I expected significant shakeup after the operational debacle of the Yhoswar signing at $2.3 million. In today's LA scouting, getiing a wrong birth year for the guy getting the bulk of your bonus budget is inexecusable. Not reducing the bonus after you learn of this and know a suspension will be coming is insane and causes the Phillies to not be taken seriously in LA -- you can cheat us without fear of penalty. That the guy obviously cannot hit makes one wonder if the scouts look at anything beyond speed and 'advance skills for his age in CF'. It seemed like amateur hour.
Observations from Worcester:
None of the pitchers I saw are any better than the ones on the big club. Morales pitched fine (after needing 12 pitches to retire he first batter he faced), but his overall numbers aren't very good. Luis Ortiz made an appearance in the ninth and pitched fine, but we already know all about him.
Falter looked awful, even warming up before the game (which he had to do twice due to two pre-game rain delays). I'm not smart enough to know whether it's mechanics, mental, or an injury. Sure hope it's mechanics.
The offense is really not bad at all. I think the entire lineup I saw is better than Josh Harrison (OK, maybe not Cal Stevenson). Everyone got on base. I wouldn't mind seeing Weston Wilson on the Phillies instead of Harrison. He hit a line drive homer run.
Scott Kingery lives. He pinch ran for Ellis in the ninth, wearing number 0 (sadly symbolic). I thought he might try to steal second, which might have allowed the Pigs to tie the game.
Esteban Quiroz is a really small man. I see from his stats that he walks a good amount--not surprising since his strike zone is so small. (He didn't walk tonight, but he got two hits.)
I guess I haven't paid attention enough to the minor league rules, but there was a pitch challenge system in place. If I understood it correctly, each pitcher, catcher, and batter can challenge one ball/strike call per game. I saw six challenges, only two of which were overturned (and one was really close). The pitch was shown on the scoreboard, similar to what we see on TV where the ball travels to the strike zone rectangle. If it touches the rectangle, it's a strike. It was very quick. I wouldn't mind seeing it in the majors. The rule was explained on the scoreboard before the game, but I wasn't able to read it well from where I was sitting. It also seemed to say that they had used robot umps for the first three games of the series.
Heading to Portland tomorrow.
Ross--
I have a friend who works at the WooSox. I think you have the replay system about right. As my friend tells it, they use the Robo Umps for home plate during the week. The ump is behind the plate, but all they do is parrot the electronic strike zone which actually makes the calls. On the weekends, it's the umps making the call with the challenge system in place.
Just go robo - the pitch calling is so bad if I'm a player I'm pushing for electronic strike zones.
I mean when a player gets punched out on a pitch a foot outside the K zone - bleech.
I agree. If we are going to have robo umps we should just use them. No more complaints (unless the tech is shakier than it appears). It will speed up the game compared to a challenge system. It will also be easier to adjust the strike zone if it needs to for the good of the game. I do have some minor doubts that the box is correct for all heights of players, but MLB could make players submit for custom measurements on team photo day.
Why should we value catchers stealing strikes? It is often comical how they try to do that. And once we got the strike zone box as a standard TV feature this was bound to happen.
When it it actually possible for MLB to change the terms of the umpire's employment? Separate from the player's CBA? Right now this is all A/B testing and trial runs. Only question is if there might be a timeline where MLB starts with the challenge system and it later goes all-robo.
The robo ump would not get rid of umpires, in fact, you could still have the umpire call the pitch if the call is electronically sent to an ear piece he would wear, just like the pitchers do with the electronic signs. He also would have to be there to call hit by pitch and safe and out calls at the plate, fair or foul, etc... so the umpires union should have no beef.
If I were an ump, I would welcome the electronic ball/strike calls. Seems to me that a lot of criticism of the umps would be eliminated since the electronics were making the ball/strike decision.
It would also help good pitchers/hitters, b/c you could learn what a strike actually was, practice against an electronic K zone, and have confidence that your muscle memory has value.
Right now, it varies from umpire to umpire, and player to player (some players get the benefit of the doubt).
Yeah but this is major league baseball. Once umpires are stenographers who only call the baserunning stuff MLB will want to pay them less. It will also eliminate all the jobs that are currently involved in evaluating the balls/strikes calls and against the electronic systems.
I mean, unless you think the whole move in this direction is solely because they want to make the game better/more fair and truly care about the good of the game.
I think it is about making the games fair. Just like the the bad call by Joyce cost a perfect game created the instant replay rule (as the technology was ready for it), so too would the balls and strikes being called correctly, as in my opinion, that has always been the weakest part of the game. If you think it's a quaint part of baseball that umpires miss obvious strikes and balls I don't know how to help you, but the technology is ready for this now too and I can't think of a valid reason not to fix it. As far as jobs, I'm not really sure what jobs are threatened by this being implemented, but I would have to think some new jobs would be created too. Like all electronic systems, they need to be maintained and sometimes they stop working (see the pitcher catcher communicator). In the case of umpires, they would still have to know how to call balls and strikes in case the robo ump fails during a game.
The current umpire CBA expires in 2024 and much of what we are seeing now was agreed to in 2019. There will have to be another agreement. It's inevitable but I feel like if I had to be on it, it will be the challenge system for at least a few years (if not the entire CBA) and then ultimately fully electronic.
I think I prefer MLB using the challenge system used in AAA when the robo umps are not used. Each team gets three challenges. I don’t think they lose a challenge if the ump is wrong. I have seen it used the last two weekends in Durham. Happened seamlessly. My only complaint is that I was not sure which team was challenging. That data can be analyzed to determine if go to robo umps for all games.