Off Day Discussion #1: Should Major League Baseball do something about the offense?

[Laika]

I’d imagine if you can challenge strike calls with an electronic strike zone, Biggio’s WOBA would get a huge uptick from walks and pitchers forced to throw in the zone. We’d also see more players join Mike Trout in the 20% BB club.

 

Maybe, but it goes both ways. It would change the game dramatically that's for sure. There are certain pitches that clip the zone but never get called strikes right now (think a huge hammer curve, you can basically throw one that hits the zone but then hits the dirt).

[John Balkabella]

Not sure if this has been discussed elsewhere, but heard an interesting tidbit on a recent Dodgers broadcast.

 

Kershaw says the seams are raised more this year, resulting in more movement, even on the four seamers.

[RobinThicc]

Make walks more consequential

 

Nobody wants to see star players being pitched around.

 

Maybe a walk going straight to 2nd base will help.

[Jimcanuck]

Make walks more consequential

 

Nobody wants to see star players being pitched around.

 

Maybe a walk going straight to 2nd base will help.

 

Good idea. Magnify the impact of the umpshow 5fold.

[RobinThicc]

Good idea. Magnify the impact of the umpshow 5fold.

Robo umps are coming. Cant be more than 5 years from now.

[AdamGreenwood]

Get rid of the seams on those baseballs. That's the problem.

Without the seams, it will be a lot easier for the hitters to recognize the pitches.

[Grant77]

If we're doing robo umps then just do it. None of this challenge nonsense is feasible or necessary.

 

Again though, more accurate ball/strike calls will not necessarily lead to more offense, which is what this thread is about. There would also have to be an adjustment of the strike zone.

[Olerud363]

Get rid of the seams on those baseballs. That's the problem.

Without the seams, it will be a lot easier for the hitters to recognize the pitches.

 

The height of the seams is important. Higher seams makes it easier to get more movement on breaking stuff.

 

Lower seams = less drag. I think this year they raised the seams so more movement but more drag.

 

Perhaps they need to lower the seams back to 2020 level, but fool around with how tightly the yarn is wound and the properties of the cork.

 

Spend a lot of time on it, and do lots of experiments, and as someone else mentioned test the ball extensively in milb and spring training. Get it right.

[The Cats Ass]

If we're doing robo umps then just do it. None of this challenge nonsense is feasible or necessary.

 

Again though, more accurate ball/strike calls will not necessarily lead to more offense, which is what this thread is about. There would also have to be an adjustment of the strike zone.

 

Good chance it does lead to more offense. The most common mistake is probably a ball being called a strike.

[BlueRocky]

If we're doing robo umps then just do it. None of this challenge nonsense is feasible or necessary.

 

Again though, more accurate ball/strike calls will not necessarily lead to more offense, which is what this thread is about. There would also have to be an adjustment of the strike zone.

 

Data from the Atlantic League and Low-A Southeast League suggests it has led to more offense. The key is consistency, there’s nothing consistent about umpires. It’s like the rule book changes every game based on which ump is calling the game.

 

Baseball America explains how the strikezone is being measured.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/explaining-how-the-low-a-southeast-league-will-set-its-automated-strike-zone/

 

If you play in the Low-A Southeast league this year, it will not pay to have lied about your height.

 

Over the years, there have been plenty of players listed at 6 feet tall even if in reality they were 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11.

 

Players tempted to add an inch or two to their height to be listed at 6 feet tall are better off sticking with their accurate height because their strike zone is going to be set by their height.

 

To use the new automated ball-strike (ABS) system, hitters’ strike zones will be programmed into the ABS system based on their height. The top of the zone will be 56% of the player’s height and the bottom of the strike zone will be set at 28% of the player’s height.

 

So, a 6 foot tall player’s strike zone will stretch from 20 inches above the plate to just over 40 inches above the plate. A Jose Altuve-sized (5-foot-6) hitter will have a strike zone from to 18.5 to 37 inches tall. An Aaron Judge-sized hitter (6-foot-7) will have a strike zone that begins 22.1 inches above the plate and tops out at 44.2 inches.

 

Since home plate is 17 inches wide, it means the zone is 340 square inches for a 6 foot tall hitter, 314.5 inches for a 5-foot-6 hitter and a 6-foot-7 hitter’s zone will be 375.7 square inches.

 

There are no allowances for having a Raimel Tapia or Rickey Henderson crouch. It’s based on a hitters’ full height, and MLB will be checking listed heights to make sure they are accurate. That may be significant for hitters who signed as teenagers and have kept growing, even if their listed heights haven’t kept up.

 

In the Low-A Southeast League, MLB will be using the Hawk-Eye visual tracking system to measure the strike zone. In the Atlantic League, which also uses ABS, the pitches are tracked by the Trackman doppler radar system. The strike zone will be measured as a two-dimensional box at the very front of the plate. Since this is an experiment, there is a chance that eventually it may be tweaked.

 

For instance, while the strike zone in the rule book is a box with right angles, the strike zone as called by humans is more of an oval with rounded corners.

[DigitalRock]

Limiting pick offs is BS. The cat and mouse of pitching with runners on are fine, you can't just leave a guy out there naked, they'll run all over you? The rest are fine, surprised these are being done i the MILB, thought it was just Indy Leagues.

 

We often disagree, but I agree with you Spanks on this one.

[Grant77]

Data from the Atlantic League and Low-A Southeast League suggests it has led to more offense. The key is consistency, there’s nothing consistent about umpires. It’s like the rule book changes every game based on which ump is calling the game.

 

Baseball America explains how the strikezone is being measured.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/explaining-how-the-low-a-southeast-league-will-set-its-automated-strike-zone/

 

I'm not completely convinced that this will be the case at the MLB level. If you've watched the Southeast league, you will know that the pitchers are quite wild and often lose the zone for long stretches. They are normally given a bit of leeway by the umpires and are bailed out by aggressive hitters. This is a big change for the players in that league.

 

MLB pitchers can generally hit the zone so we would probably see different results. Implementing robo umps immediately seems easy, but I would like to see at least 2 years of testing at AAA before we bring it to the big leagues.

[The Cats Ass]

I'm not completely convinced that this will be the case at the MLB level. If you've watched the Southeast league, you will know that the pitchers are quite wild and often lose the zone for long stretches. They are normally given a bit of leeway by the umpires and are bailed out by aggressive hitters. This is a big change for the players in that league.

 

MLB pitchers can generally hit the zone so we would probably see different results. Implementing robo umps immediately seems easy, but I would like to see at least 2 years of testing at AAA before we bring it to the big leagues.

 

Using Ump Scorecards from 1 day(yesterday's games) and going by the +/- run differential for each team 4.69 more runs should have been scored yesterday.

 

 

The biggest overall favour of the day was the WSH/PHI game. The Phillies had a +1.3 runs called in their favour. WSH had a minus 1.02 runs with PHI at a plus .28 runs.

[Grant77]

Using Ump Scorecards from 1 day(yesterday's games) and going by the +/- run differential for each team 4.69 more runs should have been scored yesterday.

 

 

The biggest overall favour of the day was the WSH/PHI game. The Phillies had a +1.3 runs called in their favour. WSH had a minus 1.02 runs with PHI at a plus .28 runs.

 

Very interesting. Thanks for doing that.