Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 25, 2006
The A's and Interleague

Baseball Girl at Athletics Nation explains why she doesn't like interleague play:

Yet, I absolutely despise interleague play. Actually, the more I think about it, it might not be interleague play that I dislike so strongly; it might actually be National League baseball, and the A's playing it. Which is why I'd like our team to be left in the American League until forced to play a World Series. I might like interleague play then.

The funny thing about interleague play is that I really feel like I genuinely dislike it for the right reasons. It's easy for a fan of a team that doesn't play well during interleague to complain, but I'm a fan of a team who has a sensational interleague record, and I still hate it! It's also worth noting that our current A's team probably would be better off in the NL right now: Their choices for DH consist of their back-up catcher, Mr. .007 batting average, or a pitcher, anyway, and with the NL's microscopic strike zone, we'd walk our way to victory nightly, but I still can't get behind the idea.

I don't agree with this, however:

I can't stand the mysteriously shifting (and more often than not, small) strike zone, something that seems more prevalent in the NL than the AL. In Nick Swisher's first AB yesterday, there were two questionable pitches taken by Swish, who has a tremendous batting eye, and my feelings were summed up exactly by Swisher's reaction. He turned to the ump, and said something to the effect of, "Seriously?", but using the cuss jar.

Yesterday's strike zone started out the size of Texas against the A's, and about as big as a breadbox for Danny Haren, but slowly shrunk for both sides, until both pitchers needed pinpoint control to ring up a strike. That trend continued into today, where both pitchers were squeezed from the get-go. The Giants reacted by having a walk-a-thon; Loaiza reacted by giving up doubles.

Given there are ML umpires these days, instead of NL and AL umps, I'm not sure why this would happen.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:46 PM | Scheduling | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I watched the games yesterday and today, and I'd have to agree with baseballgirl's general sentiment. The strike zone was very odd. I realize that umpires work both leagues now, but there seems to be something to the notion that the "NL Strikezone" is different. I've watched dozens and dozens of games this year, and it does indeed to be a different strikezone. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'd think it's worth looking into.

Posted by: Ryan Armbrust at June 25, 2006 10:27 PM

Weird, huh? I know both leagues now share the umps, but as an A's fan, I see a lot of pitches due to the high volume of walks we take; and as a result, I find myself pretty aware of the zone. I thought it was just me in the first game, but after the third NL game this weekend, I DEFINTELY noticed a different strike zone. It was much smaller, and it didn't seem consistant. The FEEL was just different, if that even makes any sense.

Posted by: baseballgirl at June 26, 2006 12:40 AM

Is it a Questec thing? Does Oakland have Questec? Do the other parks where you noticed the difference?

Posted by: David Pinto at June 26, 2006 06:58 AM

well

it's well known that umps sometimes call different strike zones for different pitchers

see WS game 3 oswalt vs garland

Posted by: lisa gray at June 26, 2006 11:44 AM

The game was at AT&T, SBC park, whatever it's called these days ;) I'm not sure if they have Questec, or not. I've noticed it hasn't been mentioned like it usually is during the telecasts.

All I know is that the strike zone feel was all off. It bothered the A's in the first game, but they benefitted in the second and third.

Posted by: baseballgirl at June 26, 2006 04:42 PM
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