Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

[Cezar24]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

First of all, "5 feet" is absurd. Home plate itself is like 1.5 feet each side. The catcher's box a few feet behind the plate. We are looking at at LEAST 25 feet here.

And I understood the picture. If you see in my explanation, the first marker (the smallest ball) and the third marker (the larger ball) are lined up with each other. You're still thinking of a ball trajectory that is perpendicular to the plate. Think of it this way, the pitch was traveling in a straight line through the first ball frame (the larger ball) and the ball marker itself, then broke slightly into the final ball frame (the smallest ball).

25 feet? If ball 1 is 25 feet away and that low, ball 3 would be in the dirt. Look at the sizes. It's 5-8 feet max.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

OK to try and demonstrate what it is I am noticing I decided to make a few gifs from videos I exported from sharefactory. It may not output 60 fps, but for this purpose it works fine.

The first gif is of the original Wainwright cutter I posted in the OP. You can see that it does not move at all from right to left, as a 2SFB might so I don't see why the ball marker is at the position it is at.

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The next is also from CoTW with Cliff Lee. It is a 2SFB, but high. I've noticed this type a lot where the pitch appears much higher than the ball marker says. This might be completely a trick having to do with the camera angle, but it sure does look high when playing and it has caused me to take "strikes" high in the zone when they appear high. This one looks obviously high to me, yet could have easily been called a strike by the game's variable umpires.

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The last ones are from an exhibition game. The camera is on catcher zoom, default no editing. The umpire strikes is set to OFF, but I swear I saw a few balls called strikes that were off the plate. I double checked and it was set to off the whole time. The pitch, to me at least, looks outside. It looked outside out of the pitchers hand. I also went into replay and took a video of the ball coming in from overhead, this I think clearly shows it is outside, yet the marker shows it right on the edge of the strike zone.

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I also noticed that during gameplay the ball shadow on pitches is right under the ball, but in replay it shows a more natural shadow similar to the catcher and batter. Maybe to not confuse the player when batting? You can see this in the last gif(s).

Again, I might be insane and everything is working as past years, but the only reason I even noticed this was because it felt different than it has in the past. It is only a very small distance that the ball marker appears off to me, but for a vet of The Show it was apparent the first week I played the game and has been frustrating in a lot of key moments. Its why I am asking if I am indeed correct in my assumption or if its just a perception thing having to do with the camera angle or some other issue, like what TheSlab mentioned in that its where the variable strike zone is calling the pitch, not the actual location.

[CujoMatty]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Very nice examples. Gotta say after seeing that it does seem a little off.

[underdog13]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

I haven't seen anything off when i'm playing but after seeing the GIF's it is definitely off.

[Neolithic]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

The Third GIF is the stuff I've been seeing and it is really infuriating. I think the problem is the pitch callout side of things. That blue circle should NOT be touching that white box, because the callout says that's a strike, a clear strike, when it reality, it missed by at least an inch. I've seen the same things when I pitch from the broadcast view, I'll see callouts that are Labeled a Ball, but be almost entirely inside the Plate Box on the callout... then I go and do this, watch the slow motion replay, and see that it actually missed the front of the plate by a good half a balls width.

Please try and get this calibrated and fixed up if you can SDS, I've learned to just go with what is called, and I don't use variable umps, I want Balls and Strikes to be called perfectly, but it would be awesome if you could tweak this a little and get it spot on, make a great game even better!

Happy I'm not the only one who's seeing it though.

[Bobhead]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

...

Yeah this seems a lot more convincing. That one pitch that was called a ball... I have no idea what that was.

I'll have to start paying more attention to this next time I play, to see if I can see it for myself.

May I ask what camera(s) you were using?

[MrOldboy]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Yeah this seems a lot more convincing. That one pitch that was called a ball... I have no idea what that was.

I'll have to start paying more attention to this next time I play, to see if I can see it for myself.

May I ask what camera(s) you were using?

For the first two its one of the catcher ones, but I may have moved the camera a bit lower as the pitcher is completely in the strike zone, the horizontal alignment is default still. The third one is catcher zoom.

I added the red line in the last one on the edge of the plate thinking that maybe its putting the marker where the catcher catches the ball. You can see the ball clip through the catchers mitt when he catches it in the last gif. But I tried to test this theory out in pitcher zoom view and sometimes it seemed to call it where he catches it, but others it doesn't seem to.

[Jr.]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

I have noticed this as well, but I just assumed it was the game's way of visualizing the Plate Vision rating and how batters sometimes have trouble tracking a pitch.

[HarrySTruman]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Very interesting thread. I'm confused, though: what is the grey "crosshair" symbol intended to represent? Is that supposed to be the location of the ball when it crossed the strike zone? So that crosshair doesn't appear on ball out of the zone (a ball)?

Is the positioning of the red or blue "B" or "K" supposed to be significant? Maybe the discrepancy you see on that last gif is that the location of the "B" isn't important?

Forgive me if I'm just confusing things more. I'm new to the game.

[Cezar24]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Very interesting thread. I'm confused, though: what is the grey "crosshair" symbol intended to represent? Is that supposed to be the location of the ball when it crossed the strike zone? So that crosshair doesn't appear on ball out of the zone (a ball)?

Is the positioning of the red or blue "B" or "K" supposed to be significant? Maybe the discrepancy you see on that last gif is that the location of the "B" isn't important?

Forgive me if I'm just confusing things more. I'm new to the game.

The grey crosshairs is where the pitch starts. The red or blue circle shows where the pitch ends up when it gets to the strike zone. It just shows how much and in which direction the pitch broke. If there is no grey crosshairs circle, the pitch didn't move at all. The grey circle is behind the red or blue circle completely, like with a fastball.

[HarrySTruman]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Ah, okay, thanks. Sometimes I see little blue dots, usually on low breaking balls. These indicate that the pitch dropped out of the zone?

[Cezar24]

Re: Pitch marker location in relation to actual pitch location (is it off?)

Ah, okay, thanks. Sometimes I see little blue dots, usually on low breaking balls. These indicate that the pitch dropped out of the zone?

Yup, if the grey circle is in the zone, then there are a few little white dots that go to the blue circle below the zone, that means the pitcher started the pitch up and it dropped out of the zone. You'll see the same thing horizontally with sliders and cut fastballs.