Top ump: Replay is coming to baseball

[HoustonGM]

If you want baseball to be fair, lets mandate standard altitudes for all stadiums as well as size. Baseball is a precision game and why let the differences is stadiums affect the stat creato... er baseball players?

Park factors and umpires are completely and entirely unrelated and there is no similarity between the two.

Seriously, the umpires are fine. I wouldn't mind instant replay for homeruns, but this will just open the door for these sabr weirdos to totally destroy the game.

OH COME THE **** ON. What the **** are you talking about? First of all, instant replay has nothing to do with sabermetrics. You need to get over your anti-sabermetric obsession and stop bringing it into every conversation, even when it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Secondly, how does sabermetrics want to "Destroy the game"? I'd love to know. You just continue to prove how utterly ignorant you are to sabermetrics. Sabermetrics is nothing more than statistical analysis. It is nothing more than seeking out answers to questions and better understanding the game of baseball. It has nothing to do with changing the game. How in the world does having accurate calls somehow "open the door for sabr weirdos to destroy the game", when a) sabermetricians don't want to destroy the game they love and b) accurate calls has nothing to do with sabermetrics?

Get over your obsession. It's sickening.

The umpires are a part of the game. You can't just remove them, because they are a part of it. Remove umpires means baseball is no longer baseball.

Yep, having correct calls and following the rulebook makes baseball no longer baseball.

[Swampdog]

Word of the day......

Baiting.

[HoustonGM]

The MLB rulebook actually has things the chief umpire is responsible for - removing him would alter the game.

Nobody has suggested removing him.

More from the above article:

The system I have in mind would turn ball/strike calls over to the technology, with the umpire there to receive the signal from the system and relay the call to the participants and fans. The umpire would still play a critical role on foul tips (most often called by sound) and checked swings (for which there will never be any good solution).

For decision plays, I would implement the college football approach. Every crew would have a fifth member in the booth, observing every play and buzzing the crew chief when a call deserved review. The opinion of that official would be final.

[HoustonGM]

So stop then.

Alternatively, you can stop being a troll.

[CatKnight]

I'm entirely against this.

A little tired to put forward a coherent argument last night, but I find the BP article...annoying.

People whine about umpire calls all the time, and yet there HAVE been tests as I recall...and as I recall the umps do fine well over 99% of the time. Personally, I'm willing to live with under 1% failure rates.

Highlighting a few specific examples in recent weeks does not make umpires incompetent, which is pretty much what the article alleges.

Foul balls....eh, okay, though that's usually pretty clear cut. Homers? Again, no real objection and again it's usually obvious. Ball/strike? H*** no. Ask managers and catchers, and they will tell you that the umpire's idea of a strike zone (and sometimes convincing him otherwise) is part of their strategy.

Anyway, the idea of using tech to help with balls/strikes has been tried before. By Charlie O. Finley. That should be enough of a warning right there.

The umpires are an integral part of the game. You may think he's baiting, Houston, but in this case YH is right: It's just another thing to consider, EXACTLY like park factors favoring some players over others.

The BP author pretty much says the only people he wants affecting a game are the players. Fine. Let's replace all the managers and coaches with computers as well.

For that matter, fans sometimes do affect game play. Maybe we better sanitize that and remove them as well.

Yes, it's a bit of an extreme...but ya know, the extremes are what you have to watch out for sometimes. In principle having replay for fouls and homers isn't such a big deal...but where does it stop?

I say a human, properly trained and working his way up through the minors just like players, is far more capable of calling and controlling a game than any computer, any time, anywhere. If anything, I find this idea an insult to umpires everywhere.

[HoustonGM]

I'm The umpires are an integral part of the game. You may think he's baiting, Houston, but in this case YH is right: It's just another thing to consider, EXACTLY like park factors favoring some players over others.

This is baiting:

but this will just open the door for these sabr weirdos to totally destroy the game.

Yes, it's a bit of an extreme...but ya know, the extremes are what you have to watch out for sometimes. In principle having replay for fouls and homers isn't such a big deal...but where does it stop?

At foul balls and home runs, if that's what is deemed best. I think that's a fine cut off point.

I say a human, properly trained and working his way up through the minors just like players, is far more capable of calling and controlling a game than any computer, any time, anywhere. If anything, I find this idea an insult to umpires everywhere.

A machine has pinpoint accuracy. A human doesn't. I don't find it insulting to say that a machine can call strikes better than a umpire. That's like saying it's insulting to mathmaticians that a computer can do calculations better. A human is more capable of keeping a game under control, and dealing with other humans, obviously, which is why removing umpires totally would never, nor should ever, happen, but I don't think a human can make calls as accurately as a computer (for strike zone calls) or a human looking at a camera at a good angle can (for calls like home runs).

Honestly, I wouldn't be in favor of computeresque calls to the extent Sheehan advocated in his article, but I do see his point. At this point, I'm in total favor of instant replay for home run calls and fair/foul calls.

[HoustonGM]

Have you ever worked in a shop? Machines need to be recalibrated all the time. This is why we have human Quality Control.

And is anybody advocating that any such machines implemented in baseball not have humans to monitor them?

Camera angles can lie. At least humans will know when they don't have a good angle and defer judgement.

And when that happens on say, home run calls, they defer judgment to the other umpires who were further away from the play than they were. That's a great plan.

Instant replay allows you to look at multiple camera angles if needed. Sometimes, just one look at the replay from any angle is needed, like with the Alex Rodriguez ball that clearly was over the fence last week.

Heh sabr weirdos is baiting? Its my personal view on them based on reading a lot of what they spout.

Saying that instant replay on home run calls opens the door for "sabr weirdos to destroy the game" is baiting because a) sabermetrics has nothing to do with this discussion, b) people that like sabermetrics do not want to destroy baseball, and c) it serves no purpose other than to generate a reaction.

[BravesFan4Life]

I, for one, am sick and tired of YH just bashing whatever HGM believes in...

[HoustonGM]

But he can bash what I believe in? I disagree, then state why I disagree.

And make competely unfounded statements, bringing up things that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, in order to incite reaction. Disagreeing is one thing. Trolling is another.

[HoustonGM]

Yes. Because a machine can monitor with pinpoint accuracy.

Please show me specifically where somebody has advocated letting a machine by itself, without human oversight, do something.

[HoustonGM]

.....

[BravesFan4Life]

I agree. You can stop at any time.

Just wondering, did you see HoustonGM on the street somewhere and he gave you the bird?

Honestly, it seems like you have something personal against him...

[BravesFan4Life]

No and no. We just have diametrically opposed views on baseball.

As if that wasn't obvious.

[Arctic Blast]

I, for one, am sick and tired of YH just bashing whatever HGM believes in...

Frankly, I'm tired of both of them. Neither of them has any ability whatsoever to simply LET SOMETHING GO. They're both too stubborn and, possibly, pompous to just end a conversation, because they simply HAVE to get the last word in. I see them both as pretty much even when it comes to any kind of fault.

Edit : I should note that I enjoy conversing with both of them, and aside from when they 'communicate' with each other, have no issues with them at all.

[Wassit3]

Now we're talking about BaseWars. Good game.

Yes, I like the personal touch of an umpire's strike zone, but no one is collect stats or baseball cards of Tim McClellan. Umpires are like the IT guys of a baseball game - when they do their job well, they are invisible to the game; when they do poorly, even on one tiny item, they get punished savagely.

lol, nice one liner about the umps, made me laugh