“When the players talk, I doubt it.”
Choi Won-ho, manager of the Hanwha Eagles, opened his mouth on the fact that ace Ryu Hyun-jin was enraged by ABS ahead of the match against the Doosan Bears in Daejeon on Wednesday. Ryu collapsed in the match against the Suwon KT Wiz on Monday by allowing seven runs (five earned runs) in five innings. Ryu judged that the strike zone set by ABS was different from the match against the Suwon KT Wiz on Sunday, and his mind was shaken as he kept making ball decisions that were different from his expectations. Ryu unusually raised his voice in front of reporters on Saturday, saying, “The ABS strike zone is inconsistent, causing confusion,” and Choi agreed with Ryu’s opinion and cheered him up.
Ryu is currently the most outstanding player in the KBO league. Until now, he has actively identified strike zones set by ABS, and pitched in almost every corner of the ball. Ryu’s pitching is characterized by playing with batters by saying that he puts in and takes out one or half ball in the strike zone. Ryu had a favorable response to ABS during the exhibition game, but he said he could not understand ABS decision as much as he did against KT on Monday.
Then, the KBO released the tracking data on Ryu’s pitch on Wednesday. “There are many inquiries about ABS decision data on Ryu’s specific pitch against Suwon kt on the 24th and Hanwha’s Moon Dong-ju’s specific pitch against Suwon kt on the 23rd,” KBO explained why it released the data in an unusual move, but it felt strongly that it was actively responding considering Ryu’s position in the league and the impact of his remarks.
KBO released ABS data for the first inning, when Ryu Hyun-jin raised the issue, and Cho Yong-ho in the third and fifth innings. In order to refute the argument that he is inconsistent in his decision to pitch outside the left-handed batter, the KBO also provided data comparing the difference between Moon Dong-ju’s four pitches (strikes) to KT’s Chun Sung-ho in the bottom of the fourth inning on Sunday and Ryu’s three pitches (balls) to Chun Sung-ho in the bottom of the first inning on Sunday.
Looking at the data provided by the KBO, Ryu Hyun-jin’s claims were all wrong. “In the bottom of the third inning of the game in which Ryu Hyun-jin took the mound, KT Cho Yong-ho’s third pitch at bat passed the bottom of the middle zone of the ABS by 0.15 centimeters, but failed to pass the bottom zone of the ABS by 0.78 centimeters, and was judged to be a ball,” KBO said.
“In addition, the four pitches (strike decision) of KT Chun Sung-ho’s at-bat in the bottom of the fourth inning when Moon Dong-joo pitched on the 23rd and the three pitches (ball decision) of KT Chun Sung-ho’s at-bat in the bottom of the first inning when Ryu Hyun-jin pitched on the 24th have different positions as shown in the graphic,” he said.
According to the data released by the KBO, Moon’s four pitches that he threw at Cheonseong-ho in the bottom of the fourth inning in the game on Sunday were ruled as strikeouts. It was a course outside left-handed hitters. According to the pitcher’s information, he received strikes at 22.60 centimeters on the right and left sides of the middle, 71.22 centimeters on the upper side, and 69.27 centimeters on the upper side.
On the other hand, in the first game on Monday, the three pitches (Ryu Hyun-jin) of the Cheonseong Lake were 29.60 centimeters in the middle, 65.35 centimeters in the middle, and 63.10 centimeters in the end. There was a slight difference.
In addition, in the game on the 24th, Cho Yong-ho’s three pitches in the third inning were -8.39 centimeters in the middle, 44.30 centimeters in the top and bottom, and 41.87 centimeters in the bottom. The ball passed 0.15 centimeters above the middle of the zone, but did not pass because the end fell 0.78 centimeters below the end. Cho Yong-ho and Cheonseong-ho have different heights, so the upper and lower ends of the zone are different. Cheonseong-ho has 3.437 feet at the top and 1.686 feet at the bottom, while Cho Yong-ho has 3.195 feet at the top and 1.567 feet at the bottom.
Cho Yong-ho’s three pitches in the fifth inning, which Ryu Hyun-jin expressed dissatisfaction even after striking out, were ruled strikeouts at 25.59cm left and right on the middle, 69.24cm up and down on the middle, and 67.21cm up and down on the end.
As for Choi, there was no more reason to refute the data presented by KBO. Choi accepted KBO’s feedback, but saw that there was a difference that players felt that could not be explained in numbers.
Choi said, “The figures and the players’ senses do not exactly match. The reason for such criticism is that this is the way the stadium works, but in other stadiums it is the same. That day, the first and second days are completely different. When players talk like this, we become suspicious. Also, since we have been losing games consecutively recently, players try to win somehow, but the game keeps shaking due to such (judgment). I think we were probably more sensitive than other teams’ players. Anyway, it is true that the first and second games were a little chaotic due to judgment problems. Pitchers and catchers, as well as batters, were the same.”
In the field, most of the players in the 10 teams feel that the strike zone set by ABS is different. At the same stadium, Ryu feels that each game has a different strike zone. Ryu and Hanwha are not the only ones who feel that way. The KBO says that there are no problems, citing data every time, but the players’ sense of play is also ground that cannot be ignored.
In fact, since the KBO selected PTS as the pitch tracking system for the ABS, questions have been raised in the field. Since PTS is an estimate of a triangulation method, it cannot be more accurate than the actual trackman and hawk-eye. The U.S. Major League Baseball has no longer used PTS since it opened the statcast era as a trackman in 2015. In the Major League, the KBO is operating ABS with the technology that has disappeared. As the PTS technology itself is not accurate and thus the reliability of ABS decreases, it is inevitable that the reliability of ABS will naturally decrease. The most suitable technology for the ABS system is the Hawk-eye, which uses high-speed cameras, and the only team currently uses the KIA Tigers. The remaining nine clubs use trackmen. At the scene, they are constantly doubting whether KBO should have unreasonably introduced ABS this year based on PTS, which has the lowest technological completeness. 메이저놀이터
At first, it was a robot referee’s decision, so the players who tried to accept it are expressing their dissatisfaction with the ABS little by little.
The fact that KBO continues to revise ABS-related systems as it plays the season is also viewed as a discrediting factor. KBO explained that if a foreign object invades the tracking area of the tracking camera, the pursuit tracking may fail. If so, it should have prepared for the foreign object problem in advance, but KBO is now saying, “We will prepare for the expected obstacles to tracking tracking such as sudden weather changes and foreign object intrusion during the rainy season to minimize cases of tracking failures such as insect control.”
In the match between NC and Samsung in Daegu on the 14th, there was a case in which the referee did not hear the ABS call properly and declared a strike to be a ball. NC manager Kang In-kwon failed to reverse the wrong ball decision as he raised the issue only after starting pitcher Lee Jae-hak threw the ball in question and threw two to three more pitches. For NC, the problem of ABS data being transmitted late to tablets was inevitably late, but the delay in data transmission was a case where clubs asked KBO to solve the problem earlier. KBO later said, “To improve ABS operation, the manual was strengthened so that ABS field personnel could more actively intervene in the event of confusion in receiving strike/ball decisions by the referee or third base referee.” In addition, both teams also plan to complete the deployment of voice receiver equipment in the dugout so that the judgment sound can be received the same as the referee and the third base referee.”
KBO took an open stance, saying, “We plan to continuously review and collect opinions on ABS operation and improve it,” but some say that the timing of introducing the first team was too early. The opinion is that the second team should have improved its discharge sufficiently before introducing ABS to the first team.
A month after the opening, the conflict between the field and KBO over ABS is getting deeper. It seems that dialogue or action is needed to restore the trust between the two sides as soon as possible.