As long as balls and strikes are called by humans, there is going to be some variance on the strike zone, but all any ball player -- hitters and pitchers alike -- really want in any given game is consistency. As
Chipper Jones made clear in a post-game tirade last night, he doesn't think that crews assigned to Turner Field, or any stadium without QuesTec installed, even try to do that. From the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
"We throw a pitch right down the middle to [Ryan] Howard that's called a ball, next pitch is a homer - that's frustrating," Jones said. "We get balls called on us in our batter's boxes, seven inches off the plate. That's frustrating. So you're seeing a lot of frustration being taken out out there on the field, and you're going to continue to see it from now on as long as the officiating is abysmal. Major League Baseball ought to be ashamed. It's abysmal. It's awful. Not all of them, but some of them. It's awful."
...
"We have got to get QuesTec here in this ballpark," he said. "Got to. Umpires have got to be held accountable. That's Little League World Series stuff right there. It's a joke, and I'm tired of it. ... I think in certain ballparks, they know they're not going to be graded, plain and simple. So why not try and get the game over with as quick as they can? They have planes to catch on getaway day just like we do."
The QuesTec system consists of several cameras set up around the stadium that track each pitch. It's not used for any in-game decisions, but umpires know that when they're calling a game in a stadium with QuesTec installed that the eye in the sky is paying extra close attention to their strike zone. Some players hate it, but those are usually
veteran pitchers who suddenly quit getting the benefit of the doubt when it was installed. It's too bad Jones spoke immediately after the game instead of letting his emotions cool -- not only will the outburst make his wallet lighter, but it certainly won't do anything to win the favor of visiting umpires.
In retrospect, though, it's more than a little ironic that a member of the Braves is now a vocal proponent of QuesTec -- one of the reasons the system was needed was because veteran pitchers like
Greg Maddux,
Tom Glavine and
John Smoltz were routinely given generous strike zones by the umpires.
Back in 2001, major league umpires weren't too pleased with the revolutionary new QuesTec systems that were placed in a third of the ballparks around the league QuesTec was put in place to help establish a more uniform strike zone as the data collected would be used to teach the umpires about what they were doing right and what they were doing wrong.
