The year was 2006. The World Cup was taking place in Germany and games occurred at a reasonable time for people in America to watch. Of course, this was four years after the World Cup in Japan when only the REAL soccer fans were watching. Why does this matter? What am I talking about, and why does it relate to pitch framing? The 2006 World Cup introduced us to the Italian soccer team flopping around like a bunch of fish looking for fouls/penalties. America could not stand it. The NFL was in peak form focusing on big hits across the middle, player safety be damned! The NBA was in the middle of Shaq bullying the rest of the league. American sports were pure power. Soccer was just a bunch of babies flopping around.
Again, I ask, why does this matter?
Since that time in 2006, the NFL, NBA, and NHL have all initiated some sort of punishment for flopping. We got to this point because the athletes of each respective sport found out that the flop is worth the slight advantage it could gain. When you add in the fact that the flop is based solely on the human referee’s opinion, the pros certainly outweigh the cons. In addition to punishing the flop, referees have been trained in each league to identify the flop and it has helped across the board. Not much can argue that.
Pitch framing is the EXACT same concept as flopping. Catchers can pull a ball from outside the strike zone to inside. Best case: the umpire calls a strike. Worst case: he calls a ball, which it was anyways. There is literally no con to framing pitches. I don’t think being an umpire is an easy job by any means, but the current “crew” needs to improve. Additional training for the umpires is where I start. Whether it be from seeing the pitch being framed by the catcher or the ability to generate to establish a consistent strike zone, improvements are out there. From there, I’d like to see reviews of each umpires performance and how consistent their “heat maps” are and how many strikes get called outside of it.
From the batter’s perspective, if the umpire is calling inside and high a ball, it needs to remain consistent. On the next pitch, if it is high and inside and a strike, now the batter is on his toes. He has no idea what he can or cannot lay off. The impact of each strike and ball has a drastic impact on the game. The difference between a 3-0 count and an 0-2 is probably 0.250. Now the difference between being 2-1 and 1-2 is probably 0.15. Mookie Betts had 639 plate appearances last year. An improvement of 15% is 95 extra hits! This is a blatant extrapolation of stats, but the point remains, the umpires need to improve, and some sort of punishment to pitch framing would be interesting to see in the game. Feel free to comment on your thoughts.