Goodbye QuesTec. Hello Zone Evaluation.

[missionhockey21]

I think the oversight is fine personally. I know it was a bit odd, but I was glad that QuesTec was not implemented in each stadium as there was an ability for baseball to do a comparison between an ump with and without QuesTec. Now data can be collected in each stadium and hopefully used to help umps, who I think are much more consistent than any other time in my life.

April 1, 2009
Ball-Strike Monitor May Reopen Wounds
By ALAN SCHWARZ

JUPITER, Fla. — An improved camera system to monitor umpires’ calls of balls and strikes will be used in all 30 major league stadiums starting opening day, ending the contentious QuesTec era but expanding the scope of baseball’s oversight program. And it appears to be rankling umpires anew.

Major League Baseball had been using QuesTec since 2001 to try to standardize the functional size of the strike zone, which often varies from umpire to umpire, despite the rulebook definition. But QuesTec cameras were installed in only about a third of major league stadiums, raising the suspicion among players and fans that umpires called games differently depending on whether QuesTec was watching. Umpires also questioned if the system was sufficiently accurate to gauge their performance.

The new system, called Zone Evaluation, relies on pitch-tracking data already collected by cameras in all 30 parks and distributed through applications on MLB.com and iTunes. Zone Evaluation software will rate umpire performance more quickly and accurately than QuesTec, according to Mike Port, baseball’s vice president for umpiring.

“It’s an upgrade from where we were,” Port said in a telephone interview. “The umpires, they don’t want to miss a pitch any more than a batter wants to strike out. Where the Z.E. system will give us a lot of help is more data to help identify any trends: ‘The last three plate jobs, you missed seven pitches that were down and in. Here’s how one of the supervisors can help you adjust your head angle or your stance to have a better chance of getting those pitches.’”

Umpires may not necessarily welcome this much assistance. Port said the umpires union, the World Umpires Association, had approved the change, but a union spokesman, Lamell McMorris, declined to comment on that or any aspects of the Zone Evaluation system.

Asked if umpires had such concern about the new arrangement that they might consider going on strike — as early as opening day, which is Sunday — McMorris again declined comment. Jerry Layne, a veteran umpire, also declined to discuss the subject when reached by telephone.

Although a strike is unlikely, their silence suggested that the situation could hurt the relationship between Major League Baseball and its umpires, which had been improving.

The concept of monitoring umpires by camera and computer has been debated since QuesTec made its debut as part of baseball’s taking more control over umpires. In 2003, the umpires union filed a grievance concerning baseball’s use of QuesTec. It was finally resolved in late 2004, when the union and Major League Baseball completed negotiations on a new labor agreement.

Most baseball officials say that umpires have become more consistent in calling balls and strikes by the rulebook definition as years have passed. Analysis of 2008 data by the Elias Sports Bureau showed only a small difference in how the strike zone was called depending on whether QuesTec was being used: umpires in QuesTec parks called a pitch a strike 31.5 percent of the time, compared with 31.2 percent without QuesTec, a difference of about three pitches a game.

“A lot of people are of the impression that a particular umpire not in a QuesTec park would run wild and become an outlaw,” Port said. “But there is virtually no difference. And that was the purpose of the system.”

Port added that Zone Evaluation was more accurate in collecting data, which will triple with cameras in every park. The software that refines and distributes the information to umpires over the Web was developed by Major League Baseball Advanced Media and Sportvision. Since 2006, they have partnered in developing the MLB.com pitch-tracking application. That system records the ball’s position in flight more than 20 times before it reaches home plate.

But, umpires have pointed out, the accuracy of the system suffers once a pitch enters the strike zone — because the zone hovers above the five-sided plate as more of a three-dimensional prism, not the rectangle that television viewers see. They have maintained that although QuesTec (like Zone Evaluation) collects data in three dimensions, a hitter’s position in the batter’s box or distractions like bat movement can cloud the information, making it unfit for evaluative decisions about umpires.

“I don’t think it’s positive or negative,” Bruce Froemming, a veteran umpire, said before his retirement in 2007. “It’s something we live with.”

During spring training, players generally said that they did not expect pitch-monitoring in all 30 parks to make much difference, either to the game or to outside observers. The Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels said that umpires were already consistent enough. Another Phillies left-hander, Jamie Moyer, said he preferred no monitoring system, to preserve the human element of umpiring.

Two top hitters, Mark Teixeira of the Yankees and Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay Rays, said they did not care because they had never paid attention to whether a park was outfitted with QuesTec anyway.

The only way fans may notice the new Zone Evaluation system, it appears, is if umpires make a public issue of it.

“I don’t think it will be that noticeable because the aspiration of the umpires, as I have come to know it, is they want to do their jobs well,” Port said. “This is a tool. Hopefully, it will show just how good they are.”

The New York Times > Log In

[love_that_reefer]

I would like to see this be used in deciding who umps in the postseason. The Umpires with the best grades get to make the extra coin and decide the bigger games.

[missionhockey21]

That's an excellent idea. I am sure some umps will shrug off what the ZE report said about their accuracy and chalk it up to the computer being inaccurate, but for those who listen and strive to have as accurate of zone as possible would be rewarded, just like players get rewarded. I am sure though to do this, their union contracts would have to change to allow it.

[love_that_reefer]

I am sure though to do this, their union contracts would have to change to allow it.

But of course. Funny how the Unions hold back MLB from bettering itself