Park: Twins Emphasizing Catcher Defense, Framing

[Nine of twelve]

 

Baseball can keep the charade going by having technology announce the balls/strikes into an earpiece that only the umpire has access to. The umpire would then call the balls/strikes vocally or gesturally as he always would. This is ideal anyway because if there is a technical glitch, the umpire can call balls/strikes on his own without interrupting the game.

 

...and if the umpire wants to overrule the call in his ear he should be able to do so (at his own peril, because certainly people would find out).

Why would the umpire be involved at all? I don't know the details of how these systems are configured but if I were in charge there would be two different auditory signals coming from speakers installed behind home plate, perhaps a beep for a strike and a buzz for a ball or something like that. The other thing about this is that the home plate umpire would no longer need to be positioned immediately behind the catcher, probably about 5-10 feet back instead. He/she would need to be close enough to call catcher's interference, to call whether the catcher held the ball on a third strike, and to easily get in position to make a call if there's a runner on third. Corner umps would make all calls on check swings.

[FattCrapps]

 

I dislike instant replay. The whole process is tedious and distracting. Blown calls are just part of the game and can be great topic of conversation afterwards (often years afterwards).  Baseball is like life - sometimes you catch a break, sometimes you don't. Things usually even out in the end. 

Tell that to Cardnial fans in 85.

[ewen21]

IN regards to the topic, seems to me like pitch framing isn't something that should be relied upon year after year. If you get known as a good pitch framer I can't see how umpires don't "correct" that, fair or not.  I also see it as something the pitcher is responsible for as well.  A dubious metric to me

[ewen21]

 

Tell that to Cardnial fans in 85.

 

I had a Meister Brau in my hand when that went down

[Doomtints]

 

Why would the umpire be involved at all? I don't know the details of how these systems are configured but if I were in charge there would be two different auditory signals coming from speakers installed behind home plate, perhaps a beep for a strike and a buzz for a ball or something like that. The other thing about this is that the home plate umpire would no longer need to be positioned immediately behind the catcher, probably about 5-10 feet back instead. He/she would need to be close enough to call catcher's interference, to call whether the catcher held the ball on a third strike, and to easily get in position to make a call if there's a runner on third. Corner umps would make all calls on check swings.

 

The umpire is the backup in case of a technical glitch, and he (or she) would still need to be the arbiter of all other things that happen at the plate.

 

He (or she) may as well continue to announce balls and strikes. He/she would still have to pay full attention to every pitch in case of a technical glitch -- you can't say, "Ooops, the server is is not responding. Can you just do that pitch again? Thanks."

[Nine of twelve]

 

The umpire is the backup in case of a technical glitch, and he (or she) would still need to be the arbiter of all other things that happen at the plate.

 

He (or she) may as well continue to announce balls and strikes. He/she would still have to pay full attention to every pitch in case of a technical glitch -- you can't say, "Ooops, the server is is not responding. Can you just do that pitch again? Thanks."

Point well taken.