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Navybuttons Thoughts On Baseball


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I do think the strike zone shouldn't be called by humans anymore. You would still have an umpire back there for hit batters, foul tips, stepping out of the batter's box, etc., so the union wouldn't complain about loss of jobs.

 

How quickly could the strike zone box relay a signal to the umpire to say if it's a strike? Like he wears a buzzer and it buzzes for every pitch in the strike zone. The umpire would still be back there giving the strike call and the emphatic strike three calls, but the only difference is that he isn't the one making the determination.

 

Grantland addressed this and other options today.

 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9940495/ben-lindbergh-possibility-machines-replacing-umpires

 

"Pavlidis proposes putting a buzzer in the umpire's pocket. Brooks and Port prefer a visual aid. As Port points out, an understandable instinct for self-preservation leads umpires to position themselves in the "slot" between batter and catcher, which gives them an off-center perspective on the plate and impairs their ability to see the outside corner. Port likes the idea of a PITCHf/x-informed "heads-up display … that would give the umpire a better overall look at the strike zone," compensating for the need to protect his non-robotic body. "If he centers it properly as the pitch comes in," Port continues, "in the corner of the mask there is a red or green light" that would signal strike or ball. An LED indicator would be an easy addition to make to the umpire's mask."

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If you do the no ball trick, make sure you aim right for their face, maybe you get a flinch, and you can mad dog them after the pitch.

"I use my single windup, my double windup, my triple windup, my hesitation windup, my no windup. I also use my step-n-pitch-it, my submariner, my sidearmer, and my bat dodger. Man's got to do what he'

I can't wait around all day for scram to click on this thread. He's probably busy building a free shed while hedging Hendricks submission bets against GSP with his Dominican bookie

Well, one of the problems is, whomever your usual #3 (or #2 or whatever) is, he's getting pushed down in the lineup (as is everyone else), taking ABs away from your best hitters and giving them to a guy who has pinch hit or platoon talent.

 

 

I also don't think you actually save almost any at bats. Lets say you're playing a game that has 5 people reach base all game. 32 plate appearances total. Your 1, 2, 4 and 5th batter will have had 4 plate appearances, your 6, 7, 8, 9 will have 3. Your 3rd batter will have one gimmick at bat, and 3 real at bats from your crap fhitter. So, if you just kept your crap hitter at 8, he would have had 3 real at bats anyway, so.. what did you gain, an extra at bat for your utility guy while your number 5 batter gets bumped to 6 and loses an at bat? Grats?

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I also don't think you actually save almost any at bats. Lets say you're playing a game that has 5 people reach base all game. 32 plate appearances total. Your 1, 2, 4 and 5th batter will have had 4 plate appearances, your 6, 7, 8, 9 will have 3. Your 3rd batter will have one gimmick at bat, and 3 real at bats from your crap fhitter. So, if you just kept your crap hitter at 8, he would have had 3 real at bats anyway, so.. what did you gain, an extra at bat for your utility guy while your number 5 batter gets bumped to 6 and loses an at bat? Grats?

 

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you're moving good hitters down in the order, those good hitters will, collectively, lose enough plate appearances throughout the course of the season as a result to eliminate any value that you gain by getting a guy a PA in the first inning who is probably, like, about as good as your #7 or #6 hitter (at best). Then you lose the flexibility of using that decent bench bat in a higher leverage situation.

 

Say you have a pinch hitter whose only job is to waddle off the bench, hit, and then come out of the game. If he's a good hitter, you want him to be hitting in important situations, where it really matters what he does. You'd rather him get 50 PA in high leverage spots than 81 in the first inning, regardless of base/out/run state.

 

Plus, there's a really good chance, especially in the first inning, that the guy you inserted into the lineup will be hitting in a high leverage spot, BUT YOU'D RATHER HE WEREN'T.

 

Say, for example, you're the Tigers.

 

Austin Jackson leads off with a BB.

Torii Hunter singles, Austin Jackson to third.

 

Now, in the 3 hole, you have, I dunno, Andy Dirks (with the intention to replace him with Jose Iglesias in the bottom of the 1st) slotted in there. Sure. Cool. Dirks is okay, I guess. But wouldn't you much rather go "Cabrera, Fielder, Victor Martinez" there instead of "Dirks, Cabrera, Fielder?" The whole idea has very little upside, and all sorts of downside. Whenever the 3 spot comes up in the top of the first and it is HIGH LEVERAGE, using the one-and-done offensive replacement is an obvious mistake. Whenever the 3 spot comes up and the situation is neutral, we're transferring PAs from our 4-5-6 hitters to an inferior hitter, and burning a bench spot in the process.

 

Why would we ever do this...?

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Why would we ever do this...?

It's an interesting idea for a team like the Red Sox playing in a NL park when they weren't planning on playing Ortiz in the field.

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That's a small subset though. I'm only saying that you would do that if Ortiz had a scheduled day off and the Sox weren't even going to use him to pinch hit. I don't really know how often that happens. I've heard that managers will tell guys that they won't pinch hit because the day off is a day off mentally as much as physically and knowing you'll probably pinch hit in a big spot later would keep your mind focused the whole time (theoretically). I wonder if the manager would stick to it though if it was the bottom of the 9th, down 2, bases loaded...

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