MLB seems to have “corrected” a poor strike call from Monday’s Cubs/Phillies game. Regardless of the reason for this adjustment, it reflects poorly on MLB.
During the first inning, with no outs and a runner on first base, Cubs first baseman Michael Busch was called out on strikes by Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola on a fastball.
Screenshots reveal that the pitch landed well above the televised K zone. Realmuto framed the pitch effectively, leading umpire Tony Randazzo to mistakenly call it strike three, which it clearly was not. While umpires can be misled by good framing techniques, the unusual part follows. I highlighted this in the game recap and want to share a screenshot from MLB Gameday right after that strike three call.
Again, that appears to precisely match what you see on the video and screenshots above. The pitch was not in the strike zone and should not have been called a strike.
Here’s a screenshot of the same pitch from Gameday on the MLB app as of earlier this morning:
No, my friends, that pitch did not magically move into the strike zone hours later. Someone at MLB altered the grid to indicate that pitch was in the zone when it clearly was not. As noted by some commenters in the game recap, it seems the strike zone on the Gameday grid was changed for this at-bat. In my opinion, this is not appropriate for MLB to do.
Is this merely a “simple correction,” as one commenter suggested? Perhaps, but should MLB be making such changes? The strike zone should remain unchanged. If a pitch is called incorrectly when it’s thrown, adjusting the zone afterward doesn’t rectify the error. While the broadcast boxes are claimed not to represent the official strike zone, this action remains troubling. Changes like this can benefit or harm teams, such as the Cubs. Just as we have replay review for calls, why not apply the same principle to balls and strikes?
I’m not sure if this is an isolated incident. I haven’t investigated other similar bad calls to see if they were similarly adjusted in Gameday after the fact, but I suspect this has occurred before.
This presents a very negative image for Major League Baseball. Bad calls happen regularly, but we shouldn’t manipulate them to appear correct when there’s clear video evidence otherwise.
This highlights the urgent need for a ball-and-strike challenge system to be implemented in MLB by 2025. It’s functioning effectively in Triple-A and could easily be adapted for the major leagues. Let’s make this happen to avoid issues like this in the future.
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