CaCO3Girl posted:
How would the computer account for the batter that moves? While in THEORY the batter should be set, but what if they scrunch down as the ball is coming in....would the computer be able to adjust to the NEW strike zone that batter just created?
The STRIKE ZONE is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball. (For diagram of STRIKE ZONE see Appendix 5.)
There are likely a lot of different ways to interpret “the batter’s stance as s/he’s prepared to swing at a pitched ball” so I’m fairly sure everything from having the zone based strictly on a player’s height to having it adjusted for every pitch would eventually be backed by someone.
That being said, something that can’t be argued is that once programmed, a computer will make the correct “adjustments” much more consistently than any human. Remember, the computer will make the same “adjustment” no matter what, while those same “adjustments” will be made differently for every umpire and every differing set of conditions.