Joel Sherman of the New York Post is one of my favorite baseball writers. His column today hits on all the major points of a true baseball reform agenda, including instant replay, speeding up the pace of the games, and — yes — laser strike zones:
The technology exists to do better in the on-field legislating of the game. Errors by the players are inherent in the game. But if it could be improved upon, would anyone really miss mistakes by umpires?
Laser technology exists now in every park to track each pitch, and there is no reason that it cannot be used to call balls and strikes. A red (ball) or green (strike) could flash quicker than Tim McClelland can lift his arm while at the same time a computer generates a voice call of ball or strike. There is no reason lasers cannot be used to judge the borders of each player’s strike zone. It would be more consistent than a human — often a 50ish-plus-year-old human — trying to track a high-speed orb moving in different directions.