Umpiring and Replay Robbery
Any true Mets fan knows full well that we have been getting screwed by umpires for decades. When others bemoaned the introduction of replay, I cheered. Over the years, umpires blew obvious calls that replays overturned. (Remember Omar Santos’ home run at Fenway Park?) In a recent season, the Mets were number one in baseball at overturning bad calls by umpires. So when Pete Alonso was called out at the plate against the Cubs, I wasn’t worried. The Replay Booth would overturn the call on both blocking the plate and on the fact that his hand touched the plate before the tag was applied. Easy-peasy. Nope. Despite the fact that the Cubs catcher had his foot planted on the middle of home plate – a definite violation proven by the league’s own instructional materials – the Replay Booth completely ignored the league’s rules and called Alonso out at the plate. The stated rationale was nonsensical. So what about the fact that his hand touched the plate before he was tagged out? Not enough evidence to overturn the call. That would ordinarily make sense to me except there is simply no way, from the umpire’s vantage point, that he could have seen whether Alonso’s hand touched the plate before or after the tag. So we are left with the default position of “Let’s screw the Mets.” It’s embarrassing for the league and wrong for baseball fans. Umpires are putting themselves out of jobs by being really bad, especially when there are technological solutions “warming up in the bullpen” so to speak that can do the job better.
As an aside, here’s an idea to improve baseball umpires’ performance on calling balls and strikes. We all see, in real time, when the umpire blows a call. There’s a box superimposed on the television screen and a bright dot indicates a strike. A hollow circle is a ball. But the umpire doesn’t find out about bad calls until after the game. Why not equip the umpire with a device that signals the bad call right then and there so there can be improvement during the game? Immediate feedback will better outcomes.
Carlos Mendoza won’t remind anyone of Bobby Valentine or Gil Hodges
I have long contended that the two best managers in Mets history were Gil Hodges and Bobby Valentine – each for different reasons. Hodges taught a really young team how to prepare and behave like major league ball players and then he made them believe they could win. His skill in guiding the 1969 Mets is the best managerial performance in Mets history. A close second was Bobby Valentine in 2000. He went to the World Series with an outfield of Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Timo Perez. His ability to engineer favorable match-ups was second to none. He got the most out of his great players and even more out of the marginal ones.
Carlos Mendoza doesn’t appear to have either of these great managers’ qualities. He doesn’t appear to be inspiring any performance and at this point in the season he’s overusing some of the bullpen arms. I’d love to be proven wrong, but he doesn’t appear long for the managerial world.
Injuries
The Mets theme song this year should be “Another One Bites the Dust” as player after player lands on the IL. I was really looking forward to a full second season of Francisco Alvarez hitting bombs. Not so much. The parade of Mets on the IL: Brooks Raley. Kodai Senga. Drew Smith. Tylor Megill. David Peterson. Killing me.
Stellar. Dominant. A nervous rookie, he gave up three hits in his first seven pitches. From there he absolutely killed it. He pounded the strike zone. He mixed overpowering fastballs with wicked breaking pitches. He was composed and fired up. Scott made the Rays look like a Little League team. Why is it every time the Mets get a guy who throws a gem, the bats go silent?
Pete Alonso Trade Watch
Some pundits are putting an Alonso trade at 50/50. I think it’s inevitable. The current roster isn’t capable of making a real run at the Braves and unless there is another infusion of talent on the minor leagues, like last year, we’re never going to catch them. Alonso isn’t helping himself with a sub .800 OPS through 30+ games. First basemen are much more easily replaced than catchers or quality starting pitchers. Unfortunately, I think he’s a Cub by late July.
Hanging in there with Francisco Lindor
Off to another horrendous start, the fans cheered him when he returned from a terrible road trip. Lindor responded and has played much better of late. Good for him.
What’s wrong with Jeff McNeil?
I asked rhetorically earlier in the season about when McNeil turned 40. He looks like he has no idea how to swing a bat anymore. It’s especially concerning because the team penciled him on for a good offensive season to support Lindor and Alonso, while we waited for Baty and Alvarez to mature. It hasn’t materialized that way, and McNeil is a prime culprit.
