Chicago Cubs: An electronic strike zone is coming to baseball

Chicago Cubs: Major League Baseball inching closer to the ESZ

Technology has been moving fast and so have the opinions of players, owners and the commissioner himself. In 2017, he strayed from questions about the electronic strike zone because the technology apparently was not there. This year, though, it almost seems inevitable. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told the New York Daily News recently that owners may soon have to face a decision about the technology.

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“I think we are much closer than we were a year ago to having the technological capability to actually call the strike zone,” Manfred said. “The accuracy is way up – way better than what it was a year ago. The technology continues to move… and it actually moved a little faster than I might have thought.”

But the tide seems to be turning fast toward making this change. The biggest questions mark out there right now is if the umpires will be onboard or against this change. There has even been talk that the ESZ could be simply used for challenges. MLB Network analyst Eric Byrnes told Lindsay Berra of MLB.com back in 2015:

“Introduce the system by using it for challenge calls with two strikes,” Byrnes said. “Make it available only on outcome pitches.”

But will the arguments really stop by using this system just to confirm calls? Or will Zobrist end up turning to R2-D2 at home plate saying, “That’s why we want humans making our calls.”

Chicago Cubs: Getting it right – within two percent

What fans need to understand is that the ESZ would need to be calibrated continuously to satisfy umpires, players and managers alike throughout the game. Imagine if a call looked like a ball and the ESZ called a strike? The skipper might ask, “When was the last time the machine was calibrated?”

Wayne Boyle, Sean O’Rourke, Jeff Long, and Harry Pavlidis of Baseball Prospectus talked about this earlier this year.

Verifying a machine’s accuracy is important, but it’s not the only potential source of issues. Currently, a stringer or operator is responsible for setting the top and bottom of the strike zone for each batter and each plate appearance. That process is subject to error as much as an umpire behind the plate calling strikes.

Even with this change there will still be a human error element that can make mistakes. Some proponents of the ESZ admit they are not sure how to implement the system. Do you relay the calls to umpires via ear piece and have them make the call or do you sound a buzzer for balls and strikes and umpires calls those? There are other areas that could cause malfunction and an error. At least the umpire would be behind the plate to manage the game – which is the commissioner’s concern. Regardless, there are still a lot of questions and bugs to be worked out.

I say do something dramatic and introduce it during this year’s postseason. Once you set a deadline commissioner, you’d be surprised how fast people move to make it happen. At least for the first time in 149 years the calls at bat will be within one to two percent of 100 percent accurate; which is what the ESZ is producing. Umpire Phil Cuzzi would be off the hook and can turn his attention to booting players for insulting the ESZ.