Quote:
Originally Posted by Westheim
Stretching the strike zone would get players to swing earlier in the count, and thus put balls in play earlier. Since they can't wait for that one mistake pitch, it would also drive down homers, and prevent every count from running full, speeding up the game. Since pitchers throw fewer pitches per at-bat, starters can go deeper into the game, requiring fewer pitching changes, thus speeding up the game again.
You must admit that this sounds good on paper.
Maybe too good to be true!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kq76
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From the article: The strike zone. It’s bigger than it’s ever been. That leads to strikeouts, obviously, which also leads to a suppression of ball-in-play totals.
Lowrie has noticed and thinks that we could improve the pace of the game and put more balls in play with one easy solution. “If you look in the last 10 years, the called strike zone has gotten three square inches bigger, mostly to the bottom of the zone. Runs per game are down almost a full run…, the average game time has gone up 25 minutes, and pitches per at-bat have gone up one full pitch,” he pointed out. “If you make the strike zone smaller, you force the pitchers to throw the ball in the zone, and guys will swing earlier in the count… One fewer pitch per at-bat, at 30 seconds: that’s a lot of time.”
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Seems like having a smaller strike zone is better than having a larger one. Maybe a Robo Ump that actually uses the official zone rather than artifically widening would help.