The Funny Thing About Ump Cam

[kcmets]

It literally shows how stupid pitch framing is. Guy throws a ball,
the catcher moves his mitt, and all of a sudden it's a strike. You
get to see how ridiculous, first hand, the 'art' of pitch framing is.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here we go again. What the hell is "ridiculous" about pitch framing?

[AIMrMet]

They're slandering me and my robo-brothers, talking about 'robots replacing human umps.' Listen to me humans, catcher framing is like that Jedi mind trick. It's sorcery that robs the stick-wizards of caisprestinge. If the thighsaver pads foil aren't art, why are they getting pizzas in the mail? I'm all for ump cams now, and yea, hell yea they catching us curveballs’ puppy breath. But my kink? Roboumps offering fair play like Super Obudu here might need a scoreboard a mega taco. The future's uncertain and rich with conjecture

[Benjamin Grimm]

I would think that the umpire would be watching the ball as it crosses the plate (or doesn't cross the plate). Can he even see where the catcher's mitt is? I'll have to check for that when watching the game tonight, if I think of it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I would think that the umpire would be watching the ball as it crosses the plate (or doesn't cross the plate). Can he even see where the catcher's mitt is? I'll have to check for that when watching the game tonight, if I think of it.

The umpire can't actually see the ball at the precise moment it crosses (or comes close to crossing) home plate. As the baseball approaches home plate, the catcher's mitt blocks the ball from the umpire's view. The umpire is actually estimating whether the pitch is a ball or strike, based on experience, and the path, speed and trajectory of the baseball. This is not much of a problem when the ball travels over the heart of home plate or when the pitch is clearly off the plate. But on those pitches where only an edge of the ball catches the plate or the ball misses the plate by a tiny fraction of an inch, the call can be off and the catcher can fool the ump by the way the pitch is caught or "framed". The ump assumes that the ball lands in the middle of the catcher's mitt but the catcher can use trickery to steal a strike by catching the ball in the edge of the webbing.

The original poster doesn't like pitch framing. Fair enough. Things should ideally, be fair and perfect. But they're not. And because he doesn't like "pitch framing", he has, in the past, written posts denying its existence -- expressing skepticism that it even happens, throwing mini-tantrums at the mere mention of the phenomenon. Just because he doesn't like it. It's boring.

[Centerfield]

MLB has a way of gauging and tracking pitch framing. From what I remember, I think Alvarez was near the top of that list. I don't know if the difference between a good framer and a bad framer is significant.

At the middle school/high school level, pitch framing is absolutely a thing. Most do it poorly, but a good pitch framer can steal lots of strikes from the average umpire.

[kcmets]

Whether or not a pitched ball crosses the plate is how balls
and strikes should be called. Not where the catcher moves
his mitt to. *yawn*