Two more arguments for use of robot umpires
The 3Dot grapes are not sour. The baseball playoffs have been fantastic, the right teams are moving on to the League Championship Series, and there are no plausible excuses for Bay Area teams departed.
But did the Giants and A’s have to get ripped off at the end? Is MLB ever going to get serious about the strike zone, or will it be an ongoing joke into eternity?
Our local seasons ended identically — and pathetically. With a postseason berth at stake, the Giants trailing San Diego 54 with two outs in the ninth inning, Austin Slater took a third strike on a 2and2 pitch from Trevor Rosenthal that arrived just above the ankles.
The A’s said farewell in similar fashion Thursday against Houston, Khris Davis letting a third strike go by when the pitch was, in fact, a ball. Catcher Martin Maldonado did a nice job of “framing” — snatching the ball a few inches higher at the instant it struck his glove — but nevertheless: way too low.
This happens constantly, and the umpires should be ashamed of themselves. Collectively, they have studied rule 2.00 of the MLB rule book and dismissed it as fiction.
Specifically, it defines the strike zone as “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” and is determined by “the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.”
In simpler terms, that means just below the knees and right around the letters across a player’s jersey. Grab a bat and test it for yourself: That zone makes for comfortable swings both high and low. It makes perfect sense. Instead, we’re seeing shinhigh ( and lower) pitches called for strikes. A high fastball at the letters, by all rights a perfectly fine pitch, could mean a very costly walk. The entire strike zone has been lowered, and if you don’t believe that, check the rectangular box shown graphically for each hitter. At times, it’s comically wrong, framed by a hitter’s shins and an area barely above the belt.
The metrics people say this has been happening since around 2007, when MLB began using PITCHf/ x technology to monitor the location of pitches.
Whether or not that makes sense, the umpires have bought in, and it calls to mind the notion of the computerized strike zone. We keep hearing it’s a matter of time before “robot umps” become reality, so let’s see how that system works. Bring it out of the shadows for exhibition games next spring, and make sure the strike zone rides an elevator up to the next level, where it belongs.
Dead wrong in public
Sometimes it’s nice to be wrong. Right around the time the Giants’ Buster Posey opted out of the season, this column declared there was no way MLB would stage a postseason and would probably be shut down by coronavirus issues well before that. Here’s to the character, diligence and patience we’ve seen from all parties, and a safe trip to the finish line. ... The Giants’ Gabe Kapler deserves to get some votes for Manager of the Year, but the most worthy candidate is Miami’s Don Mattingly, who steered a virusridden team through a wildly improbable path to the playoffs. His players were blown away at how well he handled things, and how many of those guys did you even recognize? This is a team that featured the likes of Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, Dee Gordon, J. T. Realmuto, Jose Fernandez and Luis Castillo in recent years. ... And isn’t it remarkable that the Florida/ Miami Marlins were a lifetime 70 in postseason series until the Braves took them down? ... Some folks are calling Houston’s George Springer the postseason home run king of Dodger Stadium, after that obscene display against the A’s, but the choice here is Reggie Jackson. When the stakes were higher ( World Series) and the ball was real, Jackson belted six homers in 10 games there, while hitting .459 ( 17for37) overall. .... Casualties of the A’s secondbase parade: Jurickson Profar became a valuable and wellliked member of the San Diego Padres, hitting .278 and playing several positions, mostly outfield. The Padres thought so highly of Jorge Mateo, he started at second base in the opener of their big midSeptember series against the Dodgers. But he just didn’t hit (. 154), and after sitting on the bench during the wildcard series, he was removed from the LCS roster. Joey Wendle, traded by Oakland to Tampa Bay in December 2017 for a player to be named later ( Jonah Heim), has been a huge part of Tampa Bay’s success story, both as a clutch hitter and team leader. ... Runaway phrase: the “abundance of caution.” Clearly, there can’t be any caution without it. Even a “heap” or a “0” won’t suffice. No abundance, no caution. ... Shocker for the ages: Tom Brady lost track of the downs Thursday night as he tried to engineer a lastminute comeback for Tampa Bay against Chicago. He flatout signaled to a referee that he thought fourth down was coming — when in fact, it just happened. It wasn’t a good look when Brady, normally a class act with the opposition at game’s end, hastily ran off the field. Then he “dodged the question” in his postgame interview, wrote the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy. “He talked about being ‘ up against the clock.’ Please. What a baby. Just own it, Tom.”