Carlos Mendoza won’t remind anyone of Bobby Valentine or Gil Hodges
I have long contended that the two best managers in Mets history were Gil Hodges and Bobby Valentine – each for different reasons. Hodges taught a really young team how to prepare and behave like major league ball players and then he made them believe they could win. His skill in guiding the 1969 Mets is the best managerial performance in Mets history. A close second was Bobby Valentine in 2000. He went to the World Series with an outfield of Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Timo Perez. His ability to engineer favorable match-ups was second to none. He got the most out of his great players and even more out of the marginal ones.
Carlos Mendoza doesn’t appear to have either of these great managers’ qualities. He doesn’t appear to be inspiring any performance and at this point in the season he’s overusing some of the bullpen arms. I’d love to be proven wrong, but he doesn’t appear long for the managerial world.
I don’t see Mendoza as being a big detriment to the team. Early on, we saw some mistakes from inexperience and from lack of confidence. However, those were lessons for him and he hasn’t really repeated any mistakes. Too, I think he is a bright guy and would give him rope.
The team struggling for offense that has lots of pitching plays in the top left corner of the country. That’s where Alonsonis getting traded to.
I agree about Mendoza. He probably doesn’t have the freedom to use his SP for longer outings. My biggest issue with him was his usage of Tonkin in high-leverage spots. If your biggest concern with your rookie manager is how he uses his eighth reliever, things are ok.
With respect to the terrible call on Alonso’s HP faceplant, can’t the Mets appeal to the league?
Interesting read in the context of being swept by TB and really playing crappy baseball in general.
A couple things I think are worthy of consideration. I think its hard to get a read on Mendoza after managing 5 weeks of his first season. But to toss him against Hodges and Valentine (what about Davey Johnson?) seems pretty hard at this juncture. None of those managers faced the modern day 24/7 coverage, complicated salaries, and very active front offices. I think we need to give him more rope before judgement and certainly to know what “kind” of skipper he is.
As for replay. I watched the Alonso play as many times as anyone else did and came to the conclusion the play would not be overruled because the field call was out, and most likely given the camera angles we had, he was out. When Pete’s hand got to the plate it had bounced up just prior and then you can see it being forced down after the tag. No evidence he actually touched the plate at all before being tagged. As for the interference goes, its clear that the throw carried him into the runners lane, but initially there is a provided lane for Alonso. It is legal for a catcher to be carried into the lane because of a thrown ball. I will add that the umpire could not have been placed better. No matter what this was as close a play as it gets, with microseconds determining the order of events. Pete had the entire front of the plate and his hand was actually hovering the plate before the ball got there – had his hand been down, he would have been safe. By all rights he should have stayed square to the plate and barreled over the catcher.
Todd Zeile’s analysis is pretty solid.
As for balls and strikes. This is a major technological challenge for something we have been eyeballing since the start of the game itself. It is important that the strike zone is a volume and so is 3 dimensional shape, not those stupid boxes that TV teams put on the screen, which are basic “guides” but nothing else. To see what the actual strike zone is, take a look at this article, which represents the way to get balls and strikes right.
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2017/10/04/Technology/espn-mlb-3d-kzone-field-mics-low-home-camera.aspx
Now the issue is that what is the actual vertical height of the strike zone? Presumably this varies with every hitter based on their height (knee cap height to mid torso). In practice, I think super tall players would not get strikes if the catcher caught the ball say above their head. I also dont thinks it shrinks much for short players.
The rectangular boxes we see on TV are *MLB* made, but by the broadcasters themselves. Furthermore, the box flattens the entirety of the 3D volume of the zone into a 2D area, which causes all kinds of issues. But if you want to see just how capricious the TV K zones are what this video of the same pitch from a past Mets v Cardinals game.
The only way the balls and strikes situation can be addressed for robotic upiring is to have each players knee to torso measurements entered in the program that measures the volume of the K zone and sets the base on top of the volume. Every batter coming to the plate has their own bespoke strike zone that could then be provided to broadcasters to show. Until this get resolved, keep in mind the TV K zone is not more than magic.
