More stuff to make baseball purists angry

[TheMaus2]

Well, how about this?
MLB 2.0: Re-imagining baseball -- Time for robot umpires behind home plate

[TGH-Adfabre]

As long as they implement the quality controls properly I am in. I read a Baseball Prospectus or BB Reference article about the inaccuracy of the Pitchf/x graphic that is shown on the broadcast during games.

I have not seen any proponent post studies showing that the correct zone, for each player, is implemented.
I am interested in the details of how they would implement this. The last article I found explained that they use 3 cameras to track the ball speed and flight. The top and bottom of the strike zone is selected before each at bat bu a tech in CF.
I am curious about system redundancy, strike zone mapping and other technical implementation aspects.
I will continue to operate under the assumption that this will be poorly implemented in a borderline competent manner until MLB makes a complete fool of themselves. Then they may do a good job implementing it.

[actionjackson]

What do you do with a player who insists on using a Rickey Henderson type crouch? What does that strike zone look like?

[psd]

Have the player stand up straight. The computer maps out the zone from the top of the knee to just below the armpits. This is what i was always told to me to be the strike zone. They store the info for every player in the computer. The computer will also have the home plate zone mapped out. They punch in the players name or ID number, whichever they have the computer use, & his map appears on the home plate mapping. Voila. A strike zone for every player. It wouldnt be that difficult to implement I wouldnt think. Every strike zone will be for that specific player only. So if a player wants to crouch real low, as long as the ball passes through the map, it would be called a strike. Even if its at his eye level now due to his crouch. If done properly & its accurate, I would be all for it. A real strike zone. Imagine that. We dont have one now. Some pitchers get a much wider strike zone than others (Mariano Riveras used to be quite generous.) David Ortiz, who argues WAY too much, gets a much wider zone. Those would be gone, as would the arguments. It would be fantastic.

[cephasjames]

Couldn't a strike zone be determined with sensors? Sensors on home plate that measure the left and right plains. Sensors on the player's uniforms where the upper and lower plains are. This would be easier said than done, I'm sure.

[TGH-Adfabre]

This is old:

Baseball Prospectus | Spinning Yarn: How Accurate is PitchTrax?

This has more interesting links than I can count:

The PITCHf/x System

Like this:

http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu...ousCameras.pdf

[kq76]

Here's a question: should we really have a strike zone that depends on a guy's height or crouch? We don't say, "oh, that guy can't run fast so we'll only require him to run 45 feet to get a base hit" nor "oh, he has no power, we'll only require he hit the ball 300 feet to dead center for a home run". No, that'd be absurd. Yeah, it'd suck if you were really tall or really short, but tough. Not everyone is born with speed, power, or a good eye either.

[jollyschwa]

Originally Posted by kq76

Here's a question: should we really have a strike zone that depends on a guy's height or crouch?

Yes.

[slic1149]

Originally Posted by kq76

Here's a question: should we really have a strike zone that depends on a guy's height or crouch? We don't say, "oh, that guy can't run fast so we'll only require him to run 45 feet to get a base hit" nor "oh, he has no power, we'll only require he hit the ball 300 feet to dead center for a home run". No, that'd be absurd. Yeah, it'd suck if you were really tall or really short, but tough. Not everyone is born with speed, power, or a good eye either.

A strike zone based on height would give a tremendous advantage to a pitcher. I could see it taking the game back to the late 60s. More importantly I think that it would destroy careers of great offensive players. Can you imagine what it would have done to Rickey Henderson? The bottom line is a crouch is a part of each hitters DNA. Making a sudden change would be game changing. I am not certain the net effect would be good for baseball.

I believe the solution is to have designated Home Plate umpires. This would reduce the amount of strike zones for a hitter and pitcher to adjust to. In addition there are simply umps who are better at calling balls and strikes. Select the umpires who are the best at that part of their craft. Why should umpires rotate. Put umpires in the position on the field where they do their best job. I am not for increased technology, I am in favor of better umpires.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by slic1149

A strike zone based on height would give a tremendous advantage to a pitcher. I could see it taking the game back to the late 60s. More importantly I think that it would destroy careers of great offensive players. Can you imagine what it would have done to Rickey Henderson?

Rickey was a great player and I loved watching him, but I seem to recall some people were really unhappy with his crouch. Some even going so far as insinuating he was cheating.

Wasn't using Eddie Gaedel against the spirit of the game? I sure think it was.

It'd be like having different basketball hoop heights based on the height of the player. That'd be ridiculous.

I admit, I don't really see it as a huge issue as it is now (we don't know any different), but if we were to one day go to an automated balls and strikes system, I think it would only make sense to make it one strike zone size for all. I'm sure the reason why it is how it is now is only because it'd be asking too much of the umps when they don't have the visual guide of the player to base it on as they do now. Imagine the controversy if they didn't and it was clear to everyone watching on tv that the 5'6 guy had a much smaller strike zone he had to deal with versus the strike zone the 6'6 guy had to deal with. Besides, I'm not entirely convinced umpires right now don't at least somewhat standardize their strike zone.

[jollyschwa]

Wouldn't we eventually start discriminating based on height? I don't see it relating to something like speed because if you're slow there are still four other aspects of the game you can excel at. But if you don't even get a chance to play because you're to tall or short... that would pretty much suck.

Probably wouldn't take long before teams figured out the ideal height and only signed guys within an inch, up or down, of that number.

[slic1149]

Originally Posted by kq76

Rickey was a great player and I loved watching him, but I seem to recall some people were really unhappy with his crouch. Some even going so far as insinuating he was cheating.

Wasn't using Eddie Gaedel against the spirit of the game? I sure think it was.

It'd be like having different basketball hoop heights based on the height of the player. That'd be ridiculous.

I admit, I don't really see it as a huge issue as it is now (we don't know any different), but if we were to one day go to an automated balls and strikes system, I think it would only make sense to make it one strike zone size for all. I'm sure the reason why it is how it is now is only because it'd be asking too much of the umps when they don't have the visual guide of the player to base it on as they do now. Imagine the controversy if they didn't and it was clear to everyone watching on tv that the 5'6 guy had a much smaller strike zone he had to deal with versus the strike zone the 6'6 guy had to deal with. Besides, I'm not entirely convinced umpires right now don't at least somewhat standardize their strike zone.

In the case of Eddie Gaedel, using him as a "real" baseball player was correctly and immediately forbidden by the commissioner. In regard to MLB, it seems to me that they have a pretty good handle on the spirit of the game. In fact I might even contend that if having a midget on the team, to draw walks, is against the spirit of the game, why wouldn't the "spirit" be just as offended with robots calling balls and strikes, and players unable to use their preferred batting stance. If we are trying to find a more consistent strike zone? The answer, I think, is having the best home plate umpires at home plate every game.

When it comes to Rickey, my point is his crouch was his signature. Both the umpire and the pitcher knew what he was going to do before he went to the plate. Rickey was consistent, if he had altered his stance based on the count I would agree he was cheating. But I do not believe that was the case.

Everyone complains about umpiring. Hell any kind of sports officiating comes in for constant scrutiny. However we pay millions to players who fail the majority of the time. Human error on the playing field is part of the game whether it be the players or the officials. It is also true players are let go if they can't perform. It would be nice if officials faced the same fate.