One of the oldest jokes in sports may actually be true. When people yell at MLB umpires about being blind they could be on to something after all. A study out of Boston University has some alarming numbers when it comes to just how many ball and strike calls MLB umpires get wrong.

I have been fighting the good fight for years now that MLB umpires are an important "human element" in the game of baseball, but a new study has me rethinking that. The study comes from Boston University and makes a pretty compelling argument for "Robo-Umps" to replace their human counterparts. The study spans 11 seasons and nearly 4 million pitches. During that time the study says the Umps missed 1.6 Ball/Strike calls an inning or 14 calls a game. That number adds up to 34,294 missed calls.

The study also says that Umpires are influenced by the count. "Balls are mistakenly called strikes 29% of the time when there are two strikes, however that number drops to 15% of the time at lower strike counts." 

A few other alarming finds are, last season 55 games ended on a bad Ball/Strike call. Older umpires do in fact miss more calls..."last season the 10 most accurate umpires averaged 37.8 years of age with just over 6 years of experience. While the 10 least accurate averaged 56.6 years of age with 23.1 years of experience."

So the question becomes do you like human umps and the way things have always been or do you want 100% accuracy and Robo-umps?

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