In 2019, the Atlantic League started experimenting with an automated strike zone. Although that may sound cool, the results aren’t always pretty.
During last night’s game between the Lancaster Barnstormers and the Lexington Legends, an awful strike three call was made in the top of the eighth inning with the bases loaded. The pitch was way outside, but the automated strike zone thought it clipped the corner.
As you’d expect, the batter was clearly frustrated with the call. He had a long chat with the umpire, but there’s nothing the umpire can do about it since he didn’t actually make the call.
To make matters worse, the Legends lost this game in extra innings after giving up a walk-off, two-run homer.
Here’s the awful call that was made in the top of the eighth inning:
Hitter argues one of the worst strike three calls you’ll ever see and Let It Go starts playing over the speakers pic.twitter.com/0t70vlyL5y
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 9, 2021
Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman actually saw this video and shared his thoughts on an automated strike zone.
“Please no robots,” Bregman tweeted. “Haha holy cow!”
Please no 🤖! Haha holy cow!
— Alex Bregman (@ABREG_1) July 9, 2021
Earlier this year, MLB chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak discussed the future of automated strike zones at the professional level.
“The goal here is really to focus on demonstrating system reliability and to start to get more athlete feedback from more players, coaches and umpires,” Marinak said. “The technology is really in pretty good shape.”
Judging by this latest video, the technology needs to improve just a bit.
The post Look: Robotic Umpire Makes Awful Strike Call appeared first on The Spun.