Maybe Atlanta Braves and MLB won’t have robo-ump disaster this Spring?

The Atlanta Braves have a number of pitchers and hitters who really need to get themselves dialed in quickly to have chances to win roster spots. MLB experimentation was threatening this.

The initial news we heard last week was eye-opening:  that the Atlanta Braves and their 29 sister clubs were going to be subjected to live tests of the electronic umpire system this Spring.

With news bits and additional fallout about the Astros cheating scandal continuing to drip out like a leaky faucet, this news may have flown just a bit under the radar, but the initial reports seemed to indicate that balls and strikes in Grapefruit and Cactus League play would be adjudicated by cameras and electronic means.

We talked about this on the latest TomahawkTake podcast… and my own concern was for the problems it would pose for the players.

In general, Spring games are for teams to have their ‘regulars’ get comfortable with their swings, their mechanics, and to get ready for the 162 game grind to come.

Atlanta, among many other clubs, has an additional priority:  this club has a number of players who need to refine offseason swing changes and find out if they will be able to win jobs with them.

There’s also some serious pitching concerns:  who is that 5th starter?  Sean Newcomb?  Kyle Wright? Bryse Wilson? Or is it the newly acquired Felix Hernandez?

There’s a lot of work to do here, and none of these players need to be wondering what the strike zone actually is shaped like.

Issues?

One of the criticisms of this ‘electro-zone’ system (yes, I made up that term) is that while it’s essentially a perfect representation of the rule-book zone, it’s also different from what real-life human umpires call.

Curve balls might finally get the respect they deserve.  However, that fastball just worked ‘outside the black’ may be ignored… at least that’s the expectation.

Heck, Tom Glavine worked those corners (and beyond) to Hall Of Fame perfection… how would he have fared?

So imagine Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcomb, who works an 11-to-5 curve, but has trouble getting umpires to recognize its beauty.  He wants that 5th rotation slot and might be inclined to welcome such a system.

Then there’s King Felix, who can’t blow away people with a 96-97 fastball any more and is compelled to work those Glavine-esque corners.  Think he wants such a system in place?  Probably not.

Austin Riley:  he needs to recognize a major league breaking pitch and figure out where it’s going before committing to swing at it.

Johan Camargo… Ender Inciarte… I could go on for  while here, but you get the picture.

The concern was that players would…

• have to get used to an artificial system that graded a strike zone they aren’t used to seeing
• have to set used to the ‘real’ system with human umpires again once the regular season began

Just imagine the possible mess around the entire league.

Happy Ending?

But wait… there’s an update… apparently the Umpires union recognized what the MLB report sounded like, and issued a clarification statement on behalf of MLB (with emphasis added).

"“Reports that MLB will use ‘robo-umps’ to call balls and strikes in spring training games this year are completely inaccurate. … Our understanding is that a camera-based tracking system will be running in the background during some spring training games for technology development and training purposes. But any game in which a Major League Baseball umpire is working will have a human calling balls and strikes.”"

They also reported that the ‘background’ system would only be used in nine games in Florida as part of a plan to ‘refine’ the system that’s still in development.

Sorry… we didn’t learn this until after the podcast had been recorded.

Okay great… that makes a lot more sense:  continue to have humans call everything while the system is ‘dialed in’ and refined for things like speed of execution, accuracy, etc.

The big thing about the clarification is this:  the rug isn’t going to be yanked out from under the players’ feet so that they have to get used to 2 distinct strike zones.

Willing to Wait

Personally:  I want to get to the point where this electronic system happens.  Consistency is important… and frankly I don’t care if the strike zone gets defined as something below the letters and extending a couple of inches off the outside corner… that’s the way baseball has been played for decades now and changing that could hurt a lot of players who’ve lived with this for their careers.

What we don’t want to have to do our ranting about in days and years after ‘the big game’ is how Eric Gregg or Angel Hernandez or C.B. Bucknor screwed up crucial calls that changed an AB and perhaps changed a game.  While we should applaud these umpires for their dedication, I hate knowing these names for all of the wrong reasons.

Happily… it sounds like this electronic system is going to get a more proper introduction – via additional refinement:  both in Grapefruit League action (behind the scenes) and in minor league parks this season.

When it does get introduced ‘for real’… it needs to be 100%-fully-ready-to-go without changes and with an intent to use it for the long haul.

I’m quite willing to wait until that day arrives.