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

[Jagwar]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Supposedly it has an impact on post season assignments.

IMO that isn't enough of a consequence. 

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

IMO that isn't enough of a consequence. 

The big mistake to me was when they let the umps take back their mass resignation.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Getting rid of the union is easily the best way to do it.

Other than the fact that it’s essentially impossible to do that. 

I do believe umpires are graded on accuracy and there is statistical evidence that they’ve improved significantly over the last 15 years or so. But they still miss 12% of true balls and 3% of true strikes, per Ump Scorecard.  
 

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Other than the fact that it’s essentially impossible to do that. 

I do believe umpires are graded on accuracy and there is statistical evidence that they’ve improved significantly over the last 15 years or so. But they still miss 12% of true balls and 3% of true strikes, per Ump Scorecard.  
 

Oh yea, it will never happen.

But having the ability to fire these guys (or relegate them to the minors) and/or hold them accountable for their sh!t job would be great.

Edited May 8 by Sports Guy

[George Zuverink]

41 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

IMO that isn't enough of a consequence. 

Too far removed from the offending event. Like rubbing a dog’s nose in a tyrd HR left under the Christmas tree nine months ago.

[casadeozo]

I mentioned it in the game thread but why are umps allowed to throw out players and manager for arguing THEIR mistake?

You watch NBA/NFL coaches screaming at refs with no fallout.

seems like something that should have gone away many years ago. 

[Morgan423]

Robo-umps are simply not going to be an optional thing.  They're going to have to be incorporated into the game in some aspect or another.

This has been the worst season in memory for terrible ump calls in baseball, and fans all over the league are reaching their boiling point.  MLB continues to ignore this issue at its own peril. 

[Can_of_corn]

6 minutes ago, Morgan423 said:

Robo-umps are simply not going to be an optional thing.  They're going to have to be incorporated into the game in some aspect or another.

This has been the worst season in memory for terrible ump calls in baseball, and fans all over the league are reaching their boiling point.  MLB continues to ignore this issue at its own peril. 

MLB will get concerned when the gambling sites get upset.

[Philip]

The union doesn’t care about quality of performance, but about protecting member jobs. They will absolutely scream at anything that interferes with jobs or that attempts to penalize poor performance.

It is possible, barely possible, that they might be induced to police themselves because there are good umpires, and then there are Angel Hernandezes, and all the empires know how sucky the bad ones are.

[Filmstudy]

How about something simple like a heads-up display which allows the umpires to call pitches from the CF camera.  I can't believe tying that into a visor would be difficult at all these days.

[Filmstudy]

3 minutes ago, Filmstudy said:

How about something simple like a heads-up display which allows the umpires to call pitches from the CF camera.  I can't believe tying that into a visor would be difficult at all these days.

By this I mean the CF camera view would include a properly sized box for the hitter similar to what we see on TV.  The bulk of the really egregious errors seem to be low in the zone (where the umpire has to work off the catcher's movement because his view is partially if not fully obstructed) and inside or outside when the umpire is lined up on the other side (again partially obstructed).  While this would still technically be human umpiring, I'm guessing truly questionable calls would drop by 85-90%.

BTW, folks might consider this robo umpiring, but this is still miles behind the heat maps and other systems they have in use for cricket right now.

[Tony-OH]

14 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Kill the Union and get rid of under performing umps.

Holy crap, I can't believe you said to "kill the union".  

Whether they kill the union or not, they need to absolutely move umpires up and down between AAA and the majors based on performance. I don't know why they think and late 50s, early 60s umpire will still see as well as a 35-year old ump. 

 

 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

Holy crap, I can't believe you said to "kill the union".  

Whether they kill the union or not, they need to absolutely move umpires up and down between AAA and the majors based on performance. I don't know why they think and late 50s, early 60s umpire will still see as well as a 35-year old ump. 

 

 

I'm not so much vehemently pro-union as I am anti-owner.

[Tony-OH]

I like the AAA system where hitters and the catcher get a certain amount of challenges a game. It keeps the human element in the game a bit but can allow for calls that obviously erroneous to not change the game. 

[Otter]

11 hours ago, Morgan423 said:

Robo-umps are simply not going to be an optional thing.  They're going to have to be incorporated into the game in some aspect or another.

This has been the worst season in memory for terrible ump calls in baseball, and fans all over the league are reaching their boiling point.  MLB continues to ignore this issue at its own peril. 

I'm as upset as anyone that Angel Hernandez, CB Bucknor, and Laz Diaz still have jobs, but I don't really believe this is the worst season in memory for terrible calls.  I think it just appears that way because of the data fans have access to now and the fact that social media has really focused on the issue this year.  I'm certain that the majority of umps now are incredibly more accurate on balls/strikes than the umps back in the 80s/90s.  Do you remember Eric Gregg and Ken Kaiser and Garcia, and many more of the incredibly arrogant and incompetent umps back then??  They would hold grudges and change the zone from game to game or even inning to inning.  Again, I'm not excusing the terrible strike zones from certain current umps, and I denounce the fact that terrible umps have no consequences for their incompetence....just wanted to remind people that it's still much better than it used to be.