3 Astros Discussion topics

1.) Twitter Question (@Mike_K66): Should the MLB change their method of determining home field advantage?

Mike asked (albeit worded slightly different) if the MLB should adopt a different approach in home field advantage, particularly with MLB teams tanking now.

His recommendation was to change the selection to have a weighting based on strength of schedule, similar to college football.

His research found the following stats for each division:

AL West - 392-361

AL East - 374-377

AL Central 345-405

With the majority of the games being played against your home division and inherently resulting in .500, there are some pretty big differentials in the divisions.

My only concern is that it would be tough to get the “average” fan to buy in to this, but it does have a lot of merit from a logical perspective.

What are your thoughts? Would you implement a change like this? What do you think should be the determining factor of Home Field Advantage?

2. Should the Astros trade Aledmys Diaz in the off-season?

The Astros have an embarassment of riches. One of these is the 29 year old All-Star Super-Utility player that the Astros acquired from the Blue Jays next year. Diaz has not quite repeated his All Star Rookie year, but he continues to provide a valuable support piece. Diaz will be arbitration eligible which will be building off the $2 Million dollar contract currently in place. With the Astros over the Competitive Balance Threshold - is he not only worth the cost for the luxury but the added tax as well.

With prospects such as Toro, Straw, etc banging down the door for opportunities - could we make the most and gain a few pieces for the farm?

3.) Are you Pro or Con ROBO-umps?

You may have heard, a system called TrackMan was introduced into baseball this year, officially calling balls and strikes for the Atlantic League - calling the first strike in the history of baseball on July 10th.

The process starts by utilizing Doppler Radar to locate where the pitch was when it crossed the plate. That information is then put into a computer and uses the actual definition of a strike based on the major league definition and adjusts hitter by hitter by their height.

That information is then immediately played to the home plate umpire via headset, who has the ability to override the call. This primarily SHOULD be used in an odd-ball scenario - pitch bounces into the middle of the strike zone for example, but has the risk for abuse.

I think this “answers” the question of what would it look like and aids in the vision of what exactly it could look like. People asked if the scoreboard would announce the call - but it appears it would just assist the umpire. Players in the game did not note a delay, with a player commenting that they didn’t even know it was happening other than one call where it touched the bottom edge of the zone and the umpire behind the plate questioned the consistency.