Some team executives talk about the electronic strike zone as if it’s an inevitability, and the same is true with some players. Technology has improved pitching, hitting and player evaluation, and the thinking goes that Major League Baseball eventually will move to a system that judges balls and strikes to a higher degree of accuracy than the eyes of even the best umpires.
Commissioner Rob Manfred said the other day on Mike & Mike that it might be a matter of years before the sport considered the adoption of an automated strike zone, and even then, he noted, there would have to be a conversation about all of the implications of taking this particular human element out of the game.