Framers Getting Caught

I’m very encouraged by this article by Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs on the demise of pitch framing:

The theory would go like this: more than ever before, umpires are aware of good framers. They’re aware that good framers can get strikes out of the zone, so then that introduces a bias. Umpires don’t want to be wrong, and their bosses don’t want for them to be wrong. It’s not like an umpire would watch a pitch, then think about a call, then think about the catcher, then change his mind. These decisions happen way too fast, but you’d just have to believe there’s some effect. A different call out of every 10, or 20, or 30, or 50. Something that would show up in bigger samples. It makes sense that, if umpires became aware of great pitch-framing, they might become aware of ways to call the game that have a little less to do with how a catcher moves. And you have to think framing has been on their radar.

As regular readers of Baseball Musings are aware, I consider pitch-framing cheating. My advice has been for managers facing an opponent that frames well is to explain to the home plate umpire before the game that the catcher will try to deceive, and the home plate umpire needs to call the pitch, not the catch. It seems that PITCHf/x might be doing the same thing.

Good.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1PR6Aj3