MLB must welcome automated strike zone in bid to end fights and ejections over on-field calls

Gregg Patton explains why automating the strike zone must be a welcome addition to baseball in a bid to cut down arguing and manager ejections.

Bryce Harper has found himself in hot water recently after arguing over calls. Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo

Bryce Harper was ejected from games twice in one week after arguing strike calls.

David Ortiz, Justin Upton and Freddie Freeman have been ejected for the same offence.

Two of the game’s most personable folks — Joe Maddon and Bud Black — lead the league in manager ejections after twice arguing balls and strikes.

Instant replay and the implementation of on-field challenges have reduced the volume of the sport’s most colourful but anachronistic rite — angry, on-field arguments.

Strike/ball calls cannot be disputed but players and managers continue to complain to umpires and tempers continue to flare over the strike zone.

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In the first seven weeks of the current season, umpires ejected 28 people for the infraction. Meanwhile, debates over safe/out calls, fair/foul calls and catch/no-catch calls have become simple, calm requests for review. Most of the time, the issue is peacefully resolved.

Fans at home, watching strike zone animation on TV, can tell instantly when an umpire makes a mistake on a borderline pitch. The technology exists in the ballpark to automate those calls, and review checked swings, as well. There are voices on the fringes of the game advocating that it be used.

So far, it is the one area of the game that remains the preserve of fallible humans — the umpires’ last domain.

Harper was too arrogant when he declared after his second ejection: “I don’t think 40,000 people came to watch him ump.”

But he was right. And it’s too easy to tell when the ump is wrong now. Sooner or later, the strike zone will be automated, and it will be a good thing when it happens.

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