catchers, especially their knees.

[Mooreisbetter27]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Oooh... maybe with robot umpires we could go back to how catchers used to position themselves 100+ years ago. More-or-less standing up, five feet or more behind the plate. In the 1800s they'd stand even farther back, just kind of smothering pitches if there were less than two strikes. Trying to save themselves from pitches and foul tips, since they had primitive protective gear. Might save wear and tear on catchers, especially their knees.

Not gonna lie, that would be kinda cool.  And very unique in the modern game.