00:00Bobby, what's your takeaway on ABS?
00:03Well, you know, I'm at the games live and the fans seem to like it.
00:08So I guess that's the, you know, that's the number one thing that everybody wants to be part of it.
00:15So they look at it and they get excited, especially when the home team wins the call.
00:20But I just don't know why when we play the game of baseball, a strike's not called a strike and
00:26a ball's not called a ball.
00:28You know, to have a hitter have that other thing that he has to think about when it's so difficult
00:35to hit to begin with and you're supposed to have only one thought in your mind and that's hitting the
00:41ball.
00:41And then you also have to call balls and strikes.
00:44You know, it's tough.
00:46But right now, if it's supposed to be just for the fans, then I guess it's working.
00:52Do you, so Bobby, do you think it favors the pitchers or the hitters more here with this?
00:58Because to me, isn't it more of a reduced strike zone?
01:02Because when the umpires were schooled, weren't they schooled letter high and knees high?
01:06It looks like the box is a little smaller.
01:09Am I wrong when I say that?
01:11No, I think they changed the strike zone to try to, you know, increase offense.
01:15Yeah, so it's not about the box increasing or decreasing or, you know, it's just one of those things.
01:26I mean, if you use up your two challenges and it's the bases loaded and knife in and you don't
01:31have a challenge, right,
01:32and the umpire decides he wants to get on his flight early, I'm not sure that that's really what the
01:39game's supposed to be.
01:40How would you handle it?
01:42If you were the manager of the Mets, how would you handle that?
01:45I'd have an automatic strike zone for every pitch.
01:47That's fine.
01:49Would you challenge almost every pitch?
01:53No, you can't use it up, you know?
01:55If you're trusting your catcher, which you should.
01:59And let's get this one for whatever this is worth.
02:02You know, you really don't see the balls those last six feet.
02:07You know, the umpire doesn't, the hitter doesn't, and the catcher doesn't.
02:10But because they've seen so many pitches coming in at the similar trajectory,
02:20you can project whether or not it hit the corner or not.
02:25But when they're talking about a fraction of an inch of the ball on the plate,
02:31and that's only if it goes across the middle of the plate, come on.
02:38I mean, that's not, that idea of the human factor really can't work there.
02:45There's no human element that it can be correct all the time.
02:50I think the machine could be correct all the time, and I don't know why we don't use it.
02:55Okay, how about this then?
02:56Do you think that Major League Baseball, Bobby, is going to get to a point where these umpires
03:01have an earpiece in their ear, and they're going to be calling every single ball and strike,
03:06and you're not going to have the interaction any longer with the umps and the managers any longer
03:11because they're going to be doing it with technology?
03:14Do you think they're rolling towards that and going that way?
03:18Well, the manager is not part of this anyway, right, Dan?
03:21It's just the catcher and the pitcher and the hitter.
03:25You know, if you hear the propaganda, they're talking that it's really important that the
03:31skill set of the catcher is something that they scout, and it's very important that they
03:37cheat, you know, that they can take a ball that's a ball and move it into the strike zone.
03:42It's really important for them to do that, and they get paid for that, and I get that,
03:46I guess, but why can't they just get paid for being what a catcher is supposed to do?
03:51Catch the ball, block the ball, throw the guy out, tag the guy out at home, call the right pitch,
03:58do the things that that human should be doing during the game, and, you know, getting it right,
04:07I think, is just such an important part of the game, you know, that you saw the Dominican team
04:15and the WBS get walked off the field because the ball was called a strike with the bases loaded.
04:22Come on.
04:24If that happens in the World Series, we're happy about that?
04:27I'm not, I'll guarantee you, unless I'm benefiting the incorrect call by the umpire.
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