Also catchers framing pitches would go away entirely, something I really enjoy watching, heres a video on that.
Also catchers framing pitches would go away entirely, something I really enjoy watching, heres a video on that.
There are measurable differences in the skill with which a catcher catches the ball. [0] And frankly, without the box there, many people wouldn't have batted an eye at this pitch [1] (watch the video). No one in the game did!
It's sad to me that many people care more about the box than about that human experience of the game. One of the great things about sports is that it isn't fair—it teaches us about life in that and other ways. And particularly in baseball, with 162 games and 24,000 pitches in a season [2], variations tend to come out in the wash, even as individual games and pitches feel really meaningful.
[0] https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/catcher_framing?year=2019&tea...
[1] https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-worst-called-ball-on-record/
[2] https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2019-pitches-...
The rule is right there. If the rule is a lie, it should not be there.
> And frankly, without the box there, many people wouldn't have batted an eye at this pitch
It's moving fast and involves tracking something in 3d space from a far-away camera. You could trick me super easily, but I'm not sure what that proves.
> One of the great things about sports is that it isn't fair
Yikes.
I'm really unconvinced that if things were more fair, you'd be arguing they should become less fair.
Before the Rockies existed, adding a team at high altitude where the ball carries farther could have been seen as less fair, because batters for that team would have an easier time breaking home run records. But so what? Camden Yards is one of the best stadiums in baseball. It's only 318 feet down the right field line. But so what?
The rule isn't a lie. It's just enforced by humans. Should speed limits not exist, just because you can often exceed the limit and not get a ticket? I sure don't want to live in a world where every street has automatic enforcement.
Lots of words have been written already this season about the historically low batting average across baseball, fueled at least in part by balls with less bounce and thus more aggressive pitchers who aren't afraid of getting dinged.
If MLB wanted to tweak a knob to get a bit more offense, they could shrink the strike zone a little - maybe take away half an inch at the top of the strike zone. With human umpires, there's no way that could be implemented consistently. But with this solution, it'd be consistent and could potentially even be done with no announcement and no rule change. If it's subtle, batters and pitchers might not even notice that they're being experimented on.
Announcing ahead of time that strike zone is + - 5% would at least set expectations.
Now it would also undo months of muscle memory training.
It's wild he still umps MLB games.
Bad umpires can’t be fired due to the Umpires union, so their relevance has to be taken away.
I strongly believe that this situation wouldn’t be required if fans were shown that bad umpires wouldn’t be tolerated.
It seems to me, without knowing anything about their union, that it would be in their best interest to let umps to get fired for performance reasons, as opposed to getting replaced by robo umps.
Maybe this is a bargaining chip ploy by MLB? Personally, I'd be kind of sad for umps to get replaced, although I see the argument for it.
What if that Jeffrey Maier kid hadn’t grabbed the home run… What if Ron Gant wasn’t really out…
MLB parks are all different dimensions and even shapes. Grounds crews maintain the local fields differently from each other, sometimes to the advantage of the home team. Colorado plays half their games at an altitude that meaningfully favors offense. Other teams play half their games in climates that meaningfully favor defense. Some teams go 20 days without a day off. Some divisions tend to be more competitive than others. There are injuries — sometimes many of them to one team.
To all those, add: some umpires make more mistakes than others, and some pitchers and catchers are better at adapting.
All of these things aren’t fair. That’s okay. That’s life, and that’s baseball.
Anyway, this isn’t really about overall fairness. Serious accusations of umpires favoring one team or another are very rare. It’s about whether to obsess about every single pitch being called by some mechanical (and so supposedly objective) standard. To me, that misses the whole point. You get 27 hitters per game (unless you win early) and play 162 games per year. If your success comes down to even a handful of bad calls, you were only going to win by chance anyway.
https://twitter.com/UmpireAuditor/status/1388405200512159747
Was highly impressed at how industry got its act together.
Found it. https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1996-04-07-9...
Not anymore. These days there are a few that make you wonder about the strength of the elastic on their protective gear.
Robo umpires? Please. Your league has two sets of rules, every field is differently shaped, and one even had a ramp in the outfield.
Which is one reason why MLB viewership has been in decline for the last few decades.
Younger fans simply aren’t putting up with the status quo regarding the game and their outdated traditions.
For me it's the opposite: the pure game is boring to watch. I love when unusual stuff happens.
At least I hope so. The folks running baseball now like to twiddle with stuff.