Robo strikezone: Not as simple as you think -- Baseball Prospectus
- Thread starter charlieoscar
- Start date
ABS overturns a strike 3 call.
Next pitch is hammered for a home run
View: https://twitter.com/redsontherise/status/1657542803507888129?s=46
Next pitch is hammered for a home run
View: https://twitter.com/redsontherise/status/1657542803507888129?s=46
So baseball's powers have looked at the landscape of sports today and decided that what baseball needs is more video reviews and challenges?
That is so stupid. Just give the umps a silent buzzer that buzzes their wrist every time a pitch hits the strike zone. That's it. That's the only change you need (along with the umps being reviewed and scored based on the calls that they make that don't align with the buzzer.)
Making it challenge-based is just stupid. The umps could miss calls all day but if you don't challenge, then nothing happens. If you run out of challenges, then the umps' missed calls could screw your team multiple times in huge at-bats. It's uneccessary and just wrong. Anyone who watches the Premier League and/or the NBA knows that video reviews and challenges are awful.
That is so stupid. Just give the umps a silent buzzer that buzzes their wrist every time a pitch hits the strike zone. That's it. That's the only change you need (along with the umps being reviewed and scored based on the calls that they make that don't align with the buzzer.)
Making it challenge-based is just stupid. The umps could miss calls all day but if you don't challenge, then nothing happens. If you run out of challenges, then the umps' missed calls could screw your team multiple times in huge at-bats. It's uneccessary and just wrong. Anyone who watches the Premier League and/or the NBA knows that video reviews and challenges are awful.
At the risk of being the old man yelling at clouds, I agree. I hate challenges and replays. I have never been real big on watching football, but the challenges, reviews, and wasted time have made it unwatchable for me. On the other hand, I love watching baseball and don't want to see it ruined by interminable delays while we figure out whether a pitch was an eighth of an inch inside or outside the strike zone. So I agree with Gray Eagle -- get the robot in place and signal the ump. If the ump sees something that is obviously off, let him or her call it. But PLEASE no replay on balls and strikes!
I'll go away now and chase the kids off my lawn.
I love trying to get calls correct via video in every sport, flaws and all. I stopped attending live sports a while back and I almost always watch via delayed DVR, so they’re easy to forward through and presumably they get more right than they fuck up. There’s nothing more frustrating than your team losing on a bad call, replay review cuts that down some at least.
I don’t think you’re yelling at clouds. Having to challenge bad strike zone calls is so obviously idiotic. The umps miss dozens of calls a game. Let the robots call balls and strikes.
On the one hand, yeah, letting the robot call balls and strikes is better.
On the other hand, these challenges are super-quick. Watch that clip: even with a challenge it's still faster between pitches than most pitches were last year. It's not like football where they spend 60 seconds looking at the video and interrupting the flow of play.
On the other hand, these challenges are super-quick. Watch that clip: even with a challenge it's still faster between pitches than most pitches were last year. It's not like football where they spend 60 seconds looking at the video and interrupting the flow of play.
Having seen the challenge system in action with the WooSox, I have to say I love it. Very quick, the scoreboard graphic is very satisfying in its precision, and you preserve some strategy/tactical advantage in the game through catchers' and batters' knowledge of the strike zone.
No challenges, just tell the umps what the “right” call is via some progressive bio feedback mechanism (like a cuff that squeezes your pinkie harder the more certain the system thinks it was a strike). At some point when the tech is there add a heads up display with real time info. Let the umps become kind of cyborg-like - enhanced humans with decisive, final power. Judge Dredd in blue.
Right. I don't think many robo-strike zone proponents ever wanted a challenge system. I want the human element out of it entirely. The system should be calling the balls and strikes. Not the ump.
Yeah I'm with you here. If it's as fast as a tennis challenge, then I'm ok with it.
Interestingly, tennis has completely phased out challenges as well as linespeople, the electronic call is the call and there’s no way to appeal because the call’s already been made electronically. Tennis is much easier to call correctly with electronics than baseball and its three-dimensional strike zone.
I supported it from the beginning, but a new reason I like the idea of a robo ump calling balls and strikes is that I think the human umps can then focus more attention and energy on getting pitch clock calls correct. Some of those seem challenging. Or at least more than I thought it would be.
Let the umps do that better. Bring on the robots for balls and strikes.
Let the umps do that better. Bring on the robots for balls and strikes.
I had some fun with the umpscorecards site.
30 out of the 86 umpires have an average favor of .5 run per game or higher towards one team or another based on balls and strikes.
I took a look at 1 and 2 run games where these umps favor was higher than .5 and found there were 18 such games that could have cost teams wins and losses from a subjective strike zone.
Sox fans will be thrilled to know that the Yanks and Jays have potentially benefited from a game each.
The majority of these games would only have affected these games by a run, meaning the mistakes made by umps could have just helped or hurt a team to tie a game rather than go ahead
Other notes of interest
-76 of the 720 games called through yesterday were 1 run games.
-Of those, 30 were impacted by half a run from umpires calls.
-15 additional games were impacted between .33 and .49 runs by ump favor. Individually, Sox potential outcomes under these circumstances affected 5 games this season. It negatively impacted the Sox by a net of 1 game.
-The Reds lost 3 games where they were negatively impacted by the strike zone by .5 a run or more. There are several teams within a game or two in the standings which also means that draft positioning is likely being affected.
TL/DR, Umps have way too much impact, not just playoff wise, but bullpen deployment but also in draft positioning which is way underrated. A flawed robo system is most definitely a net positive.
30 out of the 86 umpires have an average favor of .5 run per game or higher towards one team or another based on balls and strikes.
I took a look at 1 and 2 run games where these umps favor was higher than .5 and found there were 18 such games that could have cost teams wins and losses from a subjective strike zone.
Sox fans will be thrilled to know that the Yanks and Jays have potentially benefited from a game each.
The majority of these games would only have affected these games by a run, meaning the mistakes made by umps could have just helped or hurt a team to tie a game rather than go ahead
Other notes of interest
-76 of the 720 games called through yesterday were 1 run games.
-Of those, 30 were impacted by half a run from umpires calls.
-15 additional games were impacted between .33 and .49 runs by ump favor. Individually, Sox potential outcomes under these circumstances affected 5 games this season. It negatively impacted the Sox by a net of 1 game.
-The Reds lost 3 games where they were negatively impacted by the strike zone by .5 a run or more. There are several teams within a game or two in the standings which also means that draft positioning is likely being affected.
TL/DR, Umps have way too much impact, not just playoff wise, but bullpen deployment but also in draft positioning which is way underrated. A flawed robo system is most definitely a net positive.
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