Indians pitchers got squeezed at least 8 times and still pitched a shutout. So much for the umps trying to help.
Indians pitchers got squeezed at least 8 times and still pitched a shutout. So much for the umps trying to help.
coco for the crispys...... wrote:
Indians pitchers got squeezed at least 8 times and still pitched a shutout. So much for the umps trying to help.
Yep.
Goat Curse wrote:
coco for the crispys...... wrote:Indians pitchers got squeezed at least 8 times and still pitched a shutout. So much for the umps trying to help.
Yep.
However, the action(s) did have the benefit of signalling to the (gambling) market that the fix is in, even if the Cubs lost this game.
Tonight the Cubs pitcher thought he got squeezed a couple times and the whole team mentally went south. Their hitters really looked bad.
Rojo and anyone else bashing the Ump,
Have you ever stood behind home plate of even a little league game and called balls and strikes? What's the fastest pitch you've ever caught as a catcher, called as an umpire or been pitched to as a batter? It is extremely difficult, and is by far the hardest thing any official has to do in sports. Most games have 200+ pitches and the umpire is expected to get every single one right, he misses a few calls and everyone says he sucks and that he is fixing them game.
I've called about 65-70 mph on a little league field which in terms of reaction time is about the average speed of a fastball in the MLB. I can tell you that it's very hard to distinguish 3 inches on a pitch that fast. 6 inches is a little bit more noticeable, but the hardest thing about being an umpire is that you must make a call almost immediately. Pitches within 1 ball length look like the same spot and can look like a ball or a strike (even if in the exact same spot), especially if the pitcher misses his target, and when making a snap decision sometimes you just don't know and you make a call. And then when you make that call, the team it favors says nothing and the team it goes against is yelling at you. Which is another aspect of umpiring that is very difficult.
When every decision you make is put under a microscope it is extremely hard to gain self confidence. Imagine if every race/hard session you ran you were told that it sucked and was too slow by half your team and the other half of the team that thought it was good said nothing, what would that do to your confidence as a runner? Same applies to calling balls and strikes. Anyone that wants to argue balls and strikes should have to umpire an entire game behind the plate, I don't know anyone that has done it and still gives people grief for missing pitches. So stop complaining about balls and strikes. End rant.
Seriously.
The first day I stepped behind a home plate, was the last day I criticized an umpire.
rojo wrote:
The ump called a ball that was 3 inches outside a strike to the first batter and then one that was 6 inches on the other side of the plate to Napoli.
Cleveland had better get the same calls.
AWFUL.
Rojo, you are an idiot
Despite the fix, Cleveland is winning
Despite The wrote:
Despite the fix, Cleveland is winning
No Fix, Cub's just cannot hit the ball consecutively.
I agree, RoJo. Thanks for saying something! Roll Tribe!
Indians Guyer just got rung up on a ball 2 inches out of the strike zone.
I've been telling people for years the only way to manipulate a baseball game is balls and strikes. Looks like the networks and league really really want this series to go 6 or 7 games.
Have you ever stood behind home plate of even a little league game and called balls and strikes?
This is a bogus comparison. The MLB umps are the best in the business, refined by practice over an entire 162+ game season (not just a few days a week). It's like saying that because I can't shoot free throws, then mocking Shaq is incorrect.
Anyway, even minor league umps nowdays have virtual reality simulators with ball speeds 25-50% above actual, so that they become acclimated to it and the real calls become routine.
I guess you only see and remember calls that don't go in favor of your team. Chicago fans were complaining about calls in Cleveland. i know there are bad calls but in the end they all even up, so go enjoy watching the game.
?????????? wrote:
I guess you only see and remember calls that don't go in favor of your team. Chicago fans were complaining about calls in Cleveland. i know there are bad calls but in the end they all even up, so go enjoy watching the game.
Except pitch track was showing the calls weren't going against the Cubs. Pitch track showed they were out of the strike zone a few times against the Indians during this series. Tonight I only saw 3 bad calls but 2 were in the same at bat against Guyer.
Some games they do even out but the game Rojo started the thread about was at least 8 in favor of the Cubs. That is why it was so obvious.
My dad was an umpire for years. He liked to do the plate and said calling balls and strikes is really easy. After all, they are only 2 feet from the plate.
There you go. Cubby just got rung up on a pitch high out of the zone.
three blind mice wrote:
Have you ever stood behind home plate of even a little league game and called balls and strikes?This is a bogus comparison. The MLB umps are the best in the business, refined by practice over an entire 162+ game season (not just a few days a week). It's like saying that because I can't shoot free throws, then mocking Shaq is incorrect.
Anyway, even minor league umps nowdays have virtual reality simulators with ball speeds 25-50% above actual, so that they become acclimated to it and the real calls become routine.
But have you ever stood behind the plate, made a split second call 200+ times a game and then get criticized for every single pitch that's not right down the middle? I think not, and until you do, you really have no room to complain.
To your point about training. Yes they have the best training in the world, but sometimes the best training can't make people perfect. A few inches is nearly indeterminable when a ball is moving that fast, and don't say it's not because you wouldn't know.
I think not, and until you do, you really have no room to complain.
Blah, blah, people have no room to complain. Blah, blah.
Get a real argument: the "walking in someone else's shoes" is just not applicable. No one expects them to get everything correct. However, people do (and should) expect them not to make egregious errors. Furthermore, heckling umps is part of the game/entertainment at the MLB level, just as much as heckling opposing players is.
Even MLB itself (and cricket, and world baseball/softball) is looking into better metrics to assess umpire ability. IIRC Calling balls/strikes consistently (even if not identical to a laser accuracy) is not a "few inches" this way or that question, but closer to one inch.
This said, I do remember some Little League hecklers 30 years ago (including my coach one game) who were rather out of line at that level.
If there really is some "ground truth" on balls and strikes, why don't we use that instead of umpires? Sounds a bit like race walking to me.
Missing a pitch a pitch 3-6 inches off the plate a few times a game is not an egregious error. Even if the Ump is calling a strike consistently off the plate, if it's consistent and goes both ways, the game will just be more skewed towards be a low scoring affair.
Heckling umps is not and never will be part of the entertainment, what kind of basement dweller goes to a baseball game to heckle umpires? And to that point heckling opposing players isn't really part of the game either.
I don't know about baseball, but with Haraldabos Voulgaris, when he was betting on basketball, he said that knowing the refs tendencies to call fouls made a big difference in his models.