Come on MLB get with the program : ROBO UMPS

[johndw52]

Moved this from Toronto Umpires 

While umpire bias or influence can be a factor of some egregious calls, asking a human being to make an instantaneous decision based on near 100 mph pitch with near whiffle ball snap movements against an imaginary 3d zone 200 + times a game is next to impossible. The technology is now demonstrating this. The time to use and perfect this tech has become a necessity . Lets help these guys from becoming a total embarrassment. 

 

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[ukyah]

i agree and also use bird's eye technology.

[ScottT]

8 hours ago, johndw52 said:

Moved this from Toronto Umpires 

While umpire bias or influence can be a factor of some egregious calls, asking a human being to make an instantaneous decision based on near 100 mph pitch with near whiffle ball snap movements against an imaginary 3d zone 200 + times a game is next to impossible. The technology is now demonstrating this. The time to use and perfect this tech has become a necessity . Lets help these guys from becoming a total embarrassment. 

 

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I agree. The strike zone for two of the games in Toronto was wild.  It's difficult enough to hit these days.  Pitchers don't need called strikes off the inside, outside, high, and low.  Something has to change

[Taylor]

Umpires are the only profession that I want to see replaced by AI.

[Angel Oracle]

Get with it, Rob Manfraud.

Calling balls/strikes is different today, with increased velocity and spin rates.

Too many umps now are like Eric Gregg in the 1997 NLDS.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Angel Oracle

[Jason]

MLB ump Ángel Hernández under fire over egregious strike calls during Braves-Giants | Fox News

It's almost like these umps are purposely trying to get the robo umps to replace them. 

[Tank]

Laz Diaz missed the correct call on 20 pitches in yesterdays Twins-Pirates game. 

[Blarg]

The entire Rays series the umpires were terrible. It's not like it's just the usual suspects anymore. It is a league full of guys that can't see a baseball crossing dirt instead of the white dish. There were so many egregiously bad called strikes on pitches well out of the zone in that series and yet there is no appeal process for completely incompetent umpiring. 

[Second Base]

On 8/2/2023 at 7:21 AM, Taylor said:

Umpires are the only profession that I want to see replaced by AI.

That's a good point. I can't think of anything else where I feel AI should replace humans. Maybe driving a vehicle too, but that's a dangerous precedent to set. 

[Lazorko Saves]

Robo strike zone ain't AI, folks.  It's a bunch of entirely deterministic static code, just like a barcode scanner at the grocery store.

AI strike zone would mean the machines would teach themselves what the strike zone should be.  Which means it would probably end up being worse than Eric Gregg eventually.

[Jason]

9 minutes ago, Blarg said:

The entire Rays series the umpires were terrible. It's not like it's just the usual suspects anymore. It is a league full of guys that can't see a baseball crossing dirt instead of the white dish. There were so many egregiously bad called strikes on pitches well out of the zone in that series and yet there is no appeal process for completely incompetent umpiring. 

They almost have it as good as a politician or judge. 

[floplag]

I have always hated this, but id be lying if i said the quality of late supported my argument.
I wonder though the impact it would have on the game as, lets be real, no ump is calling the right strike zone on high pitches... that would change literally every batters swings. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The machine could have an Angel Hernandez mode, when it would call balls and strikes randomly regardless of where the pitch is.

[VladdyforHOF]

Ten years ago I would have said I'd like to see umpires stick around. Keep the game feeling classic. Like how could you have a baseball game without umpires, it would just feel too weird.

Now I'm all for losing them. I follow a lot of feeds on Instagram that show the terrible calls made my umpires around the league daily. It's actually insane. I just watched a guy strike out looking on 3 straight blatant balls. Almost like the umpire was blatantly trying to screw over the hitter. And why can't some of these calls be challenged like base plays? It was Angel Hernandez.

