MLB Needs Robots to Call Strikes/Balls

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 28, 2008 10:16 AM EDT

That's Kazmir's normalized strike zone plot for the game. Here's his last at-bat against Pat Burrell:

Pitches 6 and 4 were either fouls or swinging strikes with pitch 1 being a favorable called strike. Where did pitches 5 and 9 miss? Well, I don't know, actually. Even the Fox Track thing, which I don't entirely trust, had them within the strike zone. Essentially Kazmir struck Burrell out, twice. Instead Burrell walked, Kazmir was lifted, and Grant Balfour had to work his way out of a jam.

I'm not going to say that if we had robot strike callers last night the outcome would've been different. For one, knowing MLB, the robots would've short circuited in the rain, and two, using results based analysis we know the game is tied. However I question the judgment of anyone who places tradition or anything else over getting calls like these right in every game, and especially in the biggest games.

It hasn't changed the outcome of the series, but when the gold standard of umpires are getting this many calls wrong, it might time to implement instant replay and robots.

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the only problem I could see with robot umps is properly setting the high/low boundaries of the strike zone

are we sure they’re accurate?

but other than that, i’m all for it. you simply have the home plate ump hold some sort of receiver that tells him whether each pitch is a strike or a ball and he relays that information to the pitcher/fans in whatever human-like why he sees fit. (I’m assuming pitch f/x calculates in under a second — am i right?)

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Oct 28, 2008 10:37 AM EDT reply actions

Within two inches of accuracy.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 28, 2008 10:40 AM EDT up reply actions

seems like we should expect better

how about GPS relays in player uniforms?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Oct 28, 2008 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions

From Brooks Baseball too

Think someone’s getting squeezed?
Strikezone maps plot all of the calls made by the home plate umpire for the entire game:
Normalized Strikezone Maps For This Game (LHH, RHH, and Combined)

Basically he wasn’t calling high or low strikes, but called some occasional wide strikes. I think umpires as a whole have a tendency to do that, but last night was pretty extreme. A lot of those calls were just awful.

by VictorW on Oct 28, 2008 10:39 AM EDT reply actions

No need for Robots

There’s no need for robots…we just need to find better human umpires…a lot of these umps have been in the game for years and are too stubborn and have too much control over the game. The ball and strike calls in this series have been some of the worst I’ve ever seen…there is absolutely no reason to ever call a strike on a pitch that is off the plate. The borderline low and high strikes don’t bother me as much because at least they are over the plate and more hittable than a pitch off the plate.

Kazmir threw a breaking pitch on the right hand side of the plate last night that Navarro caught just off the plate but there is no way he could have caught it where he did unless it crossed home plate while it was breaking…but the ump called it a ball…Kazmir seems to be getting squeezed the most of any pitcher in this series.

by antone on Oct 28, 2008 11:12 AM EDT reply actions

Union makes that an impossibility

The way to get the union is to agree is to require them to be less competent and hire more of them. So have another ump to make sure the robot is working properly.

Vogt early, Vogt often.

by Brickhaus on Oct 29, 2008 8:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Is Kellogg Burrell's Brother-in-law?

Burrell’s first at-bat was worse. Kazmir threw two beautiful strikes after 2-1 and both were called balls, thus facilitating the Phillies’ two runs when Victorino singled afterward.

I wrote an article some years ago calling for the laser strike zone. Here is a link:

http://www.spectator.org/archives/2005/08/24/zoning-variance

by Jay D. Homnick on Oct 28, 2008 1:54 PM EDT reply actions

Further proof that R.J. Anderson hates baseball.

J.K.L.

by Aaron Campeau on Oct 28, 2008 4:18 PM EDT reply actions

You try calling balls and strikes when you can't see

Just sayin’. Look at the games where the weather wasn’t more of a factor than the fielding and hitting.

(Iirc, for instance, Saturday’s game featured a HP umpire who consistently gave calls to batters on the black, but balanced that some by calling high-ish strikes. But he was consistent for all pitchers, just as a robot sh/would be..)

by klhoughton on Oct 28, 2008 5:05 PM EDT reply actions