What should be done about umpires with a "floating" strike zone?

Question

There was a good example of this Sunday night in the Atlanta-Washington game. The umpire (who shall remain unnamed), was extremely inconsistent in his calling of the strike zone. You never knew what was a strike from on pitch to the next. To make things worse, he showed a lack of professionalism when he chased the pitcher with a wagging finger when all he did was walk toward second base. When Bobby Cox came out to complain, he tossed him before he got out of the dugout. In my opinion, this umpire does not deserve to be in proffesional baseball.

There are a few possibilities I would like to throw out for your consideration-

A. More training for guilty umps.

B. Sanctions against guilty umps.(If you choose this, please specify what kind.)

C. Fire the guilty umps.

D. Other (Please specify - nicely.)

Thank you.

Answer 1

they should go to h**l

Answer 2

One of the elements of baseball which makes it unique, is the differing strike zone from umpire to umpire.  That said, I agree with you in that something needs to be done about umps who exhibit inconsistency within the confines of a game.  I don't mind if a slider 3 inches off the plate is a strike so long as it's a strike both ways for the whole game.

I know there's been some chatter about using a "Cyclops" type system for baseball to "automate" the zone.  I utterly hate that.  I'll stomach the occasional badly called game before I would see a fundamental change like that.  

Replay has been talked about a lot lately, but I can't see a day when replay is used to dispute a strike call.  Games would last 4-5 hours.

I know that MLB grades and constantly rates its umps.  I'd like them to poll the pitchers on it.  And, for that matter, catchers who have even more interaction with the umps and have a better view of the strike zone than the pitcher.If you have 3-4-5 catchers start to complain about the same ump, then you know you have a problem.

Answer 3

I agree with you. While unkown will always argue that the ball strike call is a "judgement call", the fact that people talk about different umpires have different strike zones is an indication that the umpires are not calling the strike zone accordinbg to the rules. basically every single call an umpire makes, other then rules interpretations, is a judgement call. but an unpire can not decide to change how those calls are made. You can't have one umpire deciding that a throw to first has to beat the runner by at least a step, or the runner is safe. Abnd you couldn't have the reverse be true either - that  the runner has to be a step past ist before the ball or he is out.

Umpires, like everyone else, are entitled to make mistakes. but for an umpire to make a conscious decision that a ball 3 inches off the plate is a strike, or that any pitch above the waist is a ball when the definition of the strike zone is clearly defined so that a pitch that is off the plate should NEVER be a strike, and a pitch just abouve the waist should Always be a strike.

I think the real solution would be for all umpires in the major leagues as well as the affiliated minor leagues (AAA all the way down to Rookie League) to be employed by MLB. They should then be expected to do the job well, or they would be sent down until they proved they were ready to come back up again. Maybe if a few of the umps that are so bad (and Bucknor is absolutely horrible) ended getting moved down to the minors, they would at least attempt to improve their skills. This could also be used as motivation for the umpires to behave in a more professional manner on the field. Too many of the umps have become confrontational in the past few years.(Rubge and Mike Winters come to mind) perhaps rather then losing a day's work as Runge did, a demotion to the minors for a couple of weeks, along with a smaller paycheck during that time, wold hvave been more appropriate.

The umpires for the most part do a tremendous job, and given the fact that a plate umpire will see somewhere around 300 pitches a game, they actually get an incredibly high percentage of the calls right. But, if they are allowed to "change" the strike zone to what they decide it should be, you may as well just not define it all. A pitcher and the hitters should not have to spend the first couple of innings trying to figure out which particular strike zone that umpire happens to be using.

Answer 4

I can only say that I've seen only one umpire deserving to be fired and that is CB Buckner the most consistently horrible umpire in baseball!

Answer 5

you dont agure ball and stirkes jeeze people its not that diffuclt.

dude you got out and try to call the game its not easy to do of course you can miss border line pithc. BUT YOU NEVER EVER   AGURE BALLS AND STIRKES.

a. no there train enough

b. there nothing gulity about this umpire its a judgement call

c. again above b

d.  maybe how about the coach learn to understand the rules.

get a life.

Answer 6

Another angry Braves fan because of their underachieving season.  Blame the umpires because your pitchers cannot throw strikes.

Plus you do not know how much crying was going on from the dugout during the lead up to the ejection.  And the Braves were down 6-1 in the third when the incident occurred.

If you want better umpire become yourself.  There are two schools that train the professional umpire (Wendelstedt and Evans) and you start there to get to pro ball.  Good luck on your new careers.

Answer 7

i say there be a evaluation of each ump and the most consistent should stay the rest go,

Answer 8

you do nothing (pretty much). umpires are part of the game if anything is done it should be to make sure all of their eye sight is up to par.

Answer 9

Perhaps the umps need to have more oversight. There is nothing wrong with the strike zone changing from game to game, but it is totally unreasonable when it changes from pitch to pitch.

As for the umpire in Sunday's game, he should have found out if Bobby Cox was going out to argue balls and strikes before he threw him out. He could have been coming out to complain about the unprofessional way the ump reacted to the pitcher walking toward second. Don't pitchers usually walk off the mound after an at-bat?

I saw the game as well. I thought the other umpires made it clear they felt the umpire was out of line by not coming out to help him, like they always do.

As fans, we have a right to some  form of relief. Extra training is okay, but if the ump refuses to clean up his act, he should be outta there!

Note:

For all you people out there who think umpires should be exempt from scrutiny, I have two words for you - Richard Nixon.

Answer 10

I know what you mean. The Yankees seem to get one of those types of umps every other series.

I would love to see those umps fined, and retrained on the first offense, and fired on the second.