Quote:
Originally Posted by ksushi
I know. I get that. When you're strike zone is the size of a quarter in the middle of the zone its tough. Do you think it is a coincidence though that from start to start his zone is squeezed? It's because umpires notice he has no fastball command so they make him work for his strikes. That's baseball.
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Those aren't the official rules of baseball. Do fast runners get the benefit of the doubt at first base? Do Gold Glovers get one bounce on fly balls? Would we accept that?
I know how the game is called...heck, I've been a player or a fan for twice as long as you've been alive. I even know the tendency of ball calls to increase with wildness in MLB in 2007: it's a difference of an extra 0.15 runs per game for pitchers averaging over 42% balls in the first two innings, and 0.15 runs is roughly equal to one extra ball call.* Why so low? Because most top-notch professional umpires DO NOT call balls and strikes that way: they call the defined strike zone. It's their job.
What we've come to expect from lower-level umpires or pre-QuesTec/Pitch f/x MLB umpires need not continue and should not be tolerated. Most umpires have "seen the writing on the wall" and have adjusted their game calling to make it as accurate as possible. Derryl Cousins called a different strike zone for Clay Buchholz than for any other pitcher last night. I don't accept that bias, and I'm surprised that you would.
* Research by Dan Turkenkopf