Should Baseball Teams Use Technology to Stop Sign-Stealing?

Professional baseball has a dirty secret, according to the New York Times. While a catcher may secretly signal for certain pitches using their fingers, 'Multiple managers say there are clubs who use a dozen or more staff members to study video and swipe signs.'

But should that practice be stopped with technology?

Adding cameras in every ballpark and video monitors in every clubhouse opened the door to an unintended consequence: electronic cheating. The 2017 Houston Astros brazenly stepped through that door, developing an elaborate sign-stealing system that helped them win a World Series. Two years later, when that system was revealed to the public, it resulted in firings, suspensions and, ultimately, the permanent tarnishing of a championship.... This season, Major League Baseball took a big leap forward in distancing itself from the stain of sign stealing with the introduction of PitchCom, a device controlled by a catcher that allows him to wordlessly communicate with the pitcher about what pitch is coming — information that is simultaneously shared with as many as three other players on the field through earpieces in the bands of their caps....

There have been a few hiccups, with devices not operating, or pitchers not being able to hear, but so far this season, everyone in baseball seems to agree that PitchCom, like it or not, is working. Carlos Correa, a shortstop for the Minnesota Twins who has long served as the unofficial, and unapologetic, spokesman of those 2017 Astros, went as far as saying that the tool would have foiled his old team's systemic cheating. 'I think so,' Correa said. 'Because there are no signs now.'

Yet not all pitchers are on board. Max Scherzer, the ace of the New York Mets and baseball's highest-paid player this season, sampled PitchCom for the first time late last month in a game against the Yankees and emerged with conflicting thoughts. 'It works,' he said. 'Does it help? Yes. But I also think it should be illegal.'

Scherzer went so far as to suggest that the game would be losing something by eliminating sign stealing.

'It's part of baseball, trying to crack someone's signs,' Scherzer said. 'Does it have its desired intent that it cleans up the game a little bit?' he said of PitchCom. 'Yes. But I also feel like it takes away part of the game.'
That comment was called 'a little naive' and 'a bit hypocritical' by a relief pitcher in Seattle, who also had this to say about Scherzer. 'I have a very good feeling that he's been on a team or two that steals signs.'

For now, electronic pitch-signalling remains optional — and yet has been adopted by every one of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, the article points out (attributing this to 'a leaguewide paranoia'.) And the League's executive vice president for baseball operations points out a second advantage.

Since catchers don't need to run through a long series of decoy signals, 'It has actually sped the game up a little bit.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.