The challenge system for calling balls and strikes seems to be less than a year away. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred tells Evan Drellich of The Athletic that the league will propose that change, to go into effect in the 2026 regular season, to the Competition Committee. While the term “propose” may sound uncertain, MLB essentially has the ability to pass any on-field rule changes it wants.
MLB and the Players Association established the Competition Committee within the 2022 collective bargaining agreement. It’s an 11-person panel that consists of six league personnel, four player representatives, and one umpire. That committee can pass rule changes by majority vote.
The league reps have a majority of their own, so they’re able to pass any league initiatives over the objections of the players as long as there’s no dissension within their ranks. That happened with the 2023 changes that included the introduction of the pitch clock and limits on defensive shifts, which the Committee passed over unanimous “no” votes from the four players.
The MLBPA knew at the time of the 2022 CBA that the setup was essentially handing over complete control of on-field rules to the league. MLB had a formal unilateral right to implement rule changes under previous CBAs, but the union had the ability to block any change for one year before the league could override it. The Competition Committee has the authority to implement a rule change after 45 days, so any offseason measures go into effect the following season.
The players on the Committee may well be in support of the automatic zone regardless. (It’ll perhaps be more interesting, if ultimately irrelevant, to see how the lone umpire representative votes.) MLB initially had floated the concept of using a completely electronic strike zone, but it backed off that after receiving player feedback that it’d have too adverse an impact on catchers who make a living off their pitch framing acumen. They’ve tested the challenge system for years in the minors and introduced it to MLB Spring Training this year.
Human umpires will continue to make the vast majority of the ball-strike calls. Each team receives two challenges that would turn to the electronic zone to potentially overrule a call they feel is incorrect. Challenges must be called for in real time by either the hitter, catcher or pitcher. An overturned call does not result in a forfeited challenge. The limit on the number of incorrect challenges encourages players to challenge only if the call is either so egregious that they’re confident they’ll get it overturned or comes on pitches that might be particularly decisive to the outcome of the game.
Additionally, Manfred was noncommittal on when the league had interest in moving forward with a potential change to allow hitters to use bat tracking metrics to challenge check swing calls. The league began testing that with minor league players in the Arizona Fall League last season. It has not been used in any MLB exhibition games. MLB is unlikely to propose it without testing it in big league Spring Training, as they did with the ABS challenge. Manfred suggested that testing might not happen next year because of the more pressing strike zone change.
“We haven’t made a decision about the check-swing thing. … I think we got to get over the hump in terms of either doing ABS or not doing it before you’d get into the complication of a separate kind of challenge involved in an at-bat, right,” he told Drellich. “You think about them, they’re two different systems operating at the same time. We really got to think that one through.”
Mercifully.
Kyle Schwarber is so happy he isn’t gonna have to tell Angel Hernandez how bad he is ever again
‘I just kinda told angel “why’s it always happening when your here?”‘-Terry Francona
After watching it in spring training, I like it. Keeps the human element involved, but lets players challenge the ridiculous calls.
Also forces the umps to pay more attention lest they be embