Are Electronic Strike-Zones coming to Baseball?

Baseball umpires are an absolutely essential part of any baseball game. However, in many cases they have possibly too much “power.” With many umpires having a track record of being wildly inconsistent and affecting the outcomes of games in negative ways the question has to be asked “is there a better way?” Technology and electronic strike-zones just may be the answer. 

I have been playing baseball my entire life so I know from first hand experience that every umpire is different. Some Umpires have large lenient zones, while others “squeeze” the strike-zone to make it even smaller. The fact remains that this constant inconsistency from game to game and umpire to umpire is not good for the baseball. Many players even go as far as finding out who is umpiring their own game ahead of time and game planning for that specific umpire,  based off how he calls a game. This is most certainly a benefit of an electronic strike-zone. Being able to have the technology to get one uniform strike zone for every game of the season would eliminate the constant inconsistency of the strike-zone. If you ask any hitter in the league, I am sure they could tell you of a time which they were on the wrong end of a bad call from an umpire. The technology relays the correct call to the umpire, allowing him to still be physically behind home plate to fix any errors the system could possibly make. I like that the umpire will be behind home-plate, and its not just a robot that makes the call. 

While an electronic zone would really make the game more consistent, many people still reject it. Baseball purists argue that “human error” or “human judgement” of an umpire is part of the game and has been for many years. Pitchers also would most likely want to keep human umpires, for the reason that I mentioned before that they can pitch to certain umpires strengths. Of electronic zones actually become a part of Major League Baseball many scouts and coaches have expressed concerns regarding their accuracy, and would rather a human make the call than a machine. 

Personally, I am a fan of electronic strike-zones being introduced. I believe the inconsistencies of modern day umpires severely have impacted the outcomes of numerous games for numerous teams. Technology allowing the MLB to have on uniform and consistent zone would make the game that much better. The Atlantic league has already began to experiment with this technology and things have ran smoothly. I really hope Major League Baseball continues to look into and develop this new technology. 

Source:

Bloom, B. (2019, July 13). The Electronic Strike Zone Is On Its Way To The Majors, Like It Or Not. Retrieved January 28, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrymbloom/2019/07/13/the-electronic-strike-zone-is-on-its-way-to-the-majors-like-it-or-not/?sh=b6744514dd56