Too many plays for replay?

On Cold Pizza's 1st and 10 on ESPN, Chicago White Sox C A.J. Pierzynski said that there are too many plays in a baseball game to use replay. He was serving as a guest on the one-year anniversary of the play against the Angels when A.J. ran to first after the "dropped?" third strike. So, I'm going to watch the entire Cardinals-Mets game (game 2 of the NLCS) to see how many plays would benefit from being upheld or overturned by replay. I have it on DVR, so I'm not going to be missing any of the action, even as I type. I'm not going to be commenting on balls and strikes. Replay isn't the solution for balls and strikes, automation is.

The top of the first was uneventful, with the Cardinals going three up, three down. Reyes kicked off the bottom of the 1st in style against Cardinal ace Chris Carpenter, hitting a double then moving to 3rd on a sac bunt by Lo Duca. Carpenter got robbed on the 0-1 pitch to Carlos Beltran, which definitely helped Beltran draw a walk. Carpenter got robbed on the BB issued to David Wright too, with time being called just prior to a flyout by Wright because a beach ball came onto the field. But, the 1st base ump waddling in was somewhat entertaining. The tag on David Wright on the groundout by Shawn Green could use a quick replay, though it will confirm that Eckstein's swipe tag missed Wright, so the call on the field was correct. So, through one inning, one replay is necessary.

The ball hit by Spiezio off Carlos Delgado's glove could use a cursory glance, but it would be upheld quickly as a fair ball. The Mets are starting to get on the home plate umpire, just a half inning after the Cards were getting on him. At least he's not favoring one team. Did I just hear Carpenter cuss after fouling back the 2-1 pitch? The pitch Carpenter struck out on most certainly wasn't a strike ... that was horrible. The double by Chavez could be quickly reviewed, but a quick look would confirm that it was 1-2 feet inside the line. The play at first on the sac bunt by Maine could be looked at too, but it was readily aparent that he was out The Mets tacked on another run ... so after two it's 4-2 with 4 potential replays but nothing real complicated so far in the game.

Jim Edmonds tried to check his swing on an 0-1 pitch in the top of the 3rd. Check swings are often controversial, but I think automation, rather than replay, is the way to deal with those. So, there will be no more talk about check swings, at least as replay pertains to check swings. We're now tied at 4 after the Edmonds homer. The 3rd is done, with the replay count remaining at 4.

SB's are often close, but not Eckstein's. The throw skipped by Jose Reyes, allowing the Cardinal SS to go to 3rd. Duncan couldn't get him in, though. Chavez is gone. Tucker should have tried to get out of the way of that ball. He stuck his back leg forward as he turned and just got nicked. That's ridiculous. He shouldn't get first for that. Tucker should be fined (or suspended) for his slide, too. He jumped over the bag to try to take out Eckstein. He's not going hard into the base, he's going hard into the defender and that shouldn't be tolerated. Whether or not Reyes beat the throw to first could be looked at, but it was obvious that he made it. Man, Reyes is quick. Lo Duca is gone at first, so through 4, it's 4-4 with 5 replays all confirming calls on the field.

Pujols, Edmonds and Spiezio: three up, three down. Beltran's grounder to Pujols could use a look, but it wasn't really that close. No controversy on Delgado's 2nd homer ... although the ball does seem to be carrying well in NY tonight. I thought Edmonds' fly out went a long way for the way he hit it. The play at first on Wright's grounder should be reviewed, I think, although I haven't seen a replay yet. LaRussa argued, though. It was close and from the view from behind Pujols, it's difficult to tell when he actually catches the ball. Maybe Belliard should have fielded it cleanly or not bounced the throw. The last two outs were uneventful. So, we have 6 replays with one needing more than one look through 5 innings.

Molina just took his battery mate out of the game with his single to left. It's probably about time, considering the way Carpenter has labored through the first five. Hey, Bradford's night is over now too ... enter Feliciano to face the left-handed John Rodriguez. That was a weak AB for the Cards' pinch-hitter. What was the call on the Anderson Hernandez K? Does he think he made contact? That could be reviewed, although it doesn't look like he made contact. What is Josh Hancock doing walking Jose Reyes? I know he hit 19 HRs this year, but you have to make him put it in play. Reyes just scored on the Lo Duca double that was obviously fair. That run is a gift from Hancock. Wow, Belliard made a great play to get Beltran. You can take a look at whether or not the throw beat Beltran, but it got him by a half a step and the review isn't really necessary. Might as well, though. What surprised me was that Belliard would have time to make that play. Delgado's gone, inning over. Two replays, one worth a couple looks and one worth just one. That's 8 replays with 2 of those being a little bit in-depth in the first 6 innings.

