It’s just a waste of time. Made worse of course by the fact that it’s the big hitter. You get some anticipation for the big hitter annnnnnd now we gotta watch the pitcher throw 4 lobs to the side. It’ll still be anticlimactic when they signal an intentional walk, but at least it’s over quick.
Yeah the umps are the problem. Doesn’t really matter how they define the zone, each ump has their own. That’s why I think the real fix on the strike zones is mass firing and strict enforcement. Give me 2 seasons where the umps only call the zone that’s in the books and we’ll see if maybe we need to tweak it for more hitting.
It will interesting to see if averages for the next hitter who isn’t a pitcher after an intentional walk go up or down or neither. Ok, will it make a difference in the psychology of hitting if he doesn’t have to stand there as long thinking about how they are giving the guy in front of him a pass to get to him?
“Give me 2 seasons where the umps only call the zone that’s in the books and we’ll see if maybe we need to tweak it for more hitting.”
I wish we could do that. But the reality would be if it was just imposed next season 2 hour long 13 inning 1-0 games would be the norm. Relief pitching plus the legit high strike would make games short and ugly. It would take years for players to come up adjusted to it, and current players would take longer maybe. And teams are going to play their contracted players in the meantime.
I think besides the ump union, maybe the biggest reason they resist the legit electronic strike zone is it would kill offense for a long while and maybe permanent. The last time they had a more legit strike zone called by umps the relief pitchers weren’t used like they would be now.
Freegards