Come on MLB get with the program : ROBO UMPS

[Stradling]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

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.

I’m in favor of robo umps because I’d rather have the calls be right, side to side should be consistent. 

[Jay]

So in reality the strike zone should look something like this:

[Duren, Duren]

Now that they have the strike zone box superimposed for every pitch the margin for bad calls is far different than it used to be. 

It was just the accepted wisdom  in the past that 'each ump has his own strike zone.' And players were responsible for knowing the differences between each ump. That was a loose folksy way of operating. And second guessing calls couldn't be validated empirically. 

Now the standards are higher. And raise the bar for umpire accuracy. Which never will be 100% because of normal human frailty in vision and perception. So it's tough for the umps. Even at 95% plus they still may call critical pitches wrong. Before that computer generated box only the batter or pitcher were close enough to argue. 

As an example of how one wrong call affects an at bat, look at a game from a few days ago. Ohtani is at bat. The first pitch is way outside, noted even by the broadcasters. But called a strike. So Ohtani has to protect defensively against the outside pitches, assuming anything close will be called a strike. Eventually he does swing at two pitches that actually were located close enough to not take. Both right at or slightly off the outside strike zone line. He misses them both and strikes out. Had the first pitch properly been called a ball the at bat changes. The pitcher can't be sure that those marginal pitches will be called strikes. And the count starts off in Ohtani's favor. 

Those type scenarios can t happen multiple times in games. Maybe 'the human factor' is worth preserving for traditionalists. And I understand that view. But because we have the technology and see the strike zone graphically on every pitch it makes it hard for fans to accept obvious mistakes. Most would have leniency for very close pitches, but too often we see some pretty bad calls. 

Ted Williams would have loved robot umps. He worked hard making mental maps of the strike zone and knew exactly how he did against pitches in each area. If the zone was static and predictable in his era he may have had even more outstanding numbers. 

The technology and it's implementation will have to be perfected first. And maybe just used on a set number of challenges. But having a higher accuracy should be the goal.

 

[johndw52]

Do these umps get mandatory vision tests at least 2x a year?  Love to see a published list. Angel Hernandez results. I know their union would never permit that.