QUESTEC Schilling unhappy with new machines

The controversial system evaluates calls on balls and strikes.
PHOENIX (AP) -- Umpires who don't like the new electronic system that evaluates their calls on balls and strikes have gained an outspoken ally in Curt Schilling.
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' dugout.
"I said something to one of the umpires about it," Schilling said, "and he said 'Do us a favor and break the other one.' "
The QuesTec Umpire Evaluation System is installed at 13 ballparks, including Bank One Ballpark in Arizona. The umpire's union has filed a grievance against major league teams contending the system is inaccurate and varies greatly depending on the person operating it.
An arbitrator is to hear the grievance in early July.
"The QuesTec system in this ballpark is a joke," Schilling said. "The umpires have admitted it. They hate it. In the last three starts I've made here, multiple times umpires have said to the catcher, 'It's a pitch I want to call a strike but the machine won't let me.' "
A phone call seeking comment from Rob Manfred, executive vice president of labor relations in the commissioner's office, was not returned.
Study habits
Schilling is a perfectionist. He has every pitch he'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's seen an umpire make.
"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," he said.
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.
In March, 47 of 68 umpires signed a statement expressing no confidence in the QuesTec system.
Umpire Mike Winters, part of the crew working the Arizona-San Diego series, acknowledged after Saturday night's game that the evaluation system is affecting games.
"Major League Baseball wants to have everyone conform to the strike zone as this machine says it is," Winters said. "Everybody's working to try to do that. Borderline pitches, this machine says they're balls. If I call them a strike and the machine doesn't, I'm getting downgraded. I've got to worry about my own livelihood."
Pitches on the corners might not get the benefit of the doubt they once did.
"In the old days, we were taught 'Go get them. Call those pitches strikes,' " Winters said. "Today it's the exact opposite: 'Hey, if it's off the plate it's a ball. I don't care if it's a quarter-inch or an eighth-inch, it's a ball.' It goes against what we used to be taught, but Major League Baseball pays my salary, and they're the boss."