In All Seriousness...Robots

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 28, 2008 10:16 AM EDT

That's Kazmir's normalized strike zone plot for the game. Here's his last at-bat against Pat Burrell:

Pitches 6 and 4 were either fouls or swinging strikes with pitch 1 being a favorable called strike. Where did pitches 5 and 9 miss? Well, I don't know, actually. Even the Fox Track thing, which I don't entirely trust, had them within the strike zone. Essentially Kazmir struck Burrell out, twice. Instead Burrell walked, Kazmir was lifted, and Grant Balfour had to work his way out of a jam.

I'm not going to say that if we had robot strike callers last night the outcome would've been different. For one, knowing MLB, the robots would've short circuited in the rain, and two, using results based analysis we know the game is tied. However I question the judgment of anyone who places tradition or anything else over getting calls like these right in every game, and especially in the biggest games.

It hasn't changed the outcome of the series, but when the gold standard of umpires are getting this many calls wrong, it might time to implement instant replay and robots.

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Here is Moyer's from Game 2

I count 6 pitches that were called strikes that clearly were not.

by Jason Collette on Oct 28, 2008 10:19 AM EDT reply actions

Yeah, but those may have been swinging strikes.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 28, 2008 10:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Here's Hamels' strike zone plot from yesterday

There’s definitely some discrepency here. Not only are there called strikes that Hamels got that Kaz didn’t but there are some called strikes that Hamels got once but didn’t get a 2nd time. While I’m not a fan of Joe Buck, I’m kind of happy Fox brought the bad umpiring to light, with emphasis on the strike zone last night.

by kericr on Oct 28, 2008 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions

saw this somewhere else, thought it was funny.

I think the umps got together before the series and said, “We’ll screw the Rays in game 1, Philly in games 2 and 3, and the Rays in 4 and 5.” If the Rays can somehow win this one, maybe they’ll have ump field advantage for 6 and 7.

by walkoffwalk on Oct 28, 2008 11:38 AM EDT reply actions

Seriously.

Rain pouring down everywhere, pooling seas of water in the infield, no one can play even close to professionally and you guys complain about Burrell’s strike zone.

Really.

by Phils Rock on Oct 28, 2008 11:43 AM EDT reply actions

Seriously

You’re a Phillies fan, there’s a Phillies blog, you sign up for a Rays blog just to bitch about what’s written (even though it’s true)?

Really?

by steve-o1285 on Oct 28, 2008 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions

My head hurts.

by NY Tyler on Oct 28, 2008 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions

But technically he walked/ran on water instead of parting it because he's just that good.

by R.J. Anderson on Oct 28, 2008 12:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Nice job yoinking my Facebook status for the site's header.

by ReasonableDoubt on Oct 28, 2008 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions

splitting the sea is bester than walking on it.

by walkoffwalk on Oct 28, 2008 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions

We use headers here, too.

ZOMG! THE PHILS GOT SCR3W3D!!!!!!!!!

by rglass44 on Oct 28, 2008 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions

A few things:

1. R.J. your graph is tough on those of us with Red-Green colorblindness.
2. It is ludicrous that umpires cannot work back-to-back world series or back-to-back playoff series.
3.