2025 MLB Thread

[oblong]

was it in a movie or TV show or video game or commercial?

But.... it's not like people are unaware of music before their time.  ONe person could have liked it and then word spreads.

[davidsb623]

I watched spring training games almost everyday and noticed that the umpires were calling balls & strikes more efficiently than they are now in the regular season.  The ball & strike calls have been horrible across the board so far since the regular season started.  The ABS system seemed to challenge the umpires more in spring training, not wanting any of their calls reversed and the umpires were mostly correct when a batter, catcher or pitcher challenged.  ABS needs to be implemented ASAP for the regular season.

[chasfh]

It should be implemented for 2026.

[monkeytargets39]

Yeah there’s only been one or two games this year where I haven’t thought the ump was terrible.  It’s been very noticeable 

[Hongbit]

Question:  What is the strike zone in a Major League Baseball game?

If you said the plate horizontally and shoulders to kneecaps vertically, you are wrong.

Answer: Whatever the home plate umpire in that game decides it to be.

MLB has created a world where there is little consistency in the rules for each game. Every ump has complete control of what they want to call.  If a manager or player disagrees,  they are immediately ejected from the game.   If they say anything to the media after the game, they are fined.    

MLB has allowed the stance to exist that as long as the calls are consistent for each team, the strike zone shouldn’t matter.   That’s ridiculous if you really think about it.   How about they have defined rules and they should do their best to follow them. The strike zone is a pretty important part of the game. 

Making the situation even worse and what allows it to continue is the lack of accountability on the umps.  Their union backs them on everything and while they do keep track of accuracy, very little is done to fire or remove umps that do a poor job.  Some of the worst offenders are not only allowed to stay on  but even get post season assignments due to tenure (I’m looking at you Laz Diaz).    

I was glad to see the robo ump experiment in spring training.  It worked much quicker than most people expected and was a big success.  Yet in typical MLB fashion, they didn’t implement this season for fear of upsetting that big, bad umpires union.   Typical Rob Manfred leadership. 

[Tiger337]

46 minutes ago, chasfh said:

It should be implemented for 2026.

It will be partially implemented with each team having a limited number of challenges per game.  I hope they do a better job than they do with other challenges.  I understand that that it works pretty quickly in the minors, but that doesn't mean it will be quick in the majors.  Is there a chance that the majors will have more technology giving conflicting conclusions which slows down the process?  

[Nate7474]

I feel like there should be an electronic strike zone but the ump still calls the result. Then to keep the realism of having to find a strike zone, have a set of 5-10 different strike patterns that’s the pitchers and batters have to work at finding throughout the game. 1 randomized pattern per game working off the assumption that each umpire typically has a slight variation to what a strike is for them. I like that not all strike zones are the same and there’s human elements to that but I don’t like strike zones seemingly changing throughout the game. 

[gehringer_2]

The ability to show each pitch on the screen makes the situation for the league untenable. They either have to allow appeal challenges to automated zone or tell the broadcasters they can't use zone visualization tech in their broadcasts because the present situation where where the only people on earth who don't get the right call are the umps and players is  beyond stupid.

Edited April 18 by gehringer_2

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

The ability to show each pitch on the screen makes the situation for the league untenable. They either have to allow appeal challenges to automated zone or tell the broadcasters they can't use zone visualization tech in their broadcasts because the present situation where where the only people on earth who don't get the right call are the umps and players is  beyond stupid.

I've never liked the zone box on tv. 

[papalawrence]

Michael Fulmer dfa'd by Boston. 

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fulmemi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&utm_campaign=2025-04-18_br

[IdahoBert]

I didn’t see the zone box on any of the broadcast games in spring training so now that it’s back, the miscues are maddening. I would just as well not have the zone box and not have something to get upset about.

[gehringer_2]

21 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

I would just as well not have the zone box and not have something to get upset about.

yup - it needs to be one or the other

[Hongbit]

I know we’ve discussed it before and some people view it as gamesmanship  but catcher framing is done solely to deceive the ump.  Eliminating it would be much easier to implement and have a big impact on improving an umpires ability to call a proper game. 

[4hzglory]

27 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

yup - it needs to be one or the other

They didn't allow the zone in spring and won't when the challenge system is in place because they don't want any chance of a team being able to see it and somehow quickly communicate it to the batter/pitcher/catcher to initiate a challenge.  It's back now because the challenge system isn't in effect.

[4hzglory]

5 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

I know we’ve discussed it before and some people view it as gamesmanship  but catcher framing is done solely to deceive the ump.  Eliminating it would be much easier to implement and have a big impact on improving an umpires ability to call a proper game. 

How would you eliminate it?  if a catcher instinctively moves his glove is that a penalty?  If a catcher is able to catch a ball at the very bottom of his mitt while the top of his mitt is in the zone is that a penalty?  I don't think it would be easy to implement at all.

[gehringer_2]

5 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

How would you eliminate it?  if a catcher instinctively moves his glove is that a penalty?  If a catcher is able to catch a ball at the very bottom of his mitt while the top of his mitt is in the zone is that a penalty?  I don't think it would be easy to implement at all.

