Article: Have the Twins been screwed by umpires?

[Mike Sixel]

no, the competition is not fair. If Tom Glavine gets pitches called strikes the opponents don't, that is not fair. If certain hitters get more calls in their favor than others, that is not fair.

 

Should a better chess player get to move his pieces differently? Should a great tennis player get balls called in that are out? Should a great basketball player get to push off (Jordan) and foul other players and not have a foul called? No, no, no. The rules should be enforced the same for everyone.

[OldManWinter]

Honest Mistakes Or Differences In Judgement Can Be Accepted.

 

But, The Percentage Of Discrepancy IS Too Great For This To Be Purely "Honest Mistakes".

 

If Technology Was Used Immediately After Each Game To Evaluate The Calls, And Umps Were Then Penalized FinancialLy For Bad Balls&StrikeS, They Would Get It Right .... Or $Uffer.

[Mike Sixel]

The human element should be about the players and coaches....not the umpires, imo. I don't get why people like bad calls, can someone explain how having bad calls and calls favor one team is good for the game?

[Dman]

The human element should be about the players and coaches....not the umpires, imo. I don't get why people like bad calls, can someone explain how having bad calls and calls favor one team is good for the game?

 

 

I agree with you. I find nothing good in an unfair judgement or call. I still hate that Jim Joyce made that call that ruined that pitchers no hitter. What is good about something like that when the result was not even true. The guy was out by a mile everyone could see that. it wasn't even close and the pitcher gets robbed of a major accomplishment.

 

If Balls and strikes are called fairly you don't need finesse catchers to prop up the strike zone as the playing field would be level as it should be anyway. I don't think I can be convinced to see mistakes in judgement as good for the game. The outcome of any sport should be based on the rules being equally and fairly applied to all participants as it makes the result more palatable to all those involved including the fans.

[ericchri]

I'm probably in favor of robots calling balls and strikes. I'd be curious about the Technology though. How fast can it determine the call? I know Pitch f/x or whatever it is they show on TV is fairly quick, but there's a big difference between 1 and 3 seconds. How long does it take to calibrate itself for different batters (since the zone should vary depending on the size of the batter)? Regardless, get the Technology to work and I'm on-board with the robots.

[IdahoPilgrim]

I'm probably in favor of robots calling balls and strikes. I'd be curious about the Technology though. How fast can it determine the call? I know Pitch f/x or whatever it is they show on TV is fairly quick, but there's a big difference between 1 and 3 seconds. How long does it take to calibrate itself for different batters (since the zone should vary depending on the size of the batter)? Regardless, get the Technology to work and I'm on-board with the robots.

 

I would imagine you could get results virtually instantaneously - just like you do with radar guns.

 

And none of this would make plate umpires unnecessary - they would still have to rule on whether a batter swung or not, whether it was a foul tip, whether a pitch hit the batter, etc. The technology would simply tell the plate umpire whether the pitch was in the strike zone or not, which is (as this article shows) more subjective now than is probably desirable.

[h2oface]

Automated ball and strike calling is already 3 to 5 years late. Get on with it already!

[jimbo92107]

"Has this negatively impacted the Twins 2013 season? As Costa’s points out, the Milwaukee Brewers, who at 55.3% have the highest amount of wrongly called pitches go in their favor, have nearly as bad of a record as the Twins. So it appears that even if the Twins had all the calls go their way, it still would not have changed the overall record much."

 

Good lord man, are you kidding?? With a staff composed of "pitch to contact" nibblers, those bad calls (strikes wrongly called balls) could have been absolutely deadly to pitchers that are hanging on by a thread, as most Twins starters have done all year.

 

Does this seem familiar?

Hitter with two outs gets a wrongly called walk. Next guy hits a bloop single. As a Minnesota fan, you know how this scenario plays out, because it happened dozens of times this season. What should have been the end of the inning turns into an undeserved disaster, because for some reason umpires don't call strikes on the edges...at least not for Twins pitchers.

 

Effectively, these bad calls have given opposing teams four outs instead of three many times this season.

 

This crappy umping probably didn't keep our boys out of the playoffs, but it's not hard to imagine it cost the team a dozen games.

 

I, for one, welcome the arrival of our robot strike zone masters!

