Certains arbitres craignent que l’ABS amène les fans à les juger selon des normes presque impossibles
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Par Jux_
Baseball
Certains arbitres craignent que l’ABS amène les fans à les juger selon des normes presque impossibles
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Par Jux_
50 Comments
Since when has any umpire cared about what fans think of them?
Are we, the fans, actually though? I think everyone kinda agrees that for a pitch less than an inch off the plate being called a strike is pretty excusable. But if an umpire misses a strike call firmly within the strike zone, or calls a pitch 2 inches off the plate as a strike, then issues start to arise
I don’t think anyone truly judges an ump when an ABS result shows something as being like half an inch.
but when you see things called a ball/strike and the ABS shows it’s it wasnt even remotely close to that, then yea you’re getting judged.
I think ABS shows how good umps are. All teams should recognize that the umps are likely right on close calls and just not challenge unless its a high leverage or obvious missed call.
I think the difference now is just that the feedback is instantaneous. We have been getting postgame reports for years, so informed fans know how many missed calls there are. Umpiring has improved a lot since the post game reports were instituted. If you don’t believe it, go look at some games from the 90s or earlier. I expect that performance will improve even more as a result of ABS as well, provided they take the feedback and use it.
I would posit that those who judge them would be the first to complain about AI taking their jobs and not recognize the irony.
One thing I’ll say is not all misses are equal. Fans will see “missed by two inches” and assume it was a horrible call. It is a terrible call on a fastball, but on a curveball, it’s understandable.
Shit we were doing that long before ABS
Why would umpires care what fans think of them?
I didn’t think so. Some of the overturns are so close you can’t fault the ump. I mean if it is a 98 mph fast ball 0.2 inches off the plate and it was missed that seems like an impossible task to get right all the time.
Same with catchers when they challenge and it wad just nicked the zone by a fraction of an inch.
The only thing I would have a problem with is if an ump is vindictive and knows you have no challenges left and purposely calls a ball a strike just to be dick.
A few of the umps I have sympathy for. It is undoubtedly a very hard job. Maybe if they hadn’t protected the absolute shitters like CB and Angel for years none of this would’ve happened.
1. give us an average miss metric: for calls that are overturned by ABS, how far off in inches from the edge of the strike zone are they on average? don’t punish umpires for pitchers hammering the edges of the zone, so just a count of ABS overturns wouldn’t matter, only the distance misses. anything less than an inch or so should be considered great
2. just give ABS the authority. follow KBO’s example and give empires an ABS earpiece to eliminate missed calls on pitches entirely
I dont think the general public realizes how difficult it can be to see mlb pitches
CB, you must have a great retirement account by now.
I have seen a few calls get overturned where the balls JUST kisses the strike zone and it’s ruled a Strike. I don’t know how they’d do it, but I feel like maybe they should adjust the rule to something like if less than 15% of the ball is in the zone, it’s still called a Ball.
I have been thoroughly enjoying players chirping at the umps, only for the umps to say « challenge it then ».
Nope I don’t care if they miss a close call, because it can be challenged.
Dudes are throwing 100+ balls are dropping 2+ feet in milliseconds. I’m not sure how they even see it tbh. They do a pretty damn good job overall. It’s just I’m baseball every pitch matters so getting it right is all that matters.
When the ABS shows the pitch is off by 0.2” I am impressed with how close the ump was to getting it right
If the standard of calling balls and strikes accurately is impossible for a human, then humans shouldn’t be doing it.
I’m impressed by a batter, pitcher, or catcher challenging a call within an inch of the zone. No judgement against an umpire. I’m holding umpires accountable when the ball is nowhere close or somehow right down the freakin middle
Just automate it for fucks sake. No reason to continue having debates about umpires.
I’m for anything that helps show how ass CB is at his job
Puff pieces for umpires
This is the problem with umpires and referees in general. We don’t care who or what you are. They are a faceless and only become named when they are egregious.
We just want the calls correct and if a robot can do it, so be it.
Ive seen way too many dick shot fastballs called a ball to care, plus the gausman balk shit yesterday… yeah no one gives a fuck about your feelings
ABS has improved the game immensely already.
Then take them out of the calls and strikes. Just use the ABS.
I thinks it’s just showing how impossible the standards are.
They should have never been expected to make these calls without help from a computer once the tech was available.
This isn’t about the refs.
We’re not there to watch them. We just want the game to be called correctly.
If anything, this shows how good umps actually are? I mean it’s a small white pill traveling over 90 MPH *with break* and they get it right an astoundingly high amount.
Us normies would crap ourselves if we had to do that job.
ABS just demonstrates that there shouldn’t be a home plate umpire calling balls and strikes.
Umps: the job is too haaaaaaaaard
Everyone else: then step aside and let the robots do it
Dude, I fucking love the umpires going back at the players/dugouts and telling them to challenge if they have a problem. It’s kind of given them ammo to shoot back.
Could not disagree more. My respect for the job umpires have to do has gone up a ton, especially when you see a challenge upheld by less than a 10th of an inch. I just don’t like umpires with egos, and unfortunately thats a lot of them
I think it would help if the TV broadcasts stopped putting the strike zone overlay up because it’s so inaccurate most of the time.
If you can show the actual ABS zone for each batter, do that. Otherwise don’t show anything. It’s just misleading.
I am judging them and I will continue to do so.
Not at all…no one is perfect.
Well, yeah. When the entire sport has been reduced down to parleys and legs with real money on the line, of course people are going to demand precision now if precision is available to them.
Aren’t they having the most accurate year in history thus far? I feel like if fans get on umps for 0.4″ off the zone, they don’t know what they’re doing. Now, CB Buckner? He needs to go.
I’ve been saying this for years- the umps are incredibly freaking good at what they do. It blows my mind when I see slow motion replays on challenges and more often the not the umpire gets the call correct
So, like players? Yeah we expect everyone on field to compete at the highest level. It’s literally your job.
I judge them for being complete assholes. I don’t give a rip if they miss a picture every now and then. they’re human. but they are hook happy sensitive pricks
The one thing ABS had done is made me appreciate is the art of framing. As someone that has never called balls and strikes in a game, I never realized how deceptive framing was.
Now I’ve seen a few games where a pitch outside the zone was called a strike and overturned, I can see in the replay how framing affected what was called.
The one thing I do want to know is how MLB is handling the margin of error. Are they pretending it does not exist, or is it factored in so those “missed by 0.1 inch” calls were actually out side the error zone?
The catchers and hitters getting it wrong so much has made me respect umps a little more if anything. The only time I snark at the ump is if it’s an obvious one in the zone, usually that’s just a lapse in concentration which happens but is worth snarking at. Also when they make phantom balk calls lol
If they hadn’t been assholes I wouldn’t be laughing whenever the suffer humiliation.
No, what’s created near-impossible standards is the strikezone overlays that have been superimposed on every broadcast for the past 25 years. When the fans have a (maybe accurate but maybe not) realtime indicator of the strike zone, suddenly everybody and his brother becomes an expert.
The vast vast vast majority of « blown » ball-strike calls are well within what I think most people would consider a reasonable margin of error. It’s the middle-middle balls and ankle-high strikes that warrant outrage, and those have become exceedingly rare over years ever since the league started using automated systems to do umpire quality control.
“Some umps are not comfortable that ABS creates accountability for them after years of doing whatever they’ve wanted”
That’s basically what the headline says.
I think the Korean league? has a system that signals the home plate ump as to what ABS is calling the pitch. Maybe this would avoid some of the embarrassment.
Then find a new career