John Stanton, the Seattle Mariners CEO and a key figure in the new era of MLB rules, sees a future for automated balls and strikes in the big leagues.
He’d prefer not to call them robot umps.
“In baseball, we don’t particularly like the term ‘robot umps’ because we have real people that are umpires,” Stanton said Wednesday at GeekWire’s annual rooftop BBQ party. “We look at the possibility of what we call ‘automated ball/strike systems’ — much more polite.”
A tech-enhanced method of calling balls and strikes, debated for years by baseball traditionalists and supporters of the potential change, is being tested at the Triple-A level and could make its way to MLB in the near future.
Stanton, who chairs the league’s competition committee, said one key factor is figuring out what exactly the strike zone should look like in an automated system. Theoretically, the strike zone is a box above home plate. But umpires actually call an oval strike zone, and pitches that hit the corner of the box zone don’t get called as strikes even though technically they are, he said.
“We’ve had to turn that into an algorithm and we’re still working on what the right algorithm is,” Stanton said.
The official MLB strike zone has been altered several times in league history — and it could change again with the introduction of new technology.
It would be the latest in a number of adjustments the MLB is making in a bid to shorten games and boost action on the field. MLB this year implemented several rule changes, including a pitch clock, defensive shift mandates, and larger bases.
“The strike zone has everything to do with more balls in play,” Stanton said. “So we’re working on it. I don’t know if we’ll do it next year. We may do it the following year.”
Before taking over as the Mariners CEO in 2016, Stanton helped transform the wireless industry, serving in executive roles at companies such as McCaw Cellular and VoiceStream Wireless, the predecessor of the modern day T-Mobile. He also co-founded Trilogy, a longstanding Seattle-area venture capital firm, and sits on the boards of Microsoft and Costco.
Last year, the Mariners broke the longest active playoff drought in sports. This year the team hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
And with last night’s 6-1 win over San Diego, the Mariners won their seventh-straight game and find themselves in playoff contention again.
“It’s just the thrill of a lifetime,” Stanton said about his job.
Here are some more soundbites from my interview with Stanton. Answers were edited for brevity and clarity. We’ll post the conversation in full later this week.
On not retiring
“I am a complete failure at retirement. I have tried several times. I really don’t get it. I’m hopeful, I guess, that I never get it.”
On what it’s like running the Mariners versus other companies
“It’s exactly the same. Find great people to lead and get out of their way. We have some of the best people in baseball, really talented people. Baseball is all about innovation and creativity. And so if there’s anything I do it’s ask questions and encourage the people who lead the organization to consider a variety of perspectives as they make decisions.”
On Shohei Ohtani, the once-in-a-generation Los Angeles Angels star who will be a free agent this offseason
“We focus on developing great players. We believe that the best player for us over time is going to be a young player that we’re able to have all the way through our system and develop.
We will look at free agents every offseason to fill needs. From our point of view, Ohtani is the unicorn. We’ll clearly look at him, we’ll clearly be in the conversation. But I think we’ve got a great team with or without him.”
On this season’s rule changes
“Baseball really hadn’t asked its fans what they wanted out of the game. The first thing they said was shorter games. They also wanted more action in the game — stolen bases, doubles, triples, outfield assists, all those things. And so we then looked at rules that would allow the game to change in those ways.
We found some opportunities that we thought were good. We tested them in the minor leagues. We tested some things that didn’t come to pass. We actually tested pushing the pitcher’s mound back. It didn’t work. And the groundskeepers didn’t like it.
The most important thing we’ve done is the pitch clock. Fans told us they wanted a two-and-a-half-hour game. We are close to that. We’re going to begin testing this month some different approaches on the pitch clock.
The easiest [rule change] to agree upon was expanding the size of the bases. You think, what difference does it make to have a 15-inch base versus an 18-inch base? And the answer is that in the testing we did in Triple-A, it reduced injuries by 37%. One of our objectives is to make the game safer and that was very important. And it was the easiest thing to get the players, umpires, and owners to agree on.”
On automated ball/strike systems tests
“We have tested two different approaches in Triple-A this year. If you go to a game on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, you’ll see them call the balls and strikes based on a computer-generated box. And then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you’ll see something that looks a little bit more like tennis. It’s what we call the challenge system, where the pitcher, the catcher and the batter have three challenges that they can use during the game. It becomes a new part of the game.
On using AI
“We have some folks working on AI solutions to a variety of problems, most of all to make the game more attractive to the fans so that we can do a better job getting your hot dog quicker, or getting your beer quicker and colder, and having our players be able to play more effectively.”
On leadership advice
“Hire great people and develop them. And that’s really what we do with our players. You look at a young man named Julio Rodriguez that is 22 years old. He has been part of our organization since he was 16. Our coaches and our development staff have developed him into the kind of player that he is — clearly with the benefit of enormous raw athletic talent.
The key is that managers and executives don’t have a monopoly on talent. You’ve got to listen to the people who work for you and develop those people and give them the chance to fail, the chance to make mistakes. And if you do that, then they will in most cases prove you right.”
