As Major League Baseball continues to contemplate rule changes, many wonder when robot umps will take over the game. They’ve been used in the minor leagues in conjunction with a challenge system that could be a precursor of things to come for MLB.
However, it’s not that simple. Despite TV broadcasts now overlaying the strike zone, those rectangle boxes aren’t always accurate. Nor are the locations of the pitches.
Former MLB umpire Jim Joyce talked about the inaccuracy of TV strike zones, how a certain umpire is viewed, and much more with Rob Bradford on the Audacy original podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” this week.
“That box on TV is not 100% accurate. I can tell you that from fact,” Joyce said (32:30 in player above). “You can ask any other umpire that’s ever sat in replay. There are two feeds: a home feed and an away feed. You can, at times, look up and the pitch comes in, the away feed may have it in a certain location and the home feed is in a different location.
“Until they work that out, I don’t see any way you can depend and say that this is 100% accurate because it’s not. I don’t know who does the one that’s on the computer all the time but I guarantee you this: that is not even close to being accurate.”
The difference between a pitch being called a ball or a strike can change a game. In the playoffs, that means a team’s fate may depend on the masked man behind the plate.
Of course, umpires aren’t always going to get it right. At least not in terms of what’s available to the public.
There are various social media accounts and websites that track an umpire’s performance. However, there is an internal system that the umpires are graded on.
Joyce didn’t want to name names, but he mentioned one specific umpire who doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation despite scoring well within MLB’s internal system.
“I know the same things keep coming up all the time and I will tell you this, he scores well,” Joyce said of the unnamed umpire. “God bless him because he goes out there missing just like everyone else does and he scores well in the Major League Baseball system. The other one could be skewed to maybe not look as good, and I think it’s done to a certain degree due to reputation kind of intentionally. That’s all I’m going to say about that.”
Guess away, baseball fans.