The 2020 Major League Baseball (MLB) season was unlike any other in history: Played amid the coronavirus pandemic,
the regular season lasted only 60 games, and some of the game’s best hitters
struggled uncharacteristically. Stars such as Jose Altuve, Javier Baez, J.D.
Martinez and Christian Yelich each hit .219 or worse.
اضافة اعلان
Perhaps the reason was regression,
aging or a smaller-than-usual sample size that yielded weak numbers. But across
the league, there was a notable absence of a tool that players had used — and,
in the Houston Astros’ case, done so illegally — to help their performances for
years: live in-game video.
The decision to eliminate access to
the video ultimately stemmed from concerns about the virus, but players had
already been warned that it might disappear because of the Astros’ misdeeds.
“To take our game back 30 years, I
think you’re not doing it justice,” Martinez told Sports Illustrated last
March. “It’s a joke. It’s gotten so ridiculous.”
“I’m really mad that we don’t have
it because, to be honest, with all due respect, we didn’t cheat,” Baez told
reporters near the end of last season. “We’re not cheating, and we have to pay
for all of this.”
No such frustrations will exist
before the 2021 season, which will be the traditional 162 games. In-game video
has returned, but with some new twists: It will be delayed a bit; the catcher’s
signs — which the Astros exploited — will not be shown; and the footage will be
available to players and coaches in the dugout and to the bullpen on
league-issued iPads rather than in the old replay review rooms hidden from
view.
The list of pleased hitters this
year is long, from New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge to New York Mets
left fielder-first baseman Dominic Smith to Martinez of the Boston Red Sox.
“That’s something I’m super happy
about,” Smith said. “A lot of times guys just want to go see a video to see how
did they miss a pitch or why did they miss a pitch. It’s not all the time about
trying to steal pitches or locations or whatever.”
Access to the replay review rooms
was cut off last year because MLB officials, hoping to prevent virus outbreaks,
did not want players and coaches gathering indoors and in groups. The players’
union agreed to the health and safety precautions, which included walling off
the small replay review rooms set up in the bowels of stadiums, near the
dugouts. The rules also prohibited use of communal video terminals in
clubhouses.
But this was occurring on the heels
of the Astros’ cheating scandal, in which team officials and players illegally
used live in-game video to steal the opposing team’s signs and signal to the
batter what pitch was coming. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred disciplined the
Astros in January 2020, when their cheating was revealed. And during spring
training, before the pandemic led to a postponement of the season, MLB and the
players’ union were negotiating new rules governing those rooms, including a
proposal to cut off access. That suggestion is what originally drew the ire of
players like Martinez.
During an MLB technology
presentation last week, Chris Marinak, the league’s chief operations and
strategy officer, reiterated that in-game video was removed last season for
health reasons, not because of the Astros’ scandal. The league, he said, also
was not ready to offer the options it has now.
Marinak said MLB had listened to
players who said the lack of in-game video hurt them last season. And while the
league was building its new in-game video system over the winter, Marinak said,
officials also had the Astros’ sign-stealing problems in mind.
The result, according to MLB: The
iPad application with in-game video will be controlled by the league office and
the iPads have been configured so that they can be used for no other purpose.
Video is uploaded automatically at the end of each half inning. MLB’s advanced
video technology, Statcast, is trained to clip the footage so it shows only a
second or two before the pitch is delivered, thus not revealing the catcher’s
signs. In the app, players and coaches can toggle between different camera
angles and advanced data, such as a hitter’s launch angle or a pitcher’s spin
rate.
“Having that back is going to be good for the
game and good for the guys,” said Judge, 28. “I know a lot of veteran players
missed that. They came up and had video for I don’t know how many years of
their careers. It becomes a staple in your pregame and postgame, so getting it
back is going to help quite a few guys.”
A fair number of hitters may not
notice the difference because in the past they had shied away from visiting the
video room during a game. Clint Frazier, the Yankees left fielder, said he
didn’t even watch much of the allowable video before or after games last
season.
“I’m a person that kind of
overanalyzes too much in there,” Frazier, 26, said of the old video rooms. He
said he relies far more on what he feels, rather than what a replay can show
him.
Still, Frazier said he might peek at
in-game video now that it is back. So might Kyle Hendricks, 31, the Chicago
Cubs’ ace who said he had previously used it “every once in a while.”
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