Posted on 07/11/2019 1:05:58 PM PDT by Jacquerie
Good grief. Have you heard of something called a work day. It’s tough to meet the 7:05 pm time as is. Anything earlier is ludicrous. Most fans aren’t even there at the first pitch. You must watch the games on tv.
If a foul tip catches the iphone on the umpire, game over.
rwood
The plate is a 17 inch square. About the only way to do it would be to set a pre-measured height of the player into the computer before he steps in, put a chip in a shoe, and pre-read the zone. So unless the pitcher has some really good stuff, he will be throwing a 95 MPH fastball to a professional hitter, and won’t be able to use the corners near as much. It’ll be like batting practice only with more walks. And the public does not want to see those.
rwood
To be targeted by hackers shortly.
Bump
Seems to me the only way to do it right would be to have sensors across the chest and knees of the hitter’s uni to get the height of the strike zone if his stance changes during the at bat.
With the electronic ump the high strike will finally be called again. That will mow through this crop of hitters until they make an adjustment on something that has been the same their whole baseball careers into the pros and is now different. And the adjustment has to be to one of the hardest things to do consistently in sports. It’s going to take a while.
Freegards
It started happening 2 years ago:
The Yankees announced Thursday that all of their home games Monday through Thursday nights in April will start at 6:35 next season instead of the usual 7:05.
The team said the initiative is “an effort to better accommodate the varying needs of our fans” and that “this trial initiative continues the club’s ongoing efforts to improve the fan experience for every guest at Yankee Stadium.”
The seven games affected by the earlier start times are:
Thursday, April 5 vs. Baltimore
Monday, April 16 vs. Miami
Tuesday, April 17 vs. Miami
Thursday, April 19 vs. Toronto
Monday, April 23 vs. Minnesota
The SF Giants had a couple of early starts a couple of weeks ago.
The world didn’t come to an end.
Some of the hitters hit short and others are tall. In theory, the rule book is supposed to establish the strike zone in the pros before the batter takes the stance and it is up to the umpire to determine the high strike.
But if you’ve been following the news you’d know that the high strike has been taken away. This so called launch swing cannot get under the high strike without fouling off at best and in most cases, swinging under the pitch.
The league, in my mind, has also done other things to increase the hitting of long balls. If you notice, there are a lot more pitchers in the mid to high 90’s now in both leagues. I believe they have lowered the seams on the ball, and wound it tighter, in an effort to take away the drag on the ball causing it to go faster and carry more when hit. More home runs, more people in the stands. And the huge record pace of HR’S in the majors is the outcome of these actions. A professional hitter can hit a high speed fastball. And the guys that are actually moving the ball around the plate are not doing it at 98, but at 92 or lower. Problem is it takes a good pitcher not a thrower to use the restraint to actually pitch rather than just throw. Throwers get the ink.
And this isn’t just a small number of amateurs making these comments. In an interview over the last few days, Justin Verlander from Huston made the same observational comments about the ball and the disappearance of the strike zone. It’s for the money and this is the way to get it there. The technical strike zone is not there to be called for the good of the game. It’s there to take the decisions out of the hands of the umpires so they can’t punch out a player who’s bat is there to sell seats on a borderline pitch. And who’s to say the zone by the computer will be the white with the width of the ball and not give the batter that extra width instead of allowing an umpire to call it even though part of the ball was over the corner? Strikeouts don’t sell seats. Home runs do.
rwood
Again, actual fans who attend games can't make the 7:05 time as is. With traffic, parking, getting into the stadium and finding your seat, the earlier time won't stick. MLB moved the game time from 7:30 to 7:05 about 5 years ago. I know why MLB wants to do it and it is to lessen the perception that the games are long, which they are, but that's baseball.
If you can't stay awake watching the games on TV, take a nap during the day.
The world won't come to an end.
“....to lessen the perception that the games are long, which they are, but that’s baseball.”
I’m not sure on this. The big money in the game is television contracts. I think the time change was for the sponsors of the network to get more prime time viewing of the commercials that sell the TV face time. And it was aimed at what they consider their base audience in the eastern US. This is why a majority of their games are east coast teams especially New York, Boston, D.C. as far west as Philadelphia. I’m on the west coast and unless it is a local network like Root here in the Seattle area, we see very little west coast teams unless they are a late game that may not get on until after their starting times and most on the west coast swing of the eastern clubs.
It’s for the money. That how they can afford to pay an outfielder with a lifetime average of .288 $11.5M in Philadelphia and a shortstop with a .286 average $9.6M in Seattle. If it wasn’t for TV, the leagues would be broke.
rwood
Yes, I agree with you on the TV contract. But the nationally televised games are limited. The real money is the local broadcast. Every single team has every game televised whether home or away on massive cable contracts, so should it matter that much locally on the time.
“.....so should it matter that much locally on the time.”
It definitely does. The east coast games starting at 7 p.m. can be exhibited to their base, and what they assume, is their major audience. And we see those in the west. The commercial time is premium. How big an audience would there be on the east coast at midnight on a work day? That’s the third inning on the west coast. That big audience they play to is in bed and won’t see the games. Wasted money and only the hard core fans will record it but generally go past the commercials anyway.
I’m in Tacoma. We get a number of games with the Mariners but we don’t get them all. Root saves money by piggy backing on other teams networks. So if they are playing Boston, whether at home or away, we get Boston’s televising crew and camera shots.
Only the big market teams have consistent televised games. If you’re in with a network, they might skip the game if they can’t get a feed and you’ll get a rerun of skateboarding from Ohio. I know, the skateboard gets even less air time than the baseball. Up here, that’s not particularly true. And I have had enough of the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Nationals, Mets, and Braves. Those are the big market teams we see part of or all of each day during the season starting in the spring. So our sports is very diverse, but not worth a $hit.
rwood
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