It’s nice to see others are thinking about pitch framing as cheating. I thought that opposing managers should point out to the home plate umpire when an opponent is a good pitch framer. Managers won’t do that, however, as they may have or have in the future a good pitch framer on their team. The league, however, should point this out. Before each game the league should send a report to the home plate umpire on the framing tendencies of the catchers starting the game, and instruct them to call the ball in relation to the plate, not where the catcher makes the grab. Note that this is just as important for poor pitch framers. It’s the ball that matters, not how it is caught.
That’s absurd and just a ridiculous notion. Shouldn’t it be the umpire’s job to call the pitch where it actually is and not the cather’s job to make it easier on the umpire. It shouldn’t be the players’ job to make sure the pitch is called right.
David F » It’s the umpire’s job to get the call right. If the catcher can influence the umpire to call strikes when the pitch was a ball, that wrong. Training to do that is wrong.
There’s no rule against it, so it’s obviously not cheating.
If MLB makes a rule against it, then it will be cheating.
I think David means, it *should* be cheating!
(I hope he isn’t talking about the “unwritten rules” of baseball.)
The Fangraphs article concludes that it is not cheating. I tend to agree. You might argue that it’s unethical or bad sportsmanship but I’m not even sure I’d agree with that. One of the things a good pitch-framer does, for example, is help make a ball look like a ball and a strike look like a strike. In any case, it’s the umpire’s job to get the call right.