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HOUSTON - Questionable calls made by umpires happen all the time in baseball and the 2023 post-season is proving no different. Frustrated Astros fans have complained about it every game so far in the American League Championship Series.
"I will personally sponsor the ump's Lasik's if they need that. They are blind as can be. It was so bad, a 4-year-old could call a game better than that ump tonight. it was ridiculous," said one Astros fan after Game 6 of the ALCS.
This now reignites the debate on whether Major League Baseball should implement the automatic ball-strike system, also known as robo umps. The technology is free of human error and possible bias.
All 30 triple-A ballparks including Constellation Field, home of the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, have begun using the technology in 2023.
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Swing For The Ring Special: Robo umpires coming to MLB?
Questionable calls made by umpires happen all the time in baseball and the 2023 post-season is proving no different. Frustrated Astros fans have complained about it every game so far in the American League Championship Series.
"We have hawk-eye technology that tracks the flight of the ball, it approximates the center of it, and then when it crosses over a certain plain, that's where it notates if it's a ball or a strike," said Garrett Greene, Media Relations Manager with the Space Cowboys.
On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays this past season, Greene says the team was allowed to challenge a call made by a robo ump.
He believes it'll be at least another year or two before the majors begin utilizing the automatic ball-strike system.
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"Umpires still get a high percentage of strikes right, but as you've seen in this ALCS, there have been pitches that were called balls that should've been strikes, and strikes that should've been called balls. If you could have just those moments be adjudicated, I think that's probably going to be the ultimate route that's going to be the best and you don't see it slow the game down," Green said.