Has Pitch Framing RUINED baseball?

27 comments

1. Roboump would solve this problem.

2. It's cheating! I hate it. NY Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez is #58 and costing Los Mets 2 runs per game?? Yikes. Make it illegal when RoboUmp shows up next season.

3. This is easily solved by an umpire telling both catchers at the start of the game, "If you catch a ball and think that you have to move it because you think that it missed the strike zone, then I'm calling it a ball. Because in essence, you're telling me that you admit that this pitch missed the strike zone."

   It's like every sport, players will do anything to gain an advantage till officials get tired of it and put a stop to it.

4. Just automate the strike zone and problem solved

5. If umpires are clearly going to call clear strikes clear balls, then catchers can steal some strikes.
   Great content Brodie

6. Just call all framed balls as balls.

7. I don't like it

8. Nope. Poor umpires have ruined baseball.

9. As a 30 year baseball fan, its the umpire “strike zone” that drives me mad. Zone framing is just the end game to awful umpiring. Since watching in the 80’s, you get umpires with strike zones that arent the actual zone defined by the rules. “So and so is calling high strikes today” or “Hernandez is calling that low today.” What a bunch of bullshit. The strike zone is the strike zone and umpires should adjust their calls to the strike zone, not every player in the game adjusting to the umps random zone they feel like calling that day. Umps suck, they needed robo umps 20 yrs ago. Who cares about framing when umps have their own strike zones that arent even the zone in the rules. Screw umps

10. For years umpire would say just “stick” it and at the most they might break their wrist to catch a corner. And if you “dragged” your glove too much the umpire would warn you that he wouldn’t call it if you dragged it too much. Not sure what happened where this RIDICULOUS framing has taken over and resulted in way more bad calls.

11. Little League

12. It is very simple. If you have to move your glove to frame a pitch it is not a strike.

13. Yep …illegal

14. 10:26 you are giving umps way to much credit. They dont care and arent going to do any pregame prep. They dont even monitor what the actual balls and strikes are and adjust their zone as the game goes on. Instead everybody adjusts to to the umpires wacky strike zone for that day. Umpires make no attemps to call a clean game and in 30 years their union has only fought to keep the status quo, fought against technology and fought anything that makes the game better and calls more accutate. Umps and their union give zero fucks and they probably dont care if a catcher is framing or not because they dont even seem to care what the actual strike zone as defined by the rule book is.

15. Good Day Brodie, I have thought for a while now that the catcher moving his glove was a form of cheating.

16. Why is umpire even a job still? we have cameras and rewinds now

17. As a fan of a team with some of the best pitch framing (Jays) I have no issue with this. You can’t expect the catcher to keep his hand exactly where the ball lands in the strike zone

    There’s an art to pitching/catching and if thats removed you add a certain element from the game

18. Ruined baseball, no, but framing by its definition is deception. Every team does it, and too many umpires fall for it.

19. No, baseball ruined baseball…for being so damn boring and never changing with the times!

20. It's not "just a part of baseball." And it's not "cheating." It's REALLY BAD umpiring. ABS can't happen soon enough.

21. I want to say it says more about the umpire not seeing the ball, but only looking at the glove after the fact. Something that can be cleared up once the MLB moves to a "Hawkeye" type of technology to call balls and strikes, if the umps are not going to put the effort in to call it right, then they deserve to be replaced.

22. Hell, Buster Posey was the GOAT at this.

    It will be interesting with Hawkeye. However since it will be so limited, catchers will still need to try and get their pitchers strikes.

    Technology is changing and getting smaller by the day. I wouldn't be surprised to see sensors in the uniforms – at the shoulders, hips, and knees – which sets every batter's individual strike zone before too long.

23. Ruined? No. If anything, it’s hastening the adoption of robo umps, which is a very good thing.

24. such an interesting topic. great dive brother

25. Pitch framing is why the players union is against auto pitch calling. It is not cheating but automatic pitch calling ends this issue.

26. Bad umps are bad for baseball and we sure have had our fair share of them. I dislike all the graphics they toss up. I just want to watch the game clean. Now we have advertising on the mound, that's bad for the fan viewing experience. It will just become worse and worse.

27. Yadi was the master. But these guys moving the glove a foot is getting ridiculous