During the Philadelphia Phillies’ off day on Thursday following heading back home to get ready for a six-game slate at Citizens Bank Park starting May 31, there is plenty of time to think about what might be coming in the future years of this game.
Right now, the hot-button topic is the automated strike zone, or “robot umpires.”
Technology has been increased in sports over the years to make things easier, more accurate, and whatever else wants to be given as a reason, but there are many who feel baseball is still behind, especially considering they were virtually the last sport to fully embrace a replay system.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made a statement saying human umpires will be calling balls and strikes next year.
Perhaps that’s delaying the inevitable, or perhaps going fully automated is a bridge too far for a game that is rooted in their traditions.
Either way, it will continue to be a topic of conversation, probably even after more technology is inserted into the game to police the strike zone.
One Phillies player hopes that doesn’t happen, though.
“I really hope it never comes into play. I think it really would be bad for the game,” Philadelphia’s ace Aaron Nola said when asked about the automated zone according to Nathan Ackerman of Phillies Nation.
It’s interesting to hear pitcher’s thoughts because they are half of the two parties on the field who are affected by this.
At-bats are massively swayed against the pitcher if the umpire deems something that hit the zone a ball. On the other hand, they can also benefit by getting the missed call in their favor where their pitch misses the zone and it’s still called a strike.
For Nola, though, he is more concerned about inconsistencies that could occur.
“How do you know that they’re not gonna change it for certain guys, or certain — Sunday Night Baseball, or a midweek day game or something like that?” he said. “I mean, we don’t know that.”
This going to be an interesting debate until something is decided one way or another.
Minor league baseball has implemented a challenge system where pitchers and hitters can both challenge the call made by umpires.
That’s likely the step Major League Baseball will take before just completely going with a fully automated system.
