In a season full of truly terrible and mind-numbing Major League Baseball umpire decisions, the ongoing test of MLB’s automated strike zone experiment in Triple-A has been providing baseball fans with a view into what it might look like one day to have robot umps.
The system has been tweaked all season long to figure out the “correct” strike zone, but the question remains about what happens if you think the automated system gets a call wrong. One minor league manager recently discussed how close calls are still a work in progress.
“They’ve had to lower the high strike, they’ve made some adjustments throughout the season,” said El Paso Chihuahas manager Jared Sandberg. “I know there’s been some times where there’s been some frustrating calls, a ball clipped the zone or clipped the corner, or is off the plate and clips the line. So there has been some frustration, but it has brought some consistency to the game.”
We got a good look at what happens when there’s a debatable strike call in a video posted Friday on Twitter by Jomboy Media.
The strike zone challenge system they are testing in the minors is pretty cool. Challenges can only come from pitcher, catcher, or batter and have to happen right away. pic.twitter.com/yXspD8Qlmw
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) August 26, 2022
In the video, the Charlotte Knights are taking on the Syracuse Mets when their pitcher throws a called-ball that seems a little too close to the strike zone to let slide. Per the rules, the pitcher, catcher, or batter has the right to challenge a call but must do so immediately. That’s what happens and it was the smart decision as a replay confirms that the ball did indeed skim the bottom of the strike zone.
It’s worth noting that, as in football, each team gets three challenges per game, though successful challenges are retained for future use in the game.
The system remains a work in progress as there have been blown calls just like from the humans. However, it sounds like the more they tweak and make updates to the system, the better it becomes at accurately calling strikes. So there may be hope yet for our robot ump overlords.
[Jomboy]