The umps could eliminate it, should have eliminated it the first time a catcher moved instead of being still and giving the ump a good view. Framing would be over in a one game if the umps told catchers they wouldn't give them calls when they were jerking the ball around instead of giving them the best view.

Edited April 18 by gehringer_2

[Hongbit]

6 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

How would you eliminate it?  if a catcher instinctively moves his glove is that a penalty?  If a catcher is able to catch a ball at the very bottom of his mitt while the top of his mitt is in the zone is that a penalty?  I don't think it would be easy to implement at all.

The instinct for the catcher would be to continue in the same direction as the ball instead of reversing course in the opposite direction.  I can’t imagine it’s too hard for the 2nd base up to look in and tell when the catcher is bringing a low ball up or outside ball in on purpose.   

Edited April 18 by Hongbit

[gehringer_2]

15 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

They didn't allow the zone in spring and won't when the challenge system is in place because they don't want any chance of a team being able to see it and somehow quickly communicate it to the batter/pitcher/catcher to initiate a challenge.  It's back now because the challenge system isn't in effect.

r  u sure? I seem to have a recollection of ST games with the zone box when challenge was in effect. I thought the lack of the box at some ST games was was because some of the parks weren't instrumented for it. Gameday doesn't even get velo radar at some of the ST sites.

Edited April 18 by gehringer_2

[4hzglory]

8 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

r  u sure? I seem to have a recollection of ST games with the zone box when challenge was in effect. I thought the lack of the box at some ST games was was because some of the parks weren't instrumented for it. Gameday doesn't even get velo radar at some of the ST sites.

The Athletic had an article on it saying it wasn't going to be allowed to be televised for Spring games (or any game the challenge was in effect) for that reason.

 

Now it does still show on Gameday, but that is delayed from the actual game enough to not cause an issue.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, 4hzglory said:

The Athletic had an article on it saying it wasn't going to be allowed to be televised for Spring games (or any game the challenge was in effect) for that reason.

 

Now it does still show on Gameday, but that is delayed from the actual game enough to not cause an issue.

LOL - in theory anyway. My gameday feed is usually a pitch or sometimes two ahead of my video fanduel feed from Direct TV - go figure.....

[papalawrence]

 Very wild game at Wrigley. AZ scored 10 in the 8th. The Cubs scored 5 in the 7th and 6 in the 8th and won 13-11. Wonder how many teams have lost a game where they scored 10 runs in an inning?

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/game/_/gameId/401695202/diamondbacks-cubs

[lordstanley]

17 hours ago, papalawrence said:

I've never liked the zone box on tv. 

I hate it. Even when the calls are correct. It clutters my view. I wish i could toggle it off like closed captioning.  Or at the very least I wish they would make it much more faint. 

[chasfh]

It was jarring to see the strike zone at first, maybe ten years ago? It looked like something out of MLB The Show. I’ve gotten used to it over the years, just like I have gotten used to the pitch type and speed popping up when the pitch crosses the plate, which started maybe four or five years ago. I wouldn’t miss that one so much, but I might miss the strike zone at first.

Remember maybe a decade or so ago when umpires tried policing batters for delaying games dicking around at the plate, like stepping out between pitches, by enforcing some sort of time limit on them between pitches? It worked for about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, but then they stopped because players were grousing too much and the league wasn’t really standing behind the umps on the effort. Plus, there was no real penalty on batters for infractions, like a ball called against them, and no similar effort to stop pitchers from slowing down the game as much as they wanted, so why should the batters have to listen to umps pick on them? The only thing that ended up working to stop the dicking around was the pitch timer, since the umps could just say, hey man, don’t yell at me, it’s the timer, which you can plainly see. It took the blame out of the ump’s hands, which is why it works so well. It’s transparent, with universal, consistent, unavoidable enforcement.

Same thing with having umpires police moving mitts. It would create nothing but headaches for them having to deal with unhappy catchers, pitchers, managers and base coaches on what would appear to be subjective judgments in the moment. Get some sort of automated system that detects moving mitts, with audible tones for violations, and it might work to stop egregious pitch framing movements. Or else go to a fully implemented ABS regime for each and every pitch. That would definitely work to stop egregious pitch framing movements.

Edited April 19 by chasfh

[casimir]

23 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It will be partially implemented with each team having a limited number of challenges per game.  I hope they do a better job than they do with other challenges.  I understand that that it works pretty quickly in the minors, but that doesn't mean it will be quick in the majors.  Is there a chance that the majors will have more technology giving conflicting conclusions which slows down the process?  

What will slow down the process is when MLB realizes that they should be seeking advertising ties into the reviews.

[chasfh]

5 hours ago, casimir said:

What will slow down the process is when MLB realizes that they should be seeking advertising ties into the reviews.

You how how Dan describes the uniforms being worn by the two teams toward the beginning of the game? The Cubs do, too, except it is sponsored by Benjamin Moore Paints, which is why Pat Hughes makes sweet, sweet love to the description and to the ad copy following it.