Major League Baseball launched PitchCom this 12 months, a system that enables catchers to name indicators for his or her pitcher electronically, sending the decision on to their ear fairly than doing it the normal method by placing down fingers for everyone to see.
One of their greatest pitchers ever shouldn’t be a fan.
“Here’s what I’ll say about PitchCom,” Max Scherzer stated after twirling seven glowing innings within the Mets’ win over the Yankees on Wednesday. “It works, yeah, does it help? Yes. I also think it should be illegal. I don’t think it should be in the game.”
Scherzer was utilizing the know-how for the primary time on Wednesday, one thing he stated he did on the behest of catcher Tomas Nido. His reasoning for not liking it wasn’t as a result of the digital communication will be onerous to listen to, or as a result of the wearable know-how is uncomfortable, however fairly as a result of it takes away an old-fashioned factor of baseball.
“Stealing signs is part of the game,” he stated. “For me, I’ve always taken pride in having a complex system of signs and having that advantage over other pitchers. The fact that we’re taking this out of the game and putting in technology, now you can’t steal signs on something, the pitcher can’t have an advantage of having a complex system. It’s part of baseball, trying to crack somebody’s signs.”
PitchCom was instituted within the first place to enhance tempo of play. The considering from the league workplace is that as an alternative of the catcher working by a sequence of indicators, urgent a button is method faster. It additionally eliminates the method of a pitcher shaking off pitch after pitch, or stepping off the mound as a result of they assume a base runner has picked up on the indicators. That usually led to a convention between pitcher and catcher, one other factor that added to the time of sport.
“Does it have its desired intent of speeding up the game a little bit? Yes,” Scherzer acknowledged. “I also think it takes away part of the game.”
Birthdays all the time appear to have a method of offering readability in life. This entire spiel got here on Scherzer’s thirty eighth birthday, and it doesn’t sound like his thirty ninth journey across the solar will embody very a lot PitchCom. When requested if he’ll return to it sooner or later, he was extraordinarily non-committal.
“I don’t know,” he stated. “I’ll continue to think about it. I might.”
If the Mets, say, meet up with the Astros down the road, maybe Scherzer will change his tune.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com