I Hate Human Error

by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 23, 2008 10:47 AM PDT in Miscellaneous

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.

Tweet Comment 25 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

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?

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Oct 23, 2008 11:00 AM PDT reply actions

Gameday is precise

the TV and ESPN zones are not.

by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 23, 2008 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions

I'm not really technically minded either

but that looks like a “strikeout”.

Also, I think Adrian Beltre is bad. BAD ASS.

by lemonverbena on Oct 23, 2008 11:26 AM PDT up reply actions

The Fox/TBS tracking systems have no idea where the strike zone is

by JI on Oct 23, 2008 11:41 AM PDT up reply actions

I wondered this too

FOX Trax often shows pitches that appear to miss by an inch inside as being wildly off the plate.

Who is this guy?

by evanr on Oct 23, 2008 11:10 AM PDT reply actions

Their strike zone is way too small

just like Joe’s Tracer.

by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 23, 2008 11:11 AM PDT up reply actions

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.

by Matthew on Oct 23, 2008 12:23 PM PDT up reply actions

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.

by batura on Oct 23, 2008 11:34 AM PDT reply actions

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).

by Wilder. on Oct 23, 2008 12:44 PM PDT reply actions

We need SkyNet to hendle the umping

by Fett42 on Oct 23, 2008 3:40 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

rec'd for typo that fits the accent

Nice Guys Finish Third - Hopelessly lost, but makin' good time.

by pdb on Oct 23, 2008 3:42 PM PDT up reply actions

The Phillies

have been getting a lot of huge breaks this season. They really take advantage of the bad calls that go their way.

"I got my pregnant wife (the Yankee fan) with me. Hoping my kid learns to kick her everytime the Mets score." -Schifftis-

by future on Oct 23, 2008 5:41 PM PDT reply actions

Umps miss calls a lot

If the Rays had hit Cole Hamels, this would have been immaterial.

by Gomez on Oct 23, 2008 8:18 PM PDT reply actions

If the Orioles scored more then the Maier home run wouldn't have mattered

by Jeff Sullivan on Oct 23, 2008 8:43 PM PDT up reply actions

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.

"I got my pregnant wife (the Yankee fan) with me. Hoping my kid learns to kick her everytime the Mets score." -Schifftis-

by future on Oct 23, 2008 8:48 PM PDT up reply actions