Melky Cabrera fails to make a play on a ball that lands fair but was call foul in the '09 Playoffs.
Everyone rails against blown calls in baseball, especially when their team gets the short end.
But whether in the playoffs or a Wednesday game in July, baseball just wouldn't seem right if everything was perfect.
We've reached and passed the point where technology could completely take over umpiring.
Anybody watching a game on TV these days knows exactly whether the ball crosses the strike zone. And if you slow down most close plays on the bases, about eight of the 10 times you could tell if the runner was safe or out.
Still, uncertainty sneaks up.
I'm not ready for robo-umpires just yet. One addition that wouldn't dramatically change baseball if they added it today, would be instant replay on fair or foul calls in the outfield.
It's hard not to think about Joe Mauer's 2009 Playoff extra-inning base knock that was taken off the board. It was clearly fair by several inches and everyone knew it but the umpire.
Umps during the regular season typically don't have the best view on plays in the outfield. Add replay on calls down the line, if it's called wrong, it essentially turns into a ground rule double.
A simple fix that wouldn't expand replay too much more.
Strike Zones Enforcement
The other rule change MLB should start implementing today, make umpires call the full strike zone and dock their pay if they don't.
Even without the full strike zone most of the time, pitchers have the upper hand on batters right now. Strikeouts are up, in fact there are three more punch outs per game this year than 20 years ago.
But MLB should be concerned about game length which stands around 2 hours 55 minutes. If the full strike zone were in place it would help length.
It's not a cure all, since you can't stop managers from using three relief pitchers to throw to one batter each. Any little bit to speed up the game and get that average time to 2 hours 30 minutes is a good one.
Still, MLB is ailing from other issues. More on that coming up.
1 comment:
You're dead-on about replay along the foul lines. Some of those calls in mid to deep outfield are impossible for an umpire to make. The Mauer example you gave is the perfect illustration.
However, the strike zone question remains and is a little more complicated than docking an umpires pay. I think it goes back the the "old boy's club" that umpiring is in MLB. I can't verify this, but I heard on the radio that there has not been a change in the umpiring ranks in two years. There are 98 umps (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/roster.jsp) and apparently no one has been hired or fired for 2 years. The discussion also said that once you become a Major League Baseball umpire, its nearly impossible to lose that status. I can't imagine their performance evaluations hold much weight. I think the threat of losing their job over a bad strike zone might change their minds a little bit and force them to change how they call a game.
All that said, I have watched 20 to 30 SF Giants games this year, and can't remember a really terrible strike zone. There are no "Greg Maddux or Tom Glavine" exceptions that I know of in MLB baseball today. So that says something for umpires. Certainly an interesting topic.
As for length of the game, I think the liberal use of relief pitchers is certainly what causes the long games. However, I don't see any way around it with all the video scouting that teams are able to do. If the relief pitchers don't get guys out, then it results in more runs which prolongs games anyway.
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