All models are wrong. Some of them are useful.
FSN can afford that X-Mo Camera or whatever they call it. Why can't MLB and Pitch f/x?
Well, for starters, that X-Mo camera probably costs 10-40 times as much as a single camera used in the Pitch F/X system. Needing to have three per stadium would add up very quickly. Secondly, slo-motion cameras like that are larger in size than your typical camera (lets note that the cameras used for Pitch F/X aren't tv production sized cameras). Pitch F/X cameras in some stadiums are mounted above the heads of seats. The smaller the better I would imagine in that kind of circumstance.
Last edited by dougdirt; 01-08-2013 at 12:44 AM. Reason: typo
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...t-called-ball/
The worst called ball all season: Pitcher, Homer Bailey, catcher Devin Mesoraco
Here is where Pitch F/X has the "ball":
It is that green square right over the middle of the plate in the middle of the strikezone.
Here is what the pitch actually looked like on FSN Ohio via freeze frame
Here is how the pitch looked in real time
Now, Mesoraco had to go from setting up inside, to reaching across to catch a 96 MPH fastball there. According to the article:
Computers 500,000,000,000,000,000,000. Humans 0.Interestingly, 2012 data suggests that Mesoraco is an above-average pitch framer. But above-average pitch framers won’t be above average on every pitch, and here, Mesoraco simply screwed up.
In a way, this is confirmation that pitch framing makes a difference. It’s confirmation that pitch framing, or a lack thereof, is capable of turning a fastball down the middle of the zone into a called ball.
As long as the status quo is human umps, catchers need to work on the skill of pitch framing.
While it shouldn't matter, I put a feather in the cap of catchers who can frame well, cause that is a skill needed to help your pitcher succeed today.
Note to catchers - nearly tipping over on a pitch right down Broadway WILL result in a ball on occasion.
Doug, you've made a very convincing argument that computers are more accurate than humans. I haven't seen much of an argument that it would make the game better. Would you care to do that?
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Sure.
Every pitcher should have the exact same strikezone (which of course, is impossible since it changes with each hitter, but you know what I mean). Having someone interpreting the rules incorrectly, be it on purpose or not, should be avoided when possible. And it is now possible in the case of balls and strikes. No more of this "you need to earn it" crap. No more of the "3-0 or 0-2" close calls going the other way because of the count.
I just think the game would be better if everyone played by the same set of rules. Right now, they aren't and it is easily avoidable.
Shouldn't every hitter have the same strike zone, too? Why do you focus on the pitchers?
You say things "should" be done certain ways as if you're some kind of authority (which you're not). You haven't described what kind of difference it would make to have computerized umpiring. I'm not necessarily saying computerized umpiring would make the game any better/worse, but I haven't seen the evidence to suggest that it would.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but more accuracy doesn't always equal more entertainment.
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And I think that is the problem most have with letting computers do the ball-strike job that do not agree with doug. It is the problem that I have. I try to be a perfectionist in a lot of things I do, but I really enjoy the human element of sports. No problem with relays in football and even in baseball for HRS and fair/foul. But I really enjoy the umpires doing balls/strikes and out/safe. They make me mad sometimes when I feel the call goes against our fav team, but that is a part of the game that I love. I just wish MLB would get rid of bad umpires (CB, you hear me?).
Because hitters are different heights, so the "acceptable" hitting zone changes for them based on their height. A waist high pitch to Adam Dunn might be at the neck for Jose Altuve. Where as the pitch at the knees for Altuve would only be at the mid shin for Dunn.
I am not the authority on the strikezone. The rulebook is. The rulebook clearly tells us what a strike is and what a ball is. Those rules that define the two things are not being called correctly by the umpires. We can change that.
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