Samuel Worley

Period 7

Major League Baseball must implement the robot-ump in all of its games to eliminate

controversy, speed up the game, and create a more fair competition. The robot-ump is a

computer system that grades whether a pitch is a strike or a ball. To be sure, baseball would miss

the frames by catchers, and hitters dodging out of the way of a perfectly good strike.

Nonetheless, without adding this rule, the sport will continue to move at a slower pace than most

other sports, and every call made will still be able to be argued by players. In 2019, every detail

of the MLB was critiqued. From the juiced ball controversy to the Astros controversy, the MLB

is the laughingstock of sports. These were large issues, but the largest is still to be solved. For the

MLB to gain back the support of all fans, it needs to fix the elephant in the room.

One gain of these robot-umps is that it would eliminate controversy in games. Last

season, there were 221 ejections of players and managers, according to the Umpire Ejection

Fantasy League, a site that tracks each ejection made every season. Of these ejections, 186

followed arguments about a missed call at home plate. Whenever a batter is called out after the

third strike, there can always be a controversy over whether the pitch should have been called a

ball or a strike. These arguments are pointless and often unnecessarily end in an ejection for the

player or manager arguing the call. That is not to say that all players or managers are ejected

after arguing a call, or discussing the location of a pitch after they disagreed with the call.

However, after 186 of those occasions, a player or manager was ejected. If a robot-ump were

implemented, the controversy of all calls could be eliminated. There would be nothing to argue,
and the player could not affect how the umpire might call the rest of the game. The robot-umps

were first tried out in the Atlantic League, an independent baseball league. After it’s first season,

it went off without a hitch.

Another benefit of creating a robot-ump is that it would speed up the game. According to

the MLB, the average time of a regular season MLB game is three hours and two minutes. The

average time for each game has continued to increase since 2010, when the average length was

14 minutes shorter. The idea that players cannot argue with the umpires feeds directly into the

idea that robot-umps can speed up the game. With the new system, several issues would dissolve.

The time often taken in arguing with umpires would not be a factor with the robot-umps making

the call. The calls that robot-umps make are near-instantaneous and don’t take more time than an

umpire takes making their calls. Jacob Bogage of The Washington Post writes, “it could open the

door to more structural changes that quicken the game’s pace.” Although some baseball purists

believe that baseball is perfect the way it is, the majority of baseball fans think that the speed of

the game is one of the biggest issues with America’s pastime. In an interview with The New

York Times, Cubs fan Adam Cohen said, “If we are at a game, my son picks up an iPhone so

that he can entertain himself.” The speed of the game remains one of the biggest reasons young

fans are turning away from the game, as teens look for higher paced action in sports.

With the robot-umps, all questions of inequality in calls disappear. The size of the strike

zone varies with the height of the batter, according to the Washington Post in an editorial written

by Jacob Bogage. However, this is already something that occurs in MLB games, according to
the MLB Network. “We just want consistency and if you go to the electronic strike zone, we

know if you throw it here, it's a strike, you throw it here, it's a ball,” said veteran Yankees pitcher

CC Sabathia. For players in the MLB, an electronic strike zone is something that can even out

the playing field. Last year, there were 55 missed calls that resulted in a game ending, according

to a Boston University study published last year. In a game between the Colorado Rockies and

the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, the game was ended because of a missed call by home

plate umpire Paul Nauert. The Rockies won that game because of the blown call, then went on to

secure a spot in the playoffs. At 54 other points that season, similar games ended in drastically

similar fashion. This is an issue that needs to be addressed, and adding robot-umps is a large step

in solving the issue of missed calls.

For baseball to move into a new future for a better baseball, the MLB must implement

robot-umps to ensure fairness in all games, eliminate controversy, and speed up the game. As

America’s pastime continues to move forward, this new technology will give it a step up into the

future, and into a better baseball.

Works Cited
“2019 MLB Ejections.” Umpire Ejection Fantasy League Portal,

portal.closecallsports.com/historical-data/2019-mlb-ejections.

Acquavella, Katherine. “CC Sabathia Speaks out in Favor of Electronic Strike Zone after

Blown Calls in World Series.” CBSSports.com, 28 Oct. 2019,

www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/cc-sabathia-speaks-out-in-favor-of-electronic-strike-zone-

after-blown-calls-in-world-series/.

Bogage, Jacob. “'Robot' Umpire Calls First Professional Baseball Game with One Hitch

and No Controversy.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 July 2019,

www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/11/robot-ump-calls-first-professional-game-

with-one-hitch-no-controversy/.

Bowen, Fred. “If Fans Snooze, Baseball Loses. MLB Needs to Speed up Longer-than-

Ever Games.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 June 2017,

www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/if-fans-snooze-baseball-loses-mlb-needs-to-

speed-up-longer-than-ever-games/2017/06/21/4bc36d22-4d5d-11e7-a186-

60c031eab644_story.html.

