re: Was always taught: an officiating crew never inserts

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I do see the nod to nostalgia with your suggestion, which might help some of the folks in here crying about changing the game, like that doesn't happen all the time, deal with the change that has them all tied up in knots.

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it's not so much the "nostalgia", it's more that I enjoy the extra strategy that goes into one game vs the next.

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it's not so much the "nostalgia", it's more that I enjoy the extra strategy that goes into one game vs the next.

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I can see that

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That’s just baseball

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^^^^ that's a lazy response.

Who programs the AI? Does it travel from park to park with the umps or does each home field have its own equipment? Is there no way to bias it in favor of one team or the other?

I am not trying to be a smartass. I just have no idea how AI works.

The rulebook defines the strike zone, and that's the way the umps should call it.

Count me as one against the AI strikezone.

We usually bitch about umps squeezing our pitcher or inconsistent strike zones, but that helps maintain competitive balance. The batter has to learn how the ump is calling it, too.

Now consider- if you go by the actual defined strike zone, (I believe it's bottom of letters to knee, but whatever the current definition is)... and you set up lasers and whatnot, anyone with the resources to do so can clearly and exactly determine what their own strike zone is. Sure, there's pitcher height and arm angle to factor in, but that can be addressed. And thus the further you get into baseball, as long as your own height doesn't change, the more you can learn EXACTLY where the zone is for you.
Get a batter to chase a pitch... well you spend a few offseasons focusing on the outside pitch. Or the high or low pitch, etc. You will get it down to the inch.

If you remove all the guessing from the batter, a GOOD batter is going to murder pitchers. He doesn't have to adjust to the ump, only to the pitcher's release point, something he simulated after scouting who's starting and their bullpen.
MLB guys will set their machines to simulate Skenes with velocity and release, and dial in on him. And WON'T chase any balls; it's just whether he can get it past them or not.
And with such changes, it's very hard to go back once you do it.

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Now consider- if you go by the actual defined strike zone, (I believe it's bottom of letters to knee, but whatever the current definition is

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first you would need to plaster the definition with pictures in crayons on the screen every other batter so the fans can learn what the actual strike zone is.






which means this is a strike




and roughly 100% of the posters here will cry the moment that's called a strike when an opposing pitcher throws it.

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MLB guys will set their machines to simulate Skenes with velocity and release, and dial in on him. And WON'T chase any balls

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the reason Skenes is so damn good isn't because batters have to guess the strike zone.
it's because they have to guess where his pitch is actually going.

His fastball has a measured horizontal run of 17" (which happens to be exact width of home plate). While his slider has 15" of break the opposite direction.

and he can start one a foot off the plate that breaks back and grabs 3" or can start another dead center that ends up in the 3b dugout.

And if you watch overlays of all of his pitches (the Pitching Ninja does those videos online somewhere) they all are released from identical release points and are in almost exactly the same spot a noticeable distance from his hand before they go their separate directions.

here's his fastball and cutter.
batter has to commit before the pitches even separate.




and screenshots for you too

near identical release points


look how far into their paths those pitches are before separating


and then look how far apart they finish



THAT is why Skenes gets so many swings and misses.
not because the batter has to guess what's a ball and strike from the umpire.

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I believe 1/3rd of calls are overturned on replay

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Is that bad?

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Was always taught: an officiating crew never inserts wfallstiger itself into a contest which results in them being visible.

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I was never actually taught that. I've heard it for a long time, but my personal experience has led me to not believe it. I really don't know why people keep propagating that myth.

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THAT is why Skenes gets so many swings and misses.
not because the batter has to guess what's a ball and strike from the umpire.

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You misunderstand me

I'm not saying Skenes is good only because teams have to guess his zone, he's obviously great. I just used him as an extreme example.

My point is, if you drop the home plate ump's strikezone and make it AI/computer controlled, a batter will eventually learn EXACTLY what his zone is. EXACTLY. At which point he can start to learn EXACTLY where the boundaries are, and eliminate the "close" pitch. It will become something tailored into individual training, "this is a strike on the outside edge, and that is a ball outside".
And it will not vary from ump to ump. It may vary from pitcher to pitcher, depending on release point; but you'd obviously prep for a Skenes in particular, so you know what a Skenes strike vs ball looks like.

And Skenes (for example) would not be able to ride his reputation to get a close call, or get the call because his control is on and he's hitting his spots. We know that happens, umps do give pitchers benefit of the doubt on both things at times. Instead of Skenes, let's say Maddux instead- you knew he was precise with great command. He painted an edge, catcher didn't move at all, ump likely gives him that. His zone might get bigger because you knew Maddux was able to do what he did. With a technology strike zone, you don't get any of that... if he missed the edge by a quarter inch, it's a ball.