[BabyJesusBuxton]

If someone else already brought this up I apologize, I didn't read every post on here.

 

Maybe the reason the Twins aren't getting the close calls is because the pitch before missed by 2 feet as apposed to 3 inches. I can think of very few outings this year where the Twins starter had excellent control and worked the edges effectively and consistently.

 

Also, how many of those miscalled pitches were across the plate from where the catcher set up? It is common that if a catcher sets up on the inside corner and the pitch ends up outside on the edge of the zone it will get called a ball because the catcher has to reach for the pitch.

 

Personally, I don't want to watch a game called by computers. The umpires calling balls and strikes is one of the great parts of baseball IMO.

[jimbo92107]

"Has this negatively impacted the Twins 2013 season? As Costa’s points out, the Milwaukee Brewers, who at 55.3% have the highest amount of wrongly called pitches go in their favor, have nearly as bad of a record as the Twins. So it appears that even if the Twins had all the calls go their way, it still would not have changed the overall record much."

 

Good lord man, are you kidding?? With a staff composed of "pitch to contact" nibblers, those bad calls (strikes wrongly called balls) could have been absolutely deadly to pitchers that are hanging on by a thread, as most Twins starters have done all year. Hitter with two outs gets a wrongly called walk. Next guy hits a bloop single. As a Minnesota fan, you know how this scenario plays out, because it happened dozens of times this season. What should have been the end of the inning turns into an undeserved disaster, because for some reason umpires don't call strikes on the edges...at least not for Twins pitchers.

 

This crappy umping probably didn't keep our boys out of the playoffs, but it's not hard to imagine it cost the team a dozen games.

 

I, for one, welcome the arrival of our robot strike zone masters!

[ThePuck]

"Has this negatively impacted the Twins 2013 season? As Costa’s points out, the Milwaukee Brewers, who at 55.3% have the highest amount of wrongly called pitches go in their favor, have nearly as bad of a record as the Twins. So it appears that even if the Twins had all the calls go their way, it still would not have changed the overall record much."

 

Good lord man, are you kidding?? With a staff composed of "pitch to contact" nibblers, those bad calls (strikes wrongly called balls) could have been absolutely deadly to pitchers that are hanging on by a thread, as most Twins starters have done all year. Hitter with two outs gets a wrongly called walk. Next guy hits a bloop single. As a Minnesota fan, you know how this scenario plays out, because it happened dozens of times this season. What should have been the end of the inning turns into an undeserved disaster, because for some reason umpires don't call strikes on the edges...at least not for Twins pitchers.

 

This crappy umping probably didn't keep our boys out of the playoffs, but it's not hard to imagine it cost the team a dozen games.

 

I, for one, welcome the arrival of our robot strike zone masters!

 

 

 

A dozen games? You believe that a team that hits this poorly, fields this poorly, and pitches this poorly would have a winning record right now if not for the umpires?

[Winston Smith]

Yes there is no need for any human element in the game and that is why they have video games for you guys that think that way.

This game has done just fine for about 150 years, at some point continued "making better" will change the essense of the game. If you don't think changing the essense is a big dig just watch this movie!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EpWyBZJXhgI/SQ4_ZxV2NII/AAAAAAAACUo/FYvMjkKDJ_Q/s400/Dr+Strangelove-725873.jpg

[IdahoPilgrim]

This game has done just fine for about 150 years, at some point continued "making better" will change the essense of the game.

 

Except that the game has changed in 150 years - both the rules and the manner of play have evolved over time. Dead ball era, live ball era, lowering the pitching mound in the 60s, the advent of the DH in the American League, moving to divisions with divisional playoffs in the 60s, interleague play, the development of 5-man rotations, the recent emphasis on advanced metrics - all examples of a game evolving. I would see this as just another evolution. It will change the essence no more than any of these other did.

[Heezy1323]

I think it's interesting that some people enjoy the human element to calling balls and strikes and yet lose their mind over plays like the Arizona State vs. Wisconsin ending in the football game last weekend. Bottom line- we need to get the calls right. Many games (in many sports) are played at such a high level and the difference between a win and loss is minuscule. To have the outcome decided by someone other than the players seems wrong. Just my two cents...