The shape of things to come: strike zone that no longer changes
There’s an evolving opinion in baseball that has come to the forefront once again this month, as it has so often in recent everypitchmatters, Statcast-tracked Septembers.
The strike zone, many in the game and the Twittersphere say, is not safe in the hands of man.
Such was the uproar after the Rockies’ 42 loss to open the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers this past weekend, where Colorado fans ripped the lackluster perfor mance of homeplate umpire Andy Fletcher. The ump ended up face to face with Charlie Blackmon in the ninth inning after ringing up the center fielder on three called strikes that, according to Statcast, were all out of the zone.
So, with commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledging at the beginning of the season that Major League Baseball is “much closer than we were a year ago” to having implementable technology, why aren’t Statcastpowered robots calling balls and strikes instead of
Fletcher and his peers with, at times, amorphous zones?
For Rockies’ manager Bud Black, a selfproclaimed pitching and baseball traditionalist, the implementation of a automated strike zone isn’t an if but a when.
“When we talked about replay review, I was a little bit skeptical years ago, but I turned on that,” Black said. “Eventually, I think we’re going to see (the automated zone).”
Adam Ottavino, one of the more outofthebox baseball minds in the Rockies’ clubhouse, has often stated his support for an automated strike zone. He is of the popular position that the MLB should utilize the Statcast technology similar to how the league has incorporated replay review technology in order to make each and every call as correct as possible.
“Even if you are the best ump in the world and you are getting 92 percent of the calls right, that means if you have 200 pitches, there are 16 wrong,” Ottavino told The Denver Post last September after an umpire’s critical missed strike call. “Those could be hugely impactful on the outcome of the game.”
But still, the traditionalist mindsets of other Colorado players will take the umpires at their best, and yes, even at their Fletcheresque worst.
“Keep the umpires, even when they’re horse (stuff ),” right fielder Carlos Gonzalez said.
Catcher Chris Iannetta added: “The game is based on subjectivity — it’s part of the game, and it provides an entertainment factor, even though it can be frustrating if it doesn’t go your way. It’s a different layer and element to the game.”
Plus, there are still looming bigpicture questions about the technology, even if its implementation appears imminent.
The measurement error of PITCHf/x, the tracking system used by the MLB prior to Statcast, was found to be below half an inch in each dimension, according to a 2011 report by analyst Mike Fast. No such reporting yet exists on the Statcast data, although it’s interesting to note that the automated Zone Evaluation system used by the MLB to evaluate umpires has about a 2inch margin for error.
“You can’t rule out the emotional human factor of umpiring games, like when you make a borderline pitch a little off of the black that the robotic strike zone wouldn’t call a strike but the umpire could give you,” reliever Chad Bettis explained. “Or, if you pitch to the glove, pitches spotted up just on the edge of the plate. That’s where it gets questionable, because that’s generally considered a strike, even by hitters.”
Even those with reservations, however, Rockies veterans such as Iannetta have seen how this script plays out in an everevolving game that those in charge insist on continuing to tweak, with the primary motivations being renewing fan interest as well as money.
“The trend has been if the fans speak loud enough for it, and if it’s going to sell more tickets, then that’s usually the direction they tend to go,” Iannetta said. “The capitalistic approach tends to win out most of the time.”
Rockies’ coordinated jerseys.
Colorado clubhouse manager Mike Pontarelli coordinated a theme for the Rockies’ upcoming flight to San Francisco for this weekend’s threegame set at AT&T Park.
The Rockies will each wear the jersey of a favorite NFL player on the plane — “in the spirit of football season,” Pontarelli said — and this is the second year the team will coordinate traveling outfits in some way.
Last September, all the rookies dressed up in Broncos uniforms for their trip to San Francisco.
Some notable jersey choices: Chad Bettis (Jerome Bettis), Wade Davis (Terrell Davis), DJ Johnson (Pat Tillman), Charlie Blackmon (Demaryius Thomas), Noel Cuevas (Marshawn Lynch), Nolan Arenado (Sam Darnold), Kyle Freeland (Von Miller), Trevor Story (Tom Brady) and video coordinator Brian Jones (Barry Sanders).