Who Watches The Umpires?

It's not QuesTec anymore. No, Major League Baseball has an even newer-fangled tool to monitor balls and strikes and I'm sure the league's umpires are just thrilled about it.

The league is now using the " Zone Evaluation" system to gather data on balls and strikes and then using that information to prove to Major League umps that they do, in fact, have pigeon shit in their eyes. Unlike QuesTec—the previous Big Brother that has been in use since 2001—Zone Evaluation is already set up in every big league park and will go into operation starting on Opening Day. (Holy crap, that's next week!)

Of course, QuesTec has had no discernible effect on walks, strikeouts, or the profession of umpiring. Some players believe that umps behave differently in parks that don't use the system, but MLB officials insist there is no evidence of that.

"I don't think it's positive or negative," Bruce Froemming, a veteran umpire, said before his retirement in 2007. "It's something we live with."

So basically, this is just another tool that serves no function other than to piss off a union and make everyone who works for Major League Baseball trust the ownership a little bit less. Oh, and probably make some computer software company stupid rich.

New Pitch-Tracking System May Open Old Wounds With Umpires [NY Times]