Woodruff is pretty legit. I think he’d be a really good hitter if he stopped pitching.
so if you’re doing philosophical baseball question - here’s one from someone who never really watched baseball till the last couple of years but kinda enjoy it.
why the hell are umpires still calling strikes/balls? this has to be extremely easy to automate and it makes no sense that the entire game is built on imaginary borders that are never exactly the same even between pitches.
what’s the argument against an automated strike zone?
For the same reason as most every bad thing MLB does…tradition.
ETA: MLB fans skew older and value tradition more so than most sports. Combine that with the fact that the younger demographic prefers other sports, and MLB is left in a situation where they are afraid to make the changes that could potentially attract new fans because they are scared they may drive away their base.
I would love to see that experiment as well.
It’s more than that. There’s a really good Effectively Wild episode all about the pros and cons of robot umpires, and it’s more complicated than I initially thought.
edit: I’m having trouble finding the exact episode to link.
If you find the link, lemme know.
Is that a podcast?
I’ll keep looking. And yeah, it’s a great data-driven baseball podcast.
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MLB paid an independent league to try this out last season. It was planned to give it it try in MiLB this season. It’s in the pipeline…
Meanwhile… nothing is more lol-tastical than the 1st down chain routine in football. Back to baseball…
- Most players have played “complex ball” in MiLB, so they have actual experience in playing in empty stadiums.
- A few MLB stadiums can be viewed from outside. Ex: The rooftop bar at Sabo dog’s favorite hotel is open 5-10pm. Hotel Indigo looks into Petco Park.
- Inter-squad MLB on mlb.tv right now. Watching 3 inning WSox -vs- WSox @ at an empty Guarantee Rate.
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oh…2-way players you say? Michael Lorenzen says fuck the DH!
Yeah, he’s a cool story.
totally robbed of the silver slugger last year. I will be forever salty about that.
I like the idea! The lucky fan gets to keep the bat!
I think it was Bill Murray who said the Olympics would be improved by having one average person participate in each event so that the skill of the Olympians would be more obvious. Same concept.
When they join the ranks of the 0.00001%.
Because it isn’t worth that much in equity.
MLB has decided to pipe in fake crowd noise during its empty stadium games. Fits right in with the fake baseballs and the fake home runs we’ve seen in recent years.
What is a fake home run?
Pop flies that float out of the park. Those are fake home runs in my opinion. The ball has been clearly juiced the last few years. Scooter Gennett hitting four homers in a game? C’mon. Plus bombs that go 500 feet. MLB has had some serious PR problems even before the pandemic. Back to my original point that I don’t think fake crowd noise is going to help the game. It gets old really quick.
I’ve had MLB.tv for a few years and the best experience was when, somehow, the commentators’ audio feed would cut out and I would just listen to the sounds of the game. The crowd noise, the sounds from the field, actually hearing the umpire’s voice. I wish that was an intended feature.
The plan is to use sound effects from “MLB The Show” and play them over the stadium speakers. I’d rather hear chatter from the players and the natural sounds of the game.
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