The  OOZ% is the percentage of pitches that were called strikes by the umpire that were outside of the strike zone. has This percentage has decreased in the MLB every season since 2008.

The debate between human and computerized umpiring has begun throughout the Major League Baseball community.

This debate usually centers around the strike zone, calling balls and strikes. The MLB needs to continue with the current system of having real people call the balls and strikes at the major eague level.

Baseball needs a human element involved when it comes to officiating.  Relying on computers to call balls and strikes have many possible issues, including computer malfunctions, no variety game to game in the MLB when it comes to umpiring. Also, all of the umpires would lose their jobs, and all those people would be unemployed.

Obviously though, the people who support the change to a computerized strike-zone have reasoning behind their choice as well.  People say that there are many big calls that aren’t called correctly when it comes to balls and strikes and they may be correct.

However, when you really think about it, the incorrect calls with the balls and strikes or giving a certain team a bigger or smaller strike zone usually seems to even itself out over the course of the game.

John Schlegel of MLB.com states, “As it stands, the electronic strike zone is a tool for training and evaluation of umpires, not an “eye in the sky” making pitch calls.”

The human element of officiating in MLB is an important part of the sport and it needs to stay part of the future of the game.