Baseball

retread

(3,954 posts) Thu Jul 2, 2026, 04:51 PM Thursday

There are things bugging me about the "new" automated strike zone

Home plate is an irregular pentagon with one 17" front edge, two 8.5" parallel sides, and two 12" diagonals that come together to create a point. The automated strike zone is a two dimensional rectangle 17" wide and a height depending on batter.
Seems to me with processing power what it is these day, the abs should have been a 3 dimensional irregular pentagon with varying height.

3 replies

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There are things bugging me about the "new" automated strike zone (Original Post) retread Thursday OP

The diagonal was invented to make balls and strikes more visible to umpires and pitchers Auggie Thursday #1

They DID experiment with a 3d automated strike zone in the Minor Leagues. retread Yesterday #2

Well yeah, it's hard enough to make contact as it is Auggie 21 hrs ago #3

Auggie

(33,394 posts)

1. The diagonal was invented to make balls and strikes more visible to umpires and pitchers

Reply to retread (Original post)

Thu Jul 2, 2026, 05:54 PM

Thursday

From MLB:

The irregular pentagon shape of home base that we know today was developed by Robert Keating and introduced as a viable option for the 1900/1901 baseball season. The rear corners, which extend to a point, are made to be perpendicular to the first and third base lines. The biggest advantage of the new shape was that it made the edges of the strike zone more visible to pitchers and umpires and, therefore, improved the consistency of calling strikes.

https://www.mlb.com/news/why-is-home-plate-shaped-different-than-other-bases-c177695752

I find it hard to believe that a thrown ball would break in or out of a 16" square box at of 85-95 MPH. The 2-D plane is how umpires have called pitches for over 100 years. It works fine.

retread

(3,954 posts)

2. They DID experiment with a 3d automated strike zone in the Minor Leagues.

Reply to Auggie (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 3, 2026, 07:19 AM

Yesterday

Pitchers that learned to nick the back corners of the 3d zone with late breaking balls were heavily favored. True, human umpires probably rarely if ever called those pitches. I wonder how many pitchers are good enough and accurate enough to consistently hit those corners.

In times of declining and struggling offense MLB is not going to implement any change that appears to favor pitching.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25431834-mlbs-growing-problem-offensive-agony

Auggie

(33,394 posts)

3. Well yeah, it's hard enough to make contact as it is

Reply to retread (Reply #2)

Fri Jul 3, 2026, 10:56 AM

21 hrs ago

0.25 seconds: the amount of time a batter has to decide to swing at a thrown ball after it has left the pitchers hand.

One quarter of a second.

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