quote:Originally posted by Mr Umpire:
First, you are not facing 90+ mph pitches. Get a few of those under your elbows and you will not get the first hit. Not even close. Even MLB hitters let them go b/c they know the umpire won't call it. If a computer calls it, more will complain and fewer will be able to hit it. Most get upset now when the umpire calls it in the middle of the plate at the top of the zone.
I’m not understanding the purpose of that. Are you saying the umpire calls pitches based on what the hitters complain or don’t complain about?
quote:Second, some of the best pitchers in baseball would never have been there with computers calling the straight zone. There may be 5 waiting to get there but there will be a lot shorter careers. Less time for fans to know players and follow them. There is already this complaint due to free agency. Now, you want to throw in shorter careers on top of that.
How would using technology to call pitches control whether or not anyone made it to the pros? I can’t see any way levels below affiliated pro ball will be able to afford the technology, so it will be the very same people making it into the pro system.
Why do you feel careers will be shortened?
quote:Players adjusting to the umpire is as much part of it as adjusting to the pitcher and defense. They have to adjust to the pitch as it comes in. Making the game easier for the hitter does NOT make the game better. The more challenging, the better feeling of reward when something is accomplished. Many competitors and athletes will tell you that.
Making the game easier for the hitter doesn’t mean its harder for the pitcher, giving the hitter some kind of huge advantage. And if you don’t find it challenging to try to throw a baseball so a hitter won’t hit it well, or to hit that 90+ under the elbows on the inside corner, I don’t know how anything else would challenge you.
quote:Also, fans are a little smarter than you seem to give them credit. They may not know the rules of the game but many can stand on their own 2 feet about things. Spoken like a true out of touch computer.
What is it I don’t give fans credit for?
quote:As a computer, you are missing the finer points of the game already in your argument for computers and IR. Very similar to what a computer will do and thus miss the point of having human umpires over computer ones.
I don’t know how or why you’ve decided to make things personal by name-calling, even though that name isn’t personally derogatory to me.
I understand the “finer” points of the game as much or more than you. But, I don’t equate doing something wrong with being a positive thing, just to keep things from changing.
I’ll say once again. The game is controlled by 30 votes. If 16 of those votes say they’re gonna try using technology to call the pitch relative to the strike zone, that’s what’s gonna happen. If ML umpires don’t like it, they can protest to the point of going on strike if they like, but I doubt they’ll get their way. The only thing that will sway those votes, is the fans staying away to the point where the bottom line is hurt. Now if you really believe that the fans will do that in protest to pitches being called accurately, then we have an honest difference of opinion.
I really don’t think the fans care all that much about whether there’s an umpire doing it or a machine. Its not as though the PU would disappear, but rather that he’d cede one portion of his duties to something better qualified to carry out the rules completely fairly and without prejudice.