He's a MLB umpire...he should already know where the strike zone is.
I dunno...should help, overall.
AI could take a lot of guesswork out of umping. The speeds and tensions involved make that job a challenge for any human. As long as no one monkeys with calibration from start to end of game, the objectivity would be much better. Plus, no salary or pensions for umps, no danger from a bouncing harball to groin or goiter.
This all begs the question.
The purpose of all breaking ball pitches is to deceive the batter. So if a pitcher’s breaking ball is SO GOOD that it fools both the batter AND the umpire, ... how do you not give him credit for that?
The hard part of pitching isn’t getting the ball over the plate. A major league pitcher can throw strikes down the middle of the plate all day. The hard parts of the job are hitting the edge of the strike zone and figuring out where that is today. Automated calls of balls and strikes will remove that second part of the game.
According to. our local College Baseball Coach there is a real shortage of Umpires at all levels - young guys are not going to Umpire School and the “old guys” are retiring
Tough day for the rookie MLB umpire—and for Boston, losing to the Pirates in a 16-7 laugher. You have my sympathy.
Automatic Breaking System?
Wait, no. Must be the initials of some federal appeals judge.
ABS should call all balls and strikes, and there should be just one umpire for all other calls—which still can be overridden.
At the very least, an automated umpire would be consistent.
“Hopefully, Trzeciak learns from the experience.”
What he learned is already there. When an umpire calls a pitch it is not determined by his definition of a strike zone. It is determined by what he saw. An infielder knows how to field a ground ball. But they kick them. An outfielder knows how to catch a fly ball, but they drop them. Same theory. The only difference is the official is placed in trying to be perfect, an unreachable goal. Somewhere along the line the sport had to draw from humans to fill the slots.
Combined between both teams the number of pitches averages out to roughly 145–150 pitches per team per game, with pitchers typically averaging around 15 pitches per inning. In a typical Major League Baseball (MLB) game, there are approximately 25 to 35 ground balls hit into the field of play per team (totaling 50–70+ per game). And they are shared in their action by six different players. Do people dwell on the errors they make? Those are forgotten, and they can make it up with another play. But the umpires calls are remembered for years in some cases.
I did an experiment many years ago when proved that point by telling a basketball player that the players will remember the call, but have very little recollection of the game. Another player came in and I asked him if he could remember a call I made he didn’t think was right. And without prompting him, he described a play from last year to a tee with everything in it’s appearance. Then I asked him if they won the game, did he have any ball control errors, how many points he or the team had...just a series of general questions about the game. And he couldn’t remember any of them, not even if they won. So that one play was etched on his mind and only the expectation of the officials.
Is there a chance that Trzeciak was sick that day, or the previous night, and wasn’t calling up to his capacity? Did the catcher block some of his calls, or use a reach and pull tactic with pitches that were outside the zone many times to steal a strike and that’s what he saw.
Putting in the artificial calling of the game is not going to improve it. It is just going to place blame on the officials giving players a chance to save face when they get punched out. And they are already protected with the stigma of being professional players. The expectations of the fans afford them their mistakes. And at the same time make the umpires the enemy rather than their trying to hit a slider.
wy69
He’s a recent graduate of the Angel Hernandez School of Umpiring.
Modern umpires are like modern judges. Too easily influenced, and don’t adhere strictly to the guidelines in place.
I’m in favor of an electronic strike zone. To heck with the black clothed/robed tyrants.
The umpire should see the same screen we do and then give the call made by the camera.
If you watch the video, some were close and others were not. The one that was a half an inch outside the strike zone was a wrong call but not necessarily a bad call. Seems like a reasonable use of technology.
Pitchers put the ball through an electronic box. Have strikes ping the umpire’s bluetooth earpiece. STEEERIKE! That umpire will be in place to make base running calls just like the other three.
Can you imagine the power AI will have once it is able to make professional athletes believe and accept whatever it calls?
No more arguments or player - coach ejections over calls. Meanwhile, the public says, “AI is the truth and we must believe it”.