You could say the good calls and bad calls even out over time. Well... maybe. It depends. Imagine a bad call in a big situation in the 9th inning that contributes to a loss more than any umpiring call should. That could affect not only that game for the team, but the next week of play, or how things go for the next month... you can't measure the negative carryover affect.

[Jeff Fletcher]

Although I understand that some form of automated strike zone is coming, I just want to make sure you guys understand that umpires today are actually the best they’ve ever been. 
 

It seems like they are worse because before we didn’t have the technology to evaluate them at all. 
 

But go on YouTube and watch a game from the 20th century sometime. 

[floplag]

7 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Although I understand that some form of automated strike zone is coming, I just want to make sure you guys understand that umpires today are actually the best they’ve ever been. 
 

It seems like they are worse because before we didn’t have the technology to evaluate them at all. 
 

But go on YouTube and watch a game from the 20th century sometime. 

This is so true... its hardly a new thing. 

[VladdyforHOF]

39 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Although I understand that some form of automated strike zone is coming, I just want to make sure you guys understand that umpires today are actually the best they’ve ever been. 
 

It seems like they are worse because before we didn’t have the technology to evaluate them at all. 
 

But go on YouTube and watch a game from the 20th century sometime. 

This is true indeed. But it's time for change. We don't cross-compare different eras of baseball much. Nothing from the steroid era or dead ball era or any other area applies to today's era of MLB. Everything is OPS+ now as it should be. Comparing today's game to only today.

Every fan at home is an umpire now with the virtual strike zone box on the telecast. So having that available for everyone to see while still using a human behind the plate to make calls just based on their subjective eyesight is almost like merging different eras.

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 hour ago, VladdyforHOF said:

This is true indeed. But it's time for change. We don't cross-compare different eras of baseball much. Nothing from the steroid era or dead ball era or any other area applies to today's era of MLB. Everything is OPS+ now as it should be. Comparing today's game to only today.

Every fan at home is an umpire now with the virtual strike zone box on the telecast. So having that available for everyone to see while still using a human behind the plate to make calls just based on their subjective eyesight is almost like merging different eras.

Understood. 
 

my point is that you shouldn’t be criticizing the umps. You should be criticizing MLB for not using the technology. 
 

Maybe that’s semantics. It’s just a pet peeve of mine whenever I hear people say things “umpires have gotten so bad”

[Slegnaac]

As long as MLB is making fundamental changes to the game, ghost runner, bigger bases, limited pick off attempts,  why don't they create a Static strike zone.  Why should the zone change based on the height of the player?  You don't see that happening in Cricket.   

[Jay]

Even with Robo the upper and lower strike zone will be a bit arbitrary.

 

[johndw52]

I can see it now 10 years into the future......

Angel Robotez misses another call !

 

[Swordsman78]

Has anyone asked the umpires what they want?  Maybe the umps want help too, and there can be a happy medium.  I'm sure the umps are doing their best to get the calls right.

No doubt the umps also see all the missed calls and as professionals it must bother them.

[Angel Oracle]

On 8/21/2023 at 2:01 PM, Jeff Fletcher said:

Although I understand that some form of automated strike zone is coming, I just want to make sure you guys understand that umpires today are actually the best they’ve ever been. 
 

It seems like they are worse because before we didn’t have the technology to evaluate them at all. 
 

But go on YouTube and watch a game from the 20th century sometime. 

It will be harder to see though, since the strike zone wasn’t imposed on the screen back then.

[Stradling]

6 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

It will be harder to see though, since the strike zone wasn’t imposed on the screen back then.

It isn’t imposed on the screen now. You get the networks interpretation of the strike zone.  Do you really see the box change size based on the height of the batter?

[Jay]

2 hours ago, Stradling said:

It isn’t imposed on the screen now. You get the networks interpretation of the strike zone.  Do you really see the box change size based on the height of the batter?

And the top of the box is supposed to be midway between the batter's shoulders and the top of his pants. Usually the top of the box on the tv screen is at the top of the batter's pants.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Jay