Atlanta Braves should be pushing the electronic strike zone

No More Grousing about the Calls?

You know the tendency of batters to complain about a pitch call by stepping out of the box, holding a veiled conversation with the home plate ump, perhaps circling around to re-group or getting more pine tar?

You know how pitchers will circle the mound sometimes, maybe get some rosin, maybe have the catcher come out for an impromptu visit?  Maybe the pitching coach will jog out to the mound and pause sufficiently long enough to get the umpire to come break up the meeting while discussing that it’s not his fault (the pitcher’s) that he isn’t getting the calls he deserves.

Those things slow down the game.  More than the intentional walk.  More than a mound visit.  They are the passive-aggressive… and sometimes “aggressive” complaints against bad calls in both directions.  And they happen commonly throughout games.

Most of that disappears when an electronic strike zone is introduced that is accurate to a half-inch or less.  In the same way, instant replay’s introduction is why Bobby Cox‘s record for game ejections will stand forever.

Players on both sides of the ball will grow more confident in an electronic system as time goes on.  The grousing will be reduced.  The game will proceed on a better pace.

A hitter or pitcher might still not agree with a call, but he’ll have the ability to check the pitch later on and realize that the system indeed worked.  That – and the fact that there would be no one to complain to about it – would make sure

You think Manfred might figure that out.  Once he does, perhaps this proposal will gain legs.

That Braves Angle

But the AtlantaBraves might want to consider pushing the use of this technology as well.

Check that knuckleball ball call in the tweet above.  That, by any account, is a clearly a horrible call.  But you do expect a few of those when it comes to knuckleballs… or impressive curve balls.  Umpires (the human ones) get fooled by such pitches.  The Electronic versions would not.

Speaking of impressive curve balls…

So is Touki Toussaint‘s…

One thing that an electronic strike zone would certainly do is avoid missing strike calls on pitches with a lot of movement. Anything getting through the zone would be picked up.

It may sound a little silly to suggest changing baseball so significantly for a curve ball, but it would make breaking ball specialists into better pitchers… by getting their calls right.  Batters are fooled by them… so are umpires.

In the past few years, the Braves have been acquiring pitchers with a lot of pitch movement in their arsenal.   In theory, an electronic strike zone would only make them more dangerous.  It might also reduce the emphasis on velocity that the sport has been seeing.

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Still Work to be Done

There are no illusions or pie-in-the-sky notions here:  going to such a system means several things have to happen:

• It has to be nearly 100% reliable – any weather, any temperatures, any conditions with hot/redundant backups available at all times
• It has to be nearly 100% accurate – the players would not accept anything less (nor would the umpires, for that matter)
• It has to work for all players.  All shapes and sizes.

Next: Knuckleballer, Part 2?

It’s a tall order, but given all of that, the Braves have a few pitchers that might be able to take advantage.  Let’s nudge MLB into that future.

I was watching a Terminator movie while writing this… hmmmm.