Seriously, it’s so bad to see how inconsistent umps can be. We have the technology available, it’s time to stop umps from determining a pitch. The home plate umpire wouldn’t even go away, but instead would be told through a device whether a pitch was a ball or strike.
With pitchers becoming more precise and having a better arsenal of moving the ball, the strike zone should stay consistent.
What do you guys think?
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I think human error is part of the game....and "Perfect is the enemy of good enough". Just like the change they made in forcing middle infielders to have hang in there on double plays and actually step on the bag? All that has done is result in more of them getting injured, and has done nothing to actually improve the game. Anyone who is playing at the professional level **should** be a skilled enough player to ADAPT to whatever is the strike zone that day. While there may be inconsistency from one umpire to the next.....any umpire working at the professional level **should** be able to call a PERSONALLY consistent strike zone. ...and that's all the game needs. As a pitcher you can adapt your pitch selection and targeting to that zone.....and you can do the same as a hitter. Good pitching stops good hitting. Always has...and trying to force a "perfect" strike zone won't change that. If you want to LEVEL the playing field between pitchers and hitters....don't monkey around with the strike zone. LIMIT the number of pitching changes you can make. What has lead to the dominance of pitching is the rise of pitching specialization, and aggressive use of relief pitching. The MORE pitches that a pitcher has...and the FEWER at-bats you get to look at him....the more HE has the advantage. He's fresh....you have fewer data points to judge his performance for that day....and he has more options in his bag to fool you. IN years past, it was that third or fourth times seeing him where you really started to catch up to him, and really started to do work. But pitching coaches have learned to count pitches, and get starters out of game and put in a middle-reliever by that point. So now the whole things resets....and the batters are once again trying to figure out a new arm. By the time they start to catch up to that guy.....in comes the late guy or the closer. So you've now created a situation where hitter are constantly seeing a parade of fresh arms, and different looks. So the mark of a good hitter has been driven from .300 down to about .250 to .275 at the major league level. Want to see more hitting? Then go after this change in strategy and management of pitchers.