On the one hand, it's always been this way, for as long as the game has been played. On rare occasions, a pitcher may be rewarded for a mistake or penalized for a success, and that's just how it is, because umpires aren't flawless. It's usually not a big deal, and we all still love the game, regardless of its sundry imperfections. On the other hand, that's stupid.
0 recs | 25 comments
So I'm not really technically minded about stuff like this
but are the various pitch-trax things standardized or generalized? In other words, MLB 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 bottom of the knees. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter’s stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball.”
So are the various TVgameday/espn ones always that precise, or do they just use a general zone?
pdb - October 23, 2008
Gameday is precise
the TV and ESPN zones are not.
Jeff Sullivan - October 23, 2008
I'm not really technically minded either
but that looks like a “strikeout”.
Also, I think Adrian Beltre is bad. BAD ASS.
lemonverbena - October 23, 2008
The Fox/TBS tracking systems have no idea where the strike zone is
JI - October 23, 2008
I wondered this too
FOX Trax often shows pitches that appear to miss by an inch inside as being wildly off the plate.
evanr - October 23, 2008
Their strike zone is way too small
just like Joe’s Tracer.
Jeff Sullivan - October 23, 2008
Namely, the strike zones shown by broadcast networks are laughably thin.
Which is weird since the width of the plate (and therefore strikezone) is the only thing that’s actually standard.
Matthew - October 23, 2008
Selling the pitch
Clearly the pitch was a “miss” in terms of where it was intended to go vs where it went. This is the thing that bugs me the most about ball/strike calling. If the ball hits the target, it is more likely to be called a strike.
I think that was one of the principal concerns with Johjima, as his catching style led to more pitches seemingly reached for.
batura - October 23, 2008
I was calling for the strikeout on that pitch.
Glad you caught it, too, Jeff. But because it was so early in the game, I didn’t make such a big deal about the end result (Utley’s homerun).
Wilder. - October 23, 2008
We need SkyNet to hendle the umping
Fett42 - October 23, 2008
rec'd for typo that fits the accent
pdb - October 23, 2008
The Phillies
have been getting a lot of huge breaks this season. They really take advantage of the bad calls that go their way.
future - October 23, 2008
Umps miss calls a lot
If the Rays had hit Cole Hamels, this would have been immaterial.
Gomez - October 23, 2008
If the Orioles scored more then the Maier home run wouldn't have mattered
Jeff Sullivan - October 23, 2008
I don't think you can say that when
The game ended 3-2 and this was the two run homer that gave the Phillies 2 of their 3 runs.
It would have been immaterial if the Phillies had hit Kazmir and the TB relievers harder as well, as their margin of victory could have been greater than the effect of this mistake.
future - October 23, 2008
I can certainly say that
because if they had hit Cole Hamels, they would’ve scored more than 2 runs and this would have been immaterial.
It’s one bad outcome in a game full of various outcomes.
Gomez - October 23, 2008
This is a really bad argument and I'm sure you know why
Jeff Sullivan - October 24, 2008
The Rays had 5 hits in this game
Gomez - October 24, 2008
This is starting to sound a lot like a few arguments I've had about the officiating in Super Bowl XL
ningwers - October 24, 2008
The Phillies had
7 if you don’t include the HR.
future - October 25, 2008
Might've been enough had this pitch been called a strike
Jeff Sullivan - October 25, 2008
Wasn't this like a 20% WPA swing?
Graham MacAree - October 26, 2008
Right about that.
Matthew - October 26, 2008
Which has nothing to do with that strikeout becoming a homerun and two runs in a one run game.
Matthew - October 26, 2008
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