Check Swing

[R1Letterman]

Yes. And so a field umpire, especially one with a horrific angle, should only call a swing if it was totally obvious. Anything remotely close, you say no swing

agree! 90% of the time i wager they say no swing anyhow. if you think asking someone in poor position is “bad” imagine the argument if they refuse to ask. umps can't win, ha

[Turbine]

Technology could fix everything in this area real easy.

It could even make the call.

[R1Letterman]

Technology could fix everything in this area real easy.

It could even make the call.

for a check swing? doubt that.

[Turbine]

for a check swing? doubt that.

I just feel that an intuitive lazer could be designed and placed at a 90 degree angle to the pitcher/catcher that would make the correct check-swing call 100% of the time.

Right now a first base ump calling check swing on a left-handed batter is going to be overly strick.

Just like a third base umpire calling a right-handed batter check-swing, it's going to be interpreted overly strict.

Conversely a first-base umpire calling a right-handed batter check-swing is going to be lenient, as is a third-base umpire calling a left-handed batter check-swing. It's going to be lenient.

A 90 degree lazer (designed properly) could nail it every time.

[R1Letterman]

interesting i must say, but a check swing is not tied to a distance or an amount of movement, it is if the batter “offered” at the pitch.

[R1Letterman]

how would your lazer adjust for batters being far back in the box or far up in the box, what about slappers for whom the bat might not even be in the box at all.

when you say lenient to you mean no swing? if so i think you have that part backwards

[R1Letterman]

bill james studied this in 2013, note the # is ALL checked swings, not just appealed check swings, so happens even less.

Front-office types are under no obligation to tell me the truth, but it makes sense that checked swings wouldn’t be anywhere close to a team’s top priority. Last season, 1.6 percent of pitches led to checked swings. Teams saw, on average, 145 pitches per game (290 for both clubs combined). That means there were an average of 2.3 checked swings per team, per game (4.6 for both clubs combined). A team could steal an extra strike from time to time if it knew the probabilities of checked-swing strikes by base umpire, but since the third parties that teams typically get data from aren’t providing that data, they’d have to collect it themselves or get Inside Edge’s info and then watch every checked swing to see whether there was an appeal.

[Turbine]

A well written lazer program could could be designed to tell where a batter starts from, whether a slapper is swinging or positioning the bat, and easily factor in whether the bat passes the front of the plate but also if the battery's swing was more than 90 degrees before checking.

[BeauCajun]

A well written lazer program could could be designed to tell where a batter starts from, whether a slapper is swinging or positioning the bat, and easily factor in whether the bat passes the front of the plate but also if the battery's swing was more than 90 degrees before checking.

And maybe the laser could etch the pitch count onto the bat at the same time so blue and the batter would know the count. Would this create “hot bats”? Just playing along.

[Mark Hemphill]

it is important to remember on a check swing appeal, the home plate ump has already thought it was no swing.

When you have umpires like Brian Crochet, who was the plate umpire for the Sunday LSU game and for the Ole Miss game on Monday, he is clueless as to what is a strike or ball much less whether a batter swung at a pitch or not. I'm still trying to figure out how he got plate duty for consecutive games. One of the worst umpires in softball.

[ragin50]

When you have umpires like Brian Crochet, who was the plate umpire for the Sunday LSU game and for the Ole Miss game on Monday, he is clueless as to what is a strike or ball much less whether a batter swung at a pitch or not. I'm still trying to figure out how he got plate duty for consecutive games. One of the worst umpires in softball.

Makes you wonder how they even keep umps like that around, much less behind the plate. He couldn't even keep track of the count at times.

[Turbine]

From a strictly line of sight reading from the umpires vantage point a right handed batter gets a 22.5 degree swing before the bat swing breaks the visual line of sight plane from the 3rd base umpires angle.

That same batter from a strictly line of sight reading from the umpires vantage point gets a 45 degree swing before the bat swing breaks the visual line of sight plane from the 1st base umpires angle.

The opposite is true for a left handed batter.

It just begs for different interpretations.

To be accurate, baseball and softball both would be well served with a reading from the 90 degree angle to the pitcher/catcher.

A first base umpire can't help but be more lenient to a right handed batter than a 3rd base umpire.

[IndiaPaleAle]

Makes you wonder how they even keep umps like that around, much less behind the plate. He couldn't even keep track of the count at times.

I won't comment about an individual umpire's ability, but I can answer the question about why umps are "kept around." The simple reason is: we don't have enough officials across all sports and all levels of sport to allow for officials to move to different game sites or to even have evenings off. Even worse: younger people are not picking up the avocation of officiating. It's been a major problem on the high school level for years now, but we're beginning to see it on the college level, too.

Case in point: The high school softball umpire group in New Orleans has around 80 officials registered to cover approximately 50 schools. Less than a quarter of those officials are under the age of 50. Those stats aren't much better in Lafayette and in other locations in the state.

If you think you can do better, sign up to officiate yourself. We'll gladly take you. If you know someone who is young, has played sports, and wants to stay involved with their sport(s) of choice, refer them to the LHSAA or have them contact me directly. I'll put them in touch with the right people.

[R1Letterman]

Very True!

Also in most places you can just ask any coach where they get their officials, and that coach would likely have the assignment secretary’s contact info and one could find our about how to start with that association easily from there.

NOLA was always short, i remember playing rec baseball and little league baseball with just one ump standing behind mound, ive been many places since then, and have never seen UMPs do that anywhere else