This isn't QuesTec's first season in Major League Baseball, but some fans might be hearing about it for the first time due to the publicity it has received lately (such as Curt Schilling breaking a QuesTec camera).

	Curt Schilling left the desert for a more fanatical setting.

QuesTec's Umpire Information System is comprised of a series of cameras, used in conjunction with a computer, that's intended to identify an accurate strike zone. QuesTec allows for second-guessing, and umpires and pitchers alike are glad to join the chorus. But while both groups have complained about the system, the bottom line is this: QuesTec should not be used as an excuse for poor performance.

QuesTec should be used as a training tool, not as a grading or evaluating tool. Currently, QuesTec is used to determine which umpires get postseason assignments and the like. I don't agree with that. But if an umpire consistently calls a strike on pitches three inches off the plate or consistently misses a pitch inside, then use QuesTec to point that out to him.

Just don't scrutinize every call he makes in every game.

Such scrutiny puts undue pressure on an umpire to be perfect, and a human being can't be perfect. Some machines can be perfect, but not a human being -- especially when he must make a snap decision on a pitch that's coming in at 90 mph with movement. And sometimes it's late movement that causes the ball to edge off or onto the corner of the plate. That's why it's impossible for the human eye to be perfect on every pitch.

Hitters use video to correct swing flaws, and pitchers use video to correct mechanical flaws in their motion. So it makes sense for umpires to use video to correct flaws in their officiating -- for training, not for evaluating.

The only way QuesTec should be used as an evaluation tool is if it's installed in every ballpark and if conditions are the same for each umpire. If that day comes, I'll re-evaluate its merit for grading an umpire's performance. Right now, QuesTec is in less than half of major-league ballparks (13 of 31, counting Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico). Therefore, it's less than a complete study. It's an incomplete sample.

Besides, the New York Times published some statistics in its June 1 edition that indicate that pitching numbers in QuesTec and non-QuesTec ballparks are virtually the same. Here they are:

Category: QuesTec parks -- non-QuesTec parks

ERA: 4.37 -- 4.40

Plate appearances per walk: 11.3 -- 11.1

Plate appearances per game: 77.8 -- 77.3

Pitches per plate appearance: 3.76 -- 3.74

Percentage of strikes (related to all called pitches): 31.6% -- 31.0%

One of the good things about QuesTec, though, is that it shows the high strike wasn't being called before. MLB has tried to get umps to call the high strike for years. Overall, the strike zone is more controlled now than when each umpire had his own strike zone. And remember this: There is a strike zone in the rule book, which was there long before QuesTec.

The biggest complaint I hear is from pitchers, but it has no basis -- that is, they want balls to be called strikes. Of course, pitchers have always wanted anything close to be called a strike. And with hitters, it's the opposite. And the umpire is forever caught in between.

In fact, there will always be three basic strike zones. The pitcher views the zone from the mound. The hitter views the zone from the side. And the umpire views the zone from behind the catcher. So every pitch is viewed from different angles by the three primary participants. Therefore, it's unlikely that all three will agree on every pitch.

Last year, I was invited to the umpire's room before a "Sunday Night Baseball" telecast. Umpiring officials showed me the QuesTec system and explained why they felt it wasn't accurate. And after seeing their demonstration, I could see what they were talking about (from ballpark to ballpark, similar pitches to the same batter were called differently by the computer). I even mentioned it on air that night.

So if anyone has a complaint about QuesTec, it's the umpires, not the pitchers. This leads to another factor at play: It seems to me that some players are complaining about QuesTec merely to side with the umpires -- so the umps will favor them. That isn't right.

On every "Sunday Night Baseball" telecast, I use the K-Zone, ESPN's strike-zone innovation that is accurate to within four-tenths of an inch. I don't use it to grade the umpires but to demonstrate how the pitcher uses different parts of the zone or misses just off the plate.

I trust K-Zone because I know how it works and I know it's accurate.

In our game Sunday night between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets, there were lots of complaints from the Braves' pitchers about strikes not being called. Yet according to K-Zone, more than 250 pitches were thrown in the game, and home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale missed only three -- and those were borderline. This is the best any umpire has done since ESPN implemented the K-Zone system.

The fact is, there will always be a human element in umpiring. I was always taught as a player to adjust to how each game was being called. As a hitter, if the umpire is calling pitches just off the plate a strike, eventually I need to start swinging at that pitch. As a pitcher, if the umpire isn't calling that pitch a strike, you need to adjust and move your strike zone over.

And as a rookie, I was told: If you have a two-strike count and it's close enough to call, you better be swinging.

Minaya deserves more props
I'm shocked at the meager amount of publicity that Montreal Expos GM Omar Minaya is getting. He should be receiving far more credit for the job he's done in the past year and a half. Montreal has a lower payroll than the Oakland A's, yet the Expos have as many wins as the A's and are in second place in the NL East.

The Expos had to trade ace Bartolo Colon in the offseason because of salary constraints, but they've been one of the NL's best teams, making the Expos a viable entity for MLB (the Expos' owner) to sell.

Manager Frank Robinson also has done a fantastic job. But I haven't seen many articles in the national media about either Minaya or Robinson.

Home-Run Record Correction: Due to an editor's mistake, one of my recent columns stated that I did not break Rogers Hornsby's home-run record for second baseman. In fact, I did break the record. Hornsby hit 301 career homers, but not all were as a second baseman. I was able to break his record, finishing with 268 for my career. Later, Ryne Sandberg broke my record.

Chat Reminder: I'll answer your questions in an ESPN.com chat Friday at 10:45 a.m. ET.

An analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan won back-to-back World Series with the Reds. He contributes a weekly column to ESPN.com.