Casaccio, Ed, et al. “MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Pitch Calls in 2018. Time for Robo-

Umps?” Boston University, 8 Apr. 2019, www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb-umpires-strike-

zone-accuracy/.

Miller, Scott. “MLB's Juiced Ball Controversy Has Pitchers Scrambling and Suspicious.”

Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 2 Aug. 2019, bleacherreport.com/articles/2847602-

mlbs-juiced-ball-controversy-has-pitchers-scrambling-and-suspicious.
 Annotated Bibliography

“2018 Major League Baseball Batting Leaders.” Baseball, www.baseball-

reference.com/leagues/MLB/2018-batting-leaders.shtml.
I was able to use this source to see the statistics for every player year to year. This source

is great as it is just facts, and it doesn’t have any opinion. It has many statistics that are

hard to find in any other source.

“2019 MLB Ejections.” Umpire Ejection Fantasy League Portal,

portal.closecallsports.com/historical-data/2019-mlb-ejections.

This source has the dates and names for all of the ejections that occurred during the 2019

season. This source doesn’t say all of the specifics for each ejection, so it becomes

difficult to find the specific details for each ejection.

Acquavella, Katherine. “CC Sabathia Speaks out in Favor of Electronic Strike Zone after

Blown Calls in World Series.” CBSSports.com, 28 Oct. 2019,

www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/cc-sabathia-speaks-out-in-favor-of-electronic-strike-zone-

after-blown-calls-in-world-series/.

This source has multiple interviews, including one with longtime pitcher CC Sabathia.

This source doesn’t take into both sides, and mostly speaks in favor of the electronic

strike zone.

Bogage, Jacob. “'Robot' Umpire Calls First Professional Baseball Game with One Hitch

and No Controversy.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 11 July 2019,

www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/11/robot-ump-calls-first-professional-game-

with-one-hitch-no-controversy/.

This source talks about how the electronic strike zone was utilized in its first game in the

Atlantic League. It is very useful for me, as I am able to understand the real pros and cons

of the electronic strike zone after it was used in a professional game.

Bowen, Fred. “If Fans Snooze, Baseball Loses. MLB Needs to Speed up Longer-than-

Ever Games.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 June 2017,

www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/if-fans-snooze-baseball-loses-mlb-needs-to-

speed-up-longer-than-ever-games/2017/06/21/4bc36d22-4d5d-11e7-a186-

60c031eab644_story.html.

This source talks about how the MLB needs to speed up its games. However, it doesn’t

make much mention to the idea of an electronic strike zone. In that way, it doesn’t pose

much use for me to cite it in my paper.

Casaccio, Ed, et al. “MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Pitch Calls in 2018. Time for Robo-

Umps?” Boston University, 8 Apr. 2019, www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb-umpires-strike-

zone-accuracy/.

This study discusses the amount of missed calls in the MLB, and also how an electronic

strike zone could help the MLB avoid the issue of missed calls. It draws conclusions over

how the MLB could be improved with this new technology.

Miller, Scott. “MLB's Juiced Ball Controversy Has Pitchers Scrambling and Suspicious.”

Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 2 Aug. 2019, bleacherreport.com/articles/2847602-

mlbs-juiced-ball-controversy-has-pitchers-scrambling-and-suspicious.

This source discusses the several controversies that wrapped up the MLB during 2019. It

does not make note of the electronic strike zone, but it still makes good points about how

the MLB could be improved.

The New York Times. “Baseball's Too Slow. Here's How You Fix It.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 1 Mar. 2017,

www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/sports/baseball/baseballs-too-slow-heres-how-you-fix-

it.html?auth=login-email&login=email.

This source gives ideas on how the MLB could be improved. This source does not cite

the MLB at all, and it is just readers sending in ideas.

“Sortable Player Stats.” Major League Baseball, mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp?

c_id=mlb#elem=%5Bobject+Object

%5D&tab_level=child&click_text=Sortable+Player+hitting&game_type='R'&season=20

19&season_type=ANY&league_code='MLB'§ionType=sp&statType=hitting&page=1&t

s=1586204846384.

This source sorts the stats of each player in the MLB. It is only numbers, so there is

nothing to directly quote in my paper. It is very useful in understanding the slope of the

game as it has progressed over the years.

Will, George F. “Baseball Moves Way Too Slowly. Is It Time for a Pitch Clock?” The

Washington Post, WP Company, 23 June 2017,

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/baseball-moves-way-too-slowly-is-it-time-for-a-

pitch-clock/2017/06/23/c148bfa6-5777-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?

arc404=true.

This article speaks out about how the MLB needs to speed up its game, and how fans are

becoming bored in the game. It doesn’t make much mention of the electronic strike zone,

so I could not use it for my paper. It is also an opinion column, so the information

presented is not presented in a neutral manner.