When San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner threw a complete-game shutout against the Diamondbacks in his team’s final game before the All Star break, around ten of his pitches were called wrongly.
And that’s not a criticism of home plate umpire Mike DiMuro, who was calling balls and strikes.
It’s just a statistical fact that at AT&T Park that day, as at all of the 2,430 games during the MLB regular season, 15 per cent of those calls were made in error.
We know this, thanks to PITCHf/x technology.
This is included in a free MLB.com At Bat app that allows anyone, including fans at the stadium, to know within a couple of seconds when such wrong calls have been made. It is installed in every MLB stadium.
Perhaps it’s no wonder there are some boos directed at “Blue” behind the plate.
Surely, then, it’s only a matter of time until there’s an automated strike zone – so that each pitch is instantly ruled a ball or strike by computer.
There would still be a job for the home plate umpire to do. Not just relaying this verbally and by gesture, but also ruling on things like tags on runners crossing home plate or catcher interference.
Sure, many of them would argue against taking away their ability to call balls and strikes. The Umpires’ Union could well prove a stumbling block to the introduction of automated strike zones.
Mistakes are inherent in sport officiating, they would say, and – quite rightly – no team or player benefits any more than any other.
Similar arguments have been overcome already. Among the sports to have accepted what’s collectively called Hawk Eye technology are tennis, soccer, volleyball and badminton.
Baseball itself has done so since the start of last season. Just about the only thing it can’t currently be used for in a game is to rule on balls and strikes.
Bumgarner, in the July 10 game against Arizona, had a no-hitter going into the eighth inning. He’d lost the chance of a perfect game in the fifth, due to an error.
Not by DiMuro, but by his fielder, Gregor Blanco. And for however long baseball is played, you will never see an end to fielding errors.
They, truly, are part of the game. So, currently, are the errors made by DiMuro and his colleagues.
But do we honestly want to continue with a situation where, every regular season, more than 360 potentially crucial umpiring errors are made that could be eliminated by one signature from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s pen?
Yet it’s by no means certain to happen any time soon.
Former MLB outfielder Eric Byrnes, a vocal supporter of automated strike zones since his retirement, told the Toronto Star’s Brendan Kennedy: “Whether or not it happens in our lifetimes, I don’t know.”
Mike
Guest
If the mistakes can be eliminated, they should be eliminated. Why in the world should everyone on the planet know there was a mistake made EXCEPT for the guy making the call? Umpires are only part of the game because they've needed to be. To the extent they can be eliminated, that's a good thing. The point should always be to get the call right....period. If we have the technology in place to do that, why wouldn't we? And why would we allow replay for out/safe, or fair/foul when that may only come into play once or twice per game yet balls and strikes are a couple hunder per game with 15% error rate??? This really is a no brainer.
Post hoc
Guest
I hope they don't bring it in, we have to allow human imperfection into the game, it is part of it, the simple facts are people make mistakes, hitters make mistakes fielders make mistakes. It is part of the game, you can not eliminate every variable. Plus it gives something for fans to talk about after the game. So long as an umpire (or referee) is consistent for both teams then what is the real problem?
no one in particular
Roar Guru
It's not really a good idea. Baseball is essentially pitcher vs batter. As a former pitcher, I can tell you that the tendencies of the home plate umpire are very much part of the game, knowing what he will or want call is all part of the process. Pitch framing is imprtant too. The strikezone, by its very nature, is subjective There are umpires who call a large strikzone, and others that call a small one. Just look at the strike %, walk rate and rpg of an umpire like Bill Miller and Eric Cooper, compared to an umpire like Brian Gorman. Over the course of 162 games or a 2592 game season, the calls all even out
Andy Morris
Roar Rookie
I will try to find out the answer to that, Linphoma. Meantime, I must admit one glaring error in my piece, which was my math. The 15 per cent error rate is right, but when you extrapolate that over a full MLB regular season the total I came up with was WAAAAY off. Let's figure around 290 pitches thrown per game. 15 per cent being 43.5, times the 2,430 games. That comes to more than 100,000 wrong calls on balls and strikes!
Linphoma
Guest
Interesting? Is there any discussion in MLB on the matter? Amongst the players, managers, owners, commissioners? Has Joe Torre ever had it mentioned at any official level in the game?
Andy Morris
Roar Rookie
There are a lot of people who feel the way your friends do, Joe. The reasons why it may just happen are: a) they brought in Instant Replay and it worked; b) they've changed the rules subsequently in a way that significantly changed what both baserunners and fielders have to do. I haven't heard too many people complain about the results.
joe
Guest
I agree they needed to implement an automated strike zone years ago but I doubt it will ever happen.I doubt the players union would go for it & baseball in general is slow to implement change. I've sat with friends & watched games & see the umpire totally screw up a ball/strike call & my friends seem ok with it saying it's "part of the game". I don't get that thinking basically saying regular errors by an umpire is ok as its always been that way so let's keep it going.