Baseball's Perfect Knight
QuesTec's UIS (Umpire Information System) has been renewed annually since 2008, but I don't see it helping. Hard to measure though. The UIS involves four cameras in each park, measuring pitch location,Originally Posted by ol' aches and pains
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuesTec
Last edited by StanTheMan; 05-15-2013 at 08:19 AM.
"Herman Franks to Sal Yvars to Bobby Thomson. Ralph Branca to Bobby Thomson to Helen Rita... cue Russ Hodges."
no pepper games
It's already being done. They are evaluated on everything from balls/strikes to their demeanor and their hustle. MLB knows how many pitches they called incorrectly each game.
no pepper games
Even if you watched baseball 10 hours a day, I doubt it would be noticeable. It's not like the number of correct balls/strikes called went from 75% to 95%. It's probably more like 92% to 95%.
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If that's the case then why are the notoriouslbad umpires still around? Bad players get released, bad umpires are forever.
Baseball's Perfect Knight
Probably more like a 1% jump. I agree watching games would not identify "progress" to any fans eye... But would MLB not benefit from sharing a little bit of info
It's certainly not in their nature, and they would be quite guarded, as well as not wanting to identify the number of bad calls when trying to publicize improvements or improving %'s.
With the increased attention to botched calls this season, we might get something, no?
"Herman Franks to Sal Yvars to Bobby Thomson. Ralph Branca to Bobby Thomson to Helen Rita... cue Russ Hodges."
no pepper games
Maybe the bad ones are still better than anyone else in AAA? Or, maybe the worst umpires according to the fans are not the worst umpires according to the data. I'm sure that some people think that Jim Joyce is the worst umpire, yet he is one of the best, according to the players.
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No, I think baseball fans are aware that Joyce is one of the good ones. And it was mentioned often enough around the perfect game incident. And you mention "according to the players", well every poll they do lists guys like Hernandez and Bucknor among the worst. So there's visual evidence, player opinion and I'm going to guess data to prove these two, especially are bad.
no pepper games
Well, there is a Facebook page called "Jim Joyce, Worst Umpire Ever", and it has 1496 likes.
Angel Hernandez has umped quite a bit in the post-season (see below), so he probably isn't quite as bad as everyone thinks he is. MLB says "only the best umpires work the postseason."
All-Star Game (1999, 2009), Division Series (1997-98, 2002, 05, 09, 11-12), League Championship Series (2000-01, 2003-04, 07, 10) and the World Series (2002, 05)
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Post season assignments have been a joke for a long time. Hernandez is garbage. And quiting anything off of facebook, well I don't want to insult another poster here.
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Wow. That facebook nonsense is just ridiculous. I have never played around with that kind of stuff. Anyway, had that been around in 1985, I wonder how many disgruntled Cardinal fans would have "liked" a page entitled "Don Denkinger: Worst Umpire Ever!" He was a very good umpire, despite the blown call at first in the 9th of Game 6. I was (still am) disgusted at the amount of hate mail and death threats that my fellow (and supposed Most Knowledgeable and Best Sports fans) Redbird supporters sent for years after that, and that they could be such morons. Just a small minority, I know, but still that kind of stink is very hard to wash out.Well, there is a Facebook page called "Jim Joyce, Worst Umpire Ever", and it has 1496 likes.
Angel Hernandez has umped quite a bit in the post-season (see below), so he probably isn't quite as bad as everyone thinks he is. MLB says "only the best umpires work the postseason."
All-Star Game (1999, 2009), Division Series (1997-98, 2002, 05, 09, 11-12), League Championship Series (2000-01, 2003-04, 07, 10) and the World Series (2002, 05)
"It ain't braggin' if you can do it!" Dizzy Dean
"I went through life as a 'player to be named later.'" Joe Garagiola
"There's a conspiracy among the clubs. Nobody's hiring 37 year old players who can't hit." Mike Jorgensen
Baseball's Perfect Knight
The smiley face �� was used... No need to take the reveal of a Facebook page title too seriously...
"Herman Franks to Sal Yvars to Bobby Thomson. Ralph Branca to Bobby Thomson to Helen Rita... cue Russ Hodges."
A gametime decision
Yep, when I think "knowledgeable baseball fans", I think FACEBOOK!
"My truck done shocked the fire out of me, and my arm don't hurt no more." - Roy Oswalt, channeling Dizzy Dean
no pepper games
We weren't talking about knowledgeable baseball fans - just fans in general.
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And how about some of those scholarly baseball discussions in the comments section of each article on mlb.com? Now there's a great source of baseball wisdom!!!
I had no idea what a troll was (outside of say fantasy stories or fairy tales) until I read a few of those comments back a few years ago when they started that garbage.
"It ain't braggin' if you can do it!" Dizzy Dean
"I went through life as a 'player to be named later.'" Joe Garagiola
"There's a conspiracy among the clubs. Nobody's hiring 37 year old players who can't hit." Mike Jorgensen
Registered User
About post-season: under the contract, all of the umpires on staff are supposed to get into post-season at some point, but that doesn't mean they all get the World Series or even the LCS. I think it should be based only on quality, but, then again, how many teams now make the playoffs?
Back to quality. Manny Acta did a piece I read where he picked the five best umpires and his #5 was Joe West. And he said a lot of other people agree. They don't like him. He does things he shouldn't do. But those ratings systems are popularity contests, and many players have said over the years that they don't care about the size of the strike zone as long as it stays the same size and in the same place. I know of umpires mentioned here whose zones are in motion. That's what drives them crazy. Keith Hernandez once said that Lee Weyer had the biggest strike zone of anybody he knew, but everybody knew it.
Groundball inducing lefty
Yeah, I've noticed it seems in motion a little bit nowadays. Especially this years. I've seen a couple of times where a pitch gets called a strike that 2 batters ago was a ball.
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Never going to happen Dave, not on the balls and strikes.
I feel the same as others on the bad ball and strike calls, not good at all.
But it's always going to be a part of the game.
To all those that want balls and strikes called electronically, your wrong, not going to happen.
To end the debate say what you like, as long as it's not a part of the game it means your idea, not just you Dave, is not accepted by MLB and I'm glad of that.
Join Zap!
Plus if you argue with a cyborg, they terminate you.
Lou Gehrig is the Truest Yankee of them all!
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When MLB goes that way, then I'll admit my way of thinking was the wrong one, until then...........................................
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