Schilling: QuesTec system 'a joke'

PHOENIX - Umpires who don&#39;t like the new electronic system that evaluates their calls on balls and strikes have gained an outspoken ally in Curt Schilling. <br> <br> The Arizona ace got so fed up with the system Saturday night during his loss to the San Diego Padres that he smashed one of its cameras near the Diamondbacks&#39; dugout. <br> <br> ``I said something to one of the umpires about it,&#39;&#39; Schilling said, ``and he said &#39;Do us a favor and break the other one.&#39;&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The QuesTec Umpire Evaluation System is installed at 13 ballparks, including Bank One Ballpark in Arizona. The umpire&#39;s union has filed a grievance against major league teams contending the system is inaccurate and varies greatly depending on the person operating it. <br> <br> An arbitrator is to hear the grievance in early July. <br> <br> ``The QuesTec system in this ballpark is a joke,&#39;&#39; Schilling said. ``The umpires have admitted it. They hate it. In the last three starts I&#39;ve made here, multiple times umpires have said to the catcher, &#39;It&#39;s a pitch I want to call a strike but the machine won&#39;t let me.&#39;&#39;&#39; <br> <br> A phone call seeking comment from Rob Manfred, executive vice president of labor relations in the commissioner&#39;s office, was not returned. <br> <br> Schilling is a perfectionist. He has every pitch he&#39;s ever thrown to a batter on video and he studies them for hours and hours before each start. He also has a book on every call he&#39;s seen an umpire make. <br> <br> ``As someone who relies on command and preparation and doing the things that I do to get ready for a ballgame, consistency is the most important thing in the world for me from an umpire,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> In a Feb. 14 letter to the World Umpires Association, baseball said umpires whose calls do not match Questec at least 90 percent of the time will be judged as not meeting standards. <br> <br> In March, 47 of 68 umpires signed a statement expressing no confidence in the QuesTec system. <br> <br> Umpire Mike Winters, part of the crew working the Arizona-San Diego series, acknowledged after Saturday night&#39;s game that the evaluation system is affecting games. <br> <br> ``Major league baseball wants to have everyone conform to the strike zone as this machine says it is,&#39;&#39; Winters said. ``Everybody&#39;s working to try to do that. Borderline pitches, this machine says they&#39;re balls. If I call them a strike and the machine doesn&#39;t, I&#39;m getting downgraded. I&#39;ve got to worry about my own livelihood.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Pitches on the corners might not get the benefit of the doubt they once did. <br> <br> ``In the old days, we were taught `Go get them. Call those pitches strikes,&#39;&#39;&#39; Winters said. ``Today it&#39;s the exact opposite: `Hey, if it&#39;s off the plate it&#39;s a ball. I don&#39;t care if it&#39;s a quarter-inch or an eighth-inch, it&#39;s a ball.&#39; It goes against what we used to be taught, but major league baseball pays my salary, and they&#39;re the boss.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In ballparks that don&#39;t have the system, umpires are apt to revert to calling balls and strikes the way they have for years. <br> <br> ``If I go to a park and I know it&#39;s not there, I&#39;m certainly a little more relaxed,&#39;&#39; Winters said. <br> <br> Schilling&#39;s road ERA in three starts this season is 1.96. In six starts at Bank One Ballpark, it&#39;s 4.39. He threw shutouts in his last two road appearances, then came home and had two similar outings that were far less effective. <br> <br> Last Monday against San Francisco, he threw 121 pitches and lasted seven innings in a no-decision. He gave up three runs in seven innings of a 5-1 loss Saturday night, striking out 11 and throwing 126 pitches. <br> <br> Arizona manager Bob Brenly thinks QuesTec creates inequality because it&#39;s not used in every park. <br> <br> ``They call balls and strikes differently in the ballparks where it&#39;s set up,&#39;&#39; Brenly said Sunday. ``If the system is so good and the ball tracks so well, why do you need a ball-strike umpire? You could have a green light go on out on the scoreboard if it&#39;s a ball and a red light if it&#39;s a strike. <br> <br> ``The strike zone has always been very subjective, and the players know that going in. You put it up in a ballpark, and the umpires are calling what they think they&#39;re supposed to call. If you want a consistent strike zone, you&#39;ve got to put QuesTec in all 30 ballparks.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Catcher Rod Barajas said umpires often refer to the QuesTec monitoring. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s completely unfair to the umpires,&#39;&#39; Barajas said. ``It puts so much more pressure on them to call pitches the way the machine wants them to call pitches. They can&#39;t be themselves back there, so now they&#39;re scared to pull the trigger.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> While Schilling was fuming, San Diego&#39;s Brian Lawrence was throwing a two-hitter Saturday night to snap the Padres&#39; nine-game losing streak. <br> <br> Schilling made sure he praised Lawrence&#39;s performance as he ripped the QuesTec surveillance. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s a drastically different way for me to pitch here. I&#39;ve got to make adjustments,&#39;&#39; Schilling said. ``Like I said, the kid pitched a phenomenal game and he obviously didn&#39;t have a problem with it, so I might be crying over spilled milk, but it&#39;s frustrating.&#39;&#39;

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