I’m not talking about a 5 second delay
Or even a 2 second delay
The technology available can post the ball or strike within 1 second.
I frequently see umpires take longer than that to make the call now.
The pitch comes in, they slowly stand up and either just pick their nose or flick their hand out and/or up and mumble something we interpret as “strike”
Verbal calls are often made before they motion. And I’m talking about a specific situation where a 1-second delay is unacceptable. Granted it’s a not a often. I like the human element of umpires. I just want them to be better at it.
This. This right here.
Maybe Altuve can loan the umps his buzzer
I understand that
But there are 2 issues here.
The human element is fine. If an umpire sees a pitch an inch off the corner as a strike. It must be crazy difficult to see and KNOW what is a strike and a ball for borderline pitches.
I’m fine with those calls being missed, eventhough technology can change it.
But then there is the different zones. Each umpire has his own strikezone and it may change from game to game or even inning to inning.
Maybe he has sore knees today so bends his knees less today than normal so “his” strikezone is 1 or 2 inches higher than normal.
Maybe a catcher sets up an inch or 2 to the left so his field of vision is further left than he is used to so he calls all pitches on the first base edge the plate balls.
So he has a different strikezone for one pitcher than the other.
All these things are human elements. It’s impossible for a human to be exact and the same day after day.
And what about how it effects the hitters and pitchers. If an umpire calls every pitch that is at the knees a ball, then that is a specific advantage to some pitchers and disadvantage to others strictly because of their style and pitches.
No pitcher or hitter should get an advantage or disadvantage because of who the umpire is or how he calls the game.
We don’t live in a perfect world. Nothing will ever be ideal. I just prefer as little variation and inconsistency as possible.
The ability to fix this is there
I know we all have different opinions. Mine is to use automated strike zone
And I agree there needs to be some program to grade the umpires that effects them.
a program to reward and discipline performance.
Use data collected to rank umpires at various positions and calls.
Maybe use that data to choose who gets postseason games and all star games, etc that would include major bonuses?
Also use that data to decide who does not get chosen for games when there are days off and fewer umpires are needed at reduced income for fewer games.
Hit them in the wallet
1000% correct.
I just want an accurate zone called consistently.
I don’t care if it’s a human or a robot or a mechanized statue of Zeus.
Lindbergh doing his normal good work…
This is now my formal position on the topic.
The current strike zone technology is both accurate and insanely fast - after all, we watch it in real-time on TV. It would seem to me that if you give both the umpire and the catcher an RF earpiece, the ball/strike call could easily be relayed to them within 100ms. That would likely beat even the best umpire’s and catcher’s reaction times.
If you don’t want the catcher to wear a bodypack receiver (which aren’t very bulky these days, but nevertheless) then throw some R&D money at Shure or Sennheiser and have them find a way to build the wireless receiver into their chest protector.
Or make the umpire’s earpiece both internal & external, or a separate external speaker to announce ball and strike calls loudly enough for batter/catcher to hear them.
I’m on board with the external speaker if each batter gets to choose the voice used, like on Waze.
The Samuel L Jackson voice is only available after the 4th inning of night games.
I thought about a speaker, but it could get drowned out by a loud crowd.
Or trash cans banging.
No more so than an umpire calling ball/strike would in Hudson’s scenario.
As long as the speaker was close/loud enough for the catcher and hitter to hear, it would be no different than a human yelling it. It would have to be either very loud or extremely close to the plate.
Or the plate itself could be the speaker.
“Home plate, brought to you by JBL.”
Waldo already has a deal with Sennheiser.