Quote:
Originally posted by senior
Warren:
...Actually, just following directions on the strike zone won't be that difficult, and the disciplined strike callers will look good. The "creative" and erratic callers will struggle, and the world will know who can rise to the occasion and follow instructions, and who can't. The ability to call "bangers" at first base with almost 100% accuracy indicates to me that with a comparitive effort, a consistent, larger strike zone can be called...
[Edited by senior on Feb 14th, 2001 at 07:34 PM]
|
It does not seem logical to me to assume that all these years it has been the umpires who have determined the major league strike zone. If they could call higher strikes and it is a "rule book" strike why hasn't that been the case? In amateur ball one of the guidelines frequently given to rookie umpires is to "see more strikes" or "call more strikes". All things being equal strikes are better than balls. I believe Major League umps would prefer a larger strike zone if that's what baseball wanted. It seems to me that the power has shifted from the umpires' union and the National and American leagues to Major League Baseball itself especially since the umpires are no longer segregated into AL and NL. I would agree with Warren who surmises that the CD "tool" will be used not for training, but for evaluation. What happens when we see an increase in hitting, lower batting averages, and lower scoring games? If games are speeded up and attendance stays strong than umpires will have no choice but to change their "standards" of what constitutes a strike. More importantly managers and hitters will have less influence on the zone because MLB will have the "proof" right there on CD.
I have heard little about how other umpires will alter their strike zones. What about college, high school, American Legion and Connie Mack? Most well regarded umpires are not now calling the "book zone". That is one reason "rule book" umpires have more difficulty than their real Top Dogs. If the major league zone is going up by the height of three baseballs what adjustments, if any, have you discussed in your associations? Jim/NY