Chicago Cubs: It’s time to activate the Electronic Strike Zone

The first step toward an ESZ has begun

Maybe I shouldn’t be too hard on the Boston Herald or Mr. Dupont as they have had their hands full with the slow start of last year’s World Champions. After all, you don’t think much is wrong with the world when you’re in first place and heading to the series. Now that the Red Sox have been humanized at seven games back, perhaps they too might benefit from the ESZ.

Over the years, I had heard about PITCHf/x, Hawk-Eye and Statcast but my knowledge of Trackman was limited to golf. For instance, the Trackman has been used in pro golf to help measure shots around a course but has also been around baseball for some time measuring ball and strikes.

AJ Dellinger recently wrote in Robot as reported by Engadget that:

"The Atlantic League’s automated ump assistants will be powered by a radar system from TrackMan. The company uses Doppler technology to track and record the characteristics of a ball while its in motion. TrackMan is no stranger to baseball. According to the company, its technology is already used by MLB Advanced Media for ball tracking in its Statcast system. Many teams at the pro level in the US, Japan and Korea use the system, as do some top NCAA programs…  It will discuss the possibility of adopting the system during the 2019 All-Star Break."

I believe it may be a long-shot to think we’ll see the technology by the All-Star break but wouldn’t it be marvelous to see that game managed with pure technology? Players could no longer be furious with umpires and would have to be furious with themselves, like golfers. Maybe similar to golfers, batters would then turn to blaming their equipment instead of themselves. Will we still use umpires to make the calls of Trackman or will the technology be used to confirm their calls? The phrase that “this technology will assist umpires” is not clear and is still very confusing for fans.

Last season, I called for introducing this technology during the postseason, and although the 2019 All-Star break would be an amazing time to showcase this technology, again I’m shooting for the postseason where the games count. If there is this much concern about umpire calls so early in the season, how bad will this year’s postseason be? Considering that ‘every game matters’ this year for the Chicago Cubs, I bet Zobrist, Schwarber and Maddon would agree with me in saying, stock up on the Energizers and turn that thing on!