Ill make one last statement about what we see v reality. So many things in baseball that are contested occur in extremely short time spans or distances. When camera angles do not get orthogonal views, there is an imposition of distortion to reality. We see these boxes to batters but the camera is off to the side of the pitcher, not directly behind it. They do this because it makes for good television viewing, but it is not accurately depicting the situation because of foreshortening. Real robotic umpires will be using 3D camera angles to generate the strike zone volume. I also think that every stadium should be mandated to post cameras parallel to the base lines so there can be no apparent angle issues to close calls.
The rectangular boxes we see on TV are *MLB* made
Should read:
The rectangular boxes we see on TV are not *MLB* made
A multi-billion-dollar enterprise like MLB should have no trouble inputting heights for its players into the system to call balls and strikes. To me, there are two main issues. The first is that most players have at least a little bend to their stance; a few have an outright crouch. You need to measure them based on where they are where they swing. Rickey Henderson had an extreme crouch but he didn’t swing from that position – he was more upright than his original setup when he swung. And the other thing is that the advantage of having an automated system is that we can actually call the strike zone as laid out in the rule book, not some arbitrary two baseballs above the belt or whatever they’re using now. Call it like it’s laid out in the rule book or update the rule book.
yeah. so it means every swing for every player the K zone changes as they adjust to each pitch. thats just unreasonable. so i think you get that measurement at the start of the season and thats the zone. period. It would be easy for mlb to solve this.
Henderson wasn’t that tall. Still, it wouldn’t be fair to call a strike zone based on his upright height when he didn’t swing anything close to that. I’m sure there are current batters with a big crouch but none immediately jump to mind. But what about old pal Ike Davis? He used to stand pretty upright and then that one year he changed his stance mid-season to the “bear taking a dump in the woods” crouch.
The whole point is to make it fair, so that star pitchers and star hitters don’t get calls that others don’t. To me, this fairness issue needs to extend to the batter’s actual hitting strike zone. I’m not saying it will be easy. But we’ve waited this long for the automated ball/strike system. We can wait until they figure out how to make it work in these extreme situations, too.
A batter is dynamic as an object unless you just stand there. At some fixed point in time the K zone needs to be done. to me the lastest possible time is when the pitcher is set. If its possible to make the K zone in live time, then great. Its my guess that even people changing their set up during the season wont change terrifically. Its possible that each sping the players are laser scanned upright and crouched and then they set a base and top as the average or something.
I am generally a traditionalist, but frankly I could care less how tall the batter is or how much he crouches. I suggest it is time for a static strike zone. They don’t shorten the base paths for the shorter guys, move the fences back for the bigger guys, or move the mound closer for the soft tossers. Establish on strike one dimension and employ it in all professional leagues. Now, give what we saw in AAA, that plate may need to be a tad wider, but that can be hashed out in the minors the next couple of years.
Chris, what if you’re comparing Oscar Gamble’s strike zone to Reggie Smith’s? LOL!!
I agree with you on the manager but also, the roster needs to turn over for Mendoza to completely put his stamp on the team. Last year Pham called out the team as a whole, but mentioned that Lindor, Nimmo and Alonso work very hard. There was one player blatantly missing, and I think that hasn’t changed. Nimmo, like Murphy did, has adapted his game. McNeil is 32 and not a single change; try managing that type of veteran. McNeil is a SoCal guy and like TDA before him seems very laid back. I wonder if he likes NYC.
Give the umpires a break, for crying out loud, They are human and they aren’t deliberately screwing the Mets. Of course, technology will be more accurate and improve the calls when it is perfected.
Johnson, Valentine and Hodges were the best Met managers,in that order. Mendoza is doing a fine job for what he has to work with. So far, he is proactive with solving problems. He has a balanced approach.
Christian Scott was stellar and impressive.
Stearns should offer Alonso a fair contract before the trade deadline. If Alonso declines then trade him.
Lindor is struggling offensively but not defensely. He still is the best all-around player that the Mets have. Nimmo is second.
McNeil needs to turn his season around. He doesn’t look like the player that he once was. He is lucky that Williams and Acuna are struggling also.
Its hard to win when Alonso, Baty and McNeil are stinking up the joint and Alvarez is on the shelf.