So, to update, only about a minute is necessary for the reviews in the first 2/3rd of the game. The six easy ones just need one look, and can be performed while the ball is returning to the pitcher and the pitcher is getting the sign for the next pitch. The play at first on Wright and the Hernandez strikeout would benefit from a couple different angles to make sure the on-field call is correct, but they are straightforward calls that should be quickly resolved. At most, a minute is needed for each if the replays are readily available, and they should be.

It's the top of the 7th, two down, and how did Pujols pull a 97 mph fastball that far foul? Did he think the Mets borrowed Joel Zumaya for his AB? Pujols has great stats through his first 5 years, but comparing him to Barry Bonds based only on AVG., HR and RBI isn't really fair. Bonds was a speedy lead-off hitter and great defensive LF early in his career. Pujols probably has Bonds beat through 5, but not by as much as those stats say. I'm not sure what's more surprising: (1) that Pujols is looking this bad at the plate or (2) that Mota has yet to get Pujols out with Albert looking so off-balance. Pujols' ball was well-struck and obviously fair. He got a crappy bounce, though, and it allowed Chavez to hold him to a single. I didn't like the walk to Reyes and I don't like the 4-pitch walk to Edmonds, although Mota is making Spiezio look silly with his changeup. After two changes, Spiezio yanks a 99 mph fastball foul to the stands down the right side. That's as odd as Pujols' foul ball. He just yanked another fastball to right. That was a great call. It should be reviewed, but the right call was made. There was an odd sound that made me think the ball hit off something behind the fence, but the replay clearly shows it hits Green's glove and then comes back into the field. The triple by Spiezio should have been reviewed, but the review would have been quicker than Tony coming out to argue and then the umpires getting together to talk about it. The replay was pretty obvious and the call was simple.

As we hit the 7th inning stretch, with 9 replays (3 in some detail), I'm glad I picked an interesting game to watch every pitch. Wright's gone. Green's grounder to Pujols was obviously fair, a few feet inside the line. And, Chavez routinely grounds out to 2nd after the Valentin single.

Molina's one-out single was obviously fair. Preston Wilson's 0-1 foul ball was obviously foul. It is odd seeing Wilson in a Cards uniform. Why would the Astros trade a starter to a division rival. I know they wanted to make room for Luke Scott, and they should have dealt Wilson, but not to the team in front of you in the NL Central. Maybe they thought they were too far behind to make a run. Oops. Or, maybe they knew how horrible Wilson was this year and were trying to sabotage the red birds. Just as I'm typing this, Wilson whiffs. Eckstein's HR-distance foul ball wasn't really close ... 10-15 feet to the right would have been close. Eckstein is pretty good at fouling balls off. Impressive, kind of. Annoying? Certainly. It was nice of Fox to show a guy spitting chewing tobacco into a plastic bottle after a couple more foul balls. Finally, Eckstein's gone ... and so is the top half of the eighth.

With one out, Reyes singles and then Lo Duca is issued a 4-pitch walk. How hard is it to throw strikes? You're a major league pitcher! I'm not sure Kinney threw any strikes to Reyes either. I thought both the pitches Reyes swung at were a little up and away. Beltran was beat by Eckstein's throw by half a step on the DP he grounded into. Take a quick look, nothing more, if you want.

So Taguchi, the defensive replacement, just took Wagner deep. I know, I'm a few hours behind. Pujols just put a good swing on a hit to left. After the grounder to 2nd by Edmonds, Met relievers have thrown 104 pitches. Maine threw 88. That is a lot of pitches for one team in a regular game. Take a quick look at the Spiezio ball down the line, but that's all you'll need. Three runs are in against Wagner and it hasn't just been bleeders. Encarnacion didn't nail that grounder to right, but there haven't been any real cheap hits in this flurry. I am surprised Wagner was removed with 2 outs, though. I'm skipping over a lot of the commentary. They're referencing pitch count, but why not take Wagner out after the Encarnacion single? One pitch is all it took Roberto Hernandez to end the top half of the inning. Again, no major replays necessary in this half inning.

Delgado strikes out to start the bottom half of the 9th ... and we get to hear him cursing at himself. Lovely. Fox is on top of it tonight. Scott Rolen made a nice play to get David Wright; I'm surprised it wasn't a close play at first, but it wasn't. A groundout to Belliard ends the game. Cards win 9-6 to even the series at 1-1.

So, recapping, 11 plays could have a look by replay. That would be overdoing it, but I didn't want to be too selective because I wanted to give A.J. the benefit of the doubt. Only 3 plays in the entire game need more than a cursory look and none of them should take more than a minute. You get the plays right and remove doubt about whether or not the umps are doing a good job. Pierzynski's assertion that there are too many plays in a baseball game to use replay is pure idiocy and it's time for MLB to look into using replay for the betterment of the game. Fortunately, this game didn't need replay because the umps did a good job. But, we all know that umps screw up calls and that's why you have replay as a crutch to support the umps, not undermine them.