MLB Should Continue Expanding Instant Replay
As we keep expanding technology as a whole, the more we are able to perfect instant replay. It is extremely difficult to be able to accurately call balls and strikes coming in at over 100 miles per hour from 60 ½ feet away. Today, we are going to discuss why Major League Baseball should expand their replay system to everything under the sun throughout the course of a single game.
Decisions on the field sometimes seem as though the umpire took a spin of the roulette wheel at the best online casino to make a call; if it lands on red, the runner was out! However, with expanded access to instant replay, umpires are able to get the calls correct more consistently. Let’s talk about why MLB should continue to expand instant replay.
Get the Call Right
Getting the call right is critical, especially in the sport of baseball. If an umpire mistakenly calls a pitch a ball when it was in the strike zone, that can really cause a ripple effect. Pitchers nowadays essentially are throwing to a pitch count and a missed call can really have the effect if a player is going to be able to pitch an extra inning or not.
Calling balls and strikes accurately will also increase the excitement in the game as hitters seem to have a great idea of the strike zone that they are taught from little league as from the letters to the knees and on the plate. This will force more contact, and in turn, more action instead of walks and strikeouts dominating the game.
This helps not question the legitimacy of some umpires as well. You can have a centralized hub where the umpire is in a different location off of the field and is tasked to make sure the call is accurate to the strike zone with replays, so the game is not delayed for long to figure it out.
Of course this will also go with checked swings (make an official ruling and follow it as the barrel cannot cross into fair territory) and let those be reviewable. A hitter and the pitcher get one challenge per at-bat and that really helps make the game go faster and be as close to accurate as possible.
This Ruins the Game?
I cannot take seriously the people that believe calling the game more accurately will ruin the game. Did the three-point line ruin basketball play or did the challenge flag ruin football? No. We should not be depending on the likes of people who can qualify for AARP in order to accurately see 100 MPH pitches and have technology as a supplemental tool that can really help the game. Baseball has technology to track the amount of revolutions a baseball has when traveling from the pitcher’s mound to the catcher’s mitt so why not have a camera that can track where the ball crosses the plate and where it is located in the strike zone.
Look at the New York Yankees as an example, they traded away Gary Sanchez who was an offensive-minded catcher and a mediocre defensive guy and ended up with Jose Trevino becoming their starting catcher. They eyed Trevino because of his framing ability and that means he can “steal” strikes (moving his glove and his positioning discreetly to make a ball look like a strike). The sport should not be about tricking the umpire and instead about a pitcher’s ability to locate his pitches in the correct spot inside or outside of the strike zone.
Instant Replay Equals Success
Baseball has a lot of plays that are determined within milliseconds as the ball landing inside the glove of the first baseman via a throw from an infielder with the hitter running down the baseline. It can be difficult to figure out calls so why not have an expanded replay system to continue helping as an aid for umpires because as players get stronger and faster, it becomes more and more difficult to accurately make the correct call on a consistent basis.
The object is to get the call right, so let’s take the Angel Hernandez and Joe West umpires that are made fun of for bad calls out and help the umpire crews with expanded instant replay.