More electronic strike zone discussion

[Thunderheads]

More on this ...... similar to the Robot Ump post .........  discussed Tuesday 8/30

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/7417714/v1115431483/?query=umpire

[stkjock]

interesting that the only panelist on that actually played MLB, Casey, was a proponent of keeping the "human element" behind the plate.

[GreyhoundAggie]

I thought the same thing.

[GPblue]

I know most of you will say apples and oranges, but don't you feel calling balls and strikes would be on par with a football referee's penalty or a basketball referee foul call?  Would they want to take the human element out of those calls too?

[grayhawk]

That was a horrible segment.  Why would anyone listen to these guys that know literally NOTHING about umpiring?

It's good to know that if you put Joey Votto or Barry Bonds behind the plate that EVEN THEY would miss calls.  Are we honestly supposed to believe that either of those guys, because they are good hitters, would be better at calling balls and strikes than even ONE MLB umpire?

And let's put the best balls and strikes guys behind the plate more often - like splitting the game and having the best 2 guys do half the game each?  For the love of God, where do they get this stuff?

And Mike Everitt "lost his mind?"  Can I just punch Brian Kenney in the face right now?  Everitt was absolutely professional in his actions and demeanor, and had an excellent game calling balls and strikes according to Pitch f/x.  It was the Detroit Tigers that "lost their minds."

Go F*#K yourselves, you talentless hacks.

[MadMax]

Actually, @GPblue, they're putting even more eyes on the field / court / surface because fouls and penalties are so crucial to those games. IIRC, according to a news article, the SEC will be the first conference (this year?) to implement an additional on-field official. Why would they, with all the spider-cams, hat cams and HD cameras they have riddled the game with recently? Because you can't call a penalty from an instant replay. Penalties have to be called in real-time, by a referee with a pulse... and a yellow hanky.

There was this big stink about having a fourth skating official (2nd "Floaty"; referee) on the ice of NHL post-season games. Now, it's expanded to be all season, and we're wondering why this wasn't done sooner. Now we're expecting it in International Championships (Olympics, etc.).

For the longest time, basketball was a 2-official sport, then expanded to 3. Do they need a 4th? There probably isn't room on the court for a fourth, but there is considerable discussion of whether to be able to call a foul from an instant replay or not; as it is, NCAA basketball can (and does) take any contact with the head and, after replay review, assess flagrant fouls.

FIFA was chastised for years about lacking proper coverage of the goal area during soccer matches. There are cameras in the goals, why isn't there a camera on the goal line? FIFA's solution wasn't to put just a goal-line camera in place, but to hire and deploy 2 additional officials – one on each goal line – to assist the referee in in/out and goal/no-goal calls.

Maybe the solution is to let U2 (no, not Bono) have input on ball/strike calls if PU has any doubts.

[Lindsay]

It's a lot more difficult to adjudicate, via replay, variable player conduct than it is to determine whether a ball crossed/hit a line or timely arrived at a point, which is wholly objective. I guess you could say it would be akin to determining, via replay review whether the ball hit the glove, or the glove hit the ball.

And they've actually experimented in NBA Summer League with a fourth on-court official. We all know three = triangle, and, as you'd imagine, four = rectangle.

U2 is a great ball/strike umpire. Just appeal everything out that way. http://www.closecallsports.com/2015/03/dale-scott-exits-with-injury-joyce-umps.html & http://www.closecallsports.com/2013/03/mcclelland-calls-pitches-from-middle-of.html

The home run derby "outfield umpire" may be seen as some sort of a commodity, but when it comes down to the golden ball in the final round where 1 HR makes the difference, and a fan may or may not have reached over to catch the buzzer-beating fly ball in right field, you'll be thankful for an actual person out there to determine which multi-million dollar athlete gets to take home a $30,000 truck and which bookie gets to pocket someone's annual salary.

[Richvee]

2 hours ago, grayhawk said:

That was a horrible segment.  Why would anyone listen to these guys that know literally NOTHING about umpiring?

It's good to know that if you put Joey Votto or Barry Bonds behind the plate that EVEN THEY would miss calls.  Are we honestly supposed to believe that either of those guys, because they are good hitters, would be better at calling balls and strikes than even ONE MLB umpire?

And let's put the best balls and strikes guys behind the plate more often - like splitting the game and having the best 2 guys do half the game each?  For the love of God, where do they get this stuff?

And Mike Everitt "lost his mind?"  Can I just punch Brian Kenney in the face right now?  Everitt was absolutely professional in his actions and demeanor, and had an excellent game calling balls and strikes according to Pitch f/x.  It was the Detroit Tigers that "lost their minds."

Go F*#K yourselves, you talentless hacks.

I couldn't even get through Kenney's opening monolog before my blood pressure started rising.

SO the players are "strikezone experts?" One would think the guys with the formal training on calling balls and strikes, who see 200-300 live game pitches every four days may...just may have a pretty clear understanding of the strike zone, Mr. Kenney.

I forget what game I was watching he other night, on a HBP where there was some question about if there was a swing or the ball hit the bat and not the batter, some jack wagon announcer pipped in "Now if the plate umpire didn't have to worry about calling that pitch a ball or a strike he would have seen the ball clearly hit his arm."

Sad thing is, these talentless talking heads have a platform and they're pushing hard for this electronic strikezone. I fear it's coming soon, and these so called "expert strikezone hitters" are gonna have a rude awakening as to what gets called a strike by the computer.

[Stk004]

"Joey Votto, who knows the strike zone more than any human on the planet..." 

Yeah it just sucks that they choose these random guys off the street to call balls and strikes at the MLB level. OH WAIT 

[Stk004]

Do they realize that 96-97% of strike 3 calls are called CORRECTLY? How many called strike 3s are there per game? 10 tops? So statistically, not even 5 called third strikes are incorrect on any given DAY in major league baseball. But of course anybody could call them with that kind of accuracy. Someone give them a rulebook and plate gear and see what happens. Someone let them go make their points to Joe West or Jim Joyce and see what happens. Pathetic. 

[Stk004]

8 hours ago, grayhawk said:

That was a horrible segment.  Why would anyone listen to these guys that know literally NOTHING about umpiring?

It's good to know that if you put Joey Votto or Barry Bonds behind the plate that EVEN THEY would miss calls.  Are we honestly supposed to believe that either of those guys, because they are good hitters, would be better at calling balls and strikes than even ONE MLB umpire?

And let's put the best balls and strikes guys behind the plate more often - like splitting the game and having the best 2 guys do half the game each?  For the love of God, where do they get this stuff?

And Mike Everitt "lost his mind?"  Can I just punch Brian Kenney in the face right now?  Everitt was absolutely professional in his actions and demeanor, and had an excellent game calling balls and strikes according to Pitch f/x.  It was the Detroit Tigers that "lost their minds."

Go F*#K yourselves, you talentless hacks.

The only way to describe that segment in a PG way is 

[Stk004]

Why do I even watch these anymore? I know what they're going to say and I know it's going to make my head explode so why oh why do I continue to watch? 

[TheRockawayKid]

On 9/1/2016 at 7:46 PM, Gil said:

The home run derby "outfield umpire"

Am I wrong, or are both HRD umpires MiLB umps who are being given the assignment? 

 

Also, Looking at the numbers, most of the time the MLB strike zone is smaller than the book zone. So the "plate discipline" hitters will not be happy about this. 

[Lindsay]

2 hours ago, TheRockawayKid said:

Am I wrong, or are both HRD umpires MiLB umps who are being given the assignment? 

Yes, they are Futures Game umpires.