Jazz Chisholm Asks For Robot Umps After Brutal Missed Call

Calling balls and strikes in Major League Baseball isn't the easiest job in the world, given frequent 100 mph pitch speeds and catcher framing. The advent of instantly visible automated strike zones hasn't made it any easier. Fans, managers and coaches can now see in real time whether an umpire's call was correct or not. And let those umpires know about it.

That said, when you see umpiring like what Jazz Chisholm faced in Monday's game against the New York Mets, it's a lot harder to empathize. 

Chisholm was rung up by umpire Rob Drake on a 2-2 pitch from Jose Butto in the bottom of the 7th inning that missed by, well…a lot. 

Chisholm, understandably, was not happy about being called out on a non-competitive pitch that was well off the plate. And he took to X to simply vent his frustrations with a "[robot emoji] please."

Based on Rob Manfred's recent comments on robot umps, he might get his wish sooner rather than later.

READ: Rob Manfred Reveals When Robo Umps Will Reach MLB

LOS ANGELES - Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Miami Marlins celebrates his solo home run, to take a 1-0 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers, during the first inning at Dodger Stadium on May 07, 2024. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Bad Call On Jazz Chisholm Shows Value Of Challenge System

The infamous Umpire Scorecard X account posted the scorecard for Drake's performance, and overall, he wasn't actually that bad. His relative accuracy was actually a bit over the expected number, though his consistency was well below average. 

There's a clearly visible issue though; the very obvious missed calls well outside the strike zone. That's where the forthcoming challenge system comes into play.

Hitters like Chisholm will be able to immediately challenge obvious missed calls like the one in Monday's game. They'll then be overturned, extending at bats. The issue though, is where does it end? How many challenges will hitters get? If umpires put in Angel Hernandez-level performances, will game times jump back up as hitters challenge miss after miss?

Do pitchers get to challenge if they believe a called ball should have been a strike?

There's plenty to figure out, but at the very least, robot umps would fix egregious mistakes like Drake's call against Chisholm. And that's worth doing.