Jayson Stark had a lengthy but very interesting article in "The Athletic" today about the use of the robo ump that is currently being tested in the Atlantic League. He had interviews with players from that league and with a number of current major league players like Clayton Kershaw and Buster Posey. The unanimous opinion of all those interviewed was that they hated the idea. They felt that the human element is part of the game and should not be removed by using robo umps to call balls and strikes.
There was one little passage that I found humorous. A couple of players and an unnamed mlb umpire stated that if the robo ump was instituted at the mlb level, they had to allow the home plate ump the option of ignoring the robo ump on obvious missed calls. Stark then made this comment "....could you envision Major League Baseball going to this system - and then giving, say, Angel Hernandez the artistic freedom to overide it?"
As an aside, my Mount Rushmore of current bad MLB umpires: Joe West - Angel Hernandez - CB Bucknor - Marty Foster.
There was one little passage that I found humorous. A couple of players and an unnamed mlb umpire stated that if the robo ump was instituted at the mlb level, they had to allow the home plate ump the option of ignoring the robo ump on obvious missed calls. Stark then made this comment "....could you envision Major League Baseball going to this system - and then giving, say, Angel Hernandez the artistic freedom to overide it?"
As an aside, my Mount Rushmore of current bad MLB umpires: Joe West - Angel Hernandez - CB Bucknor - Marty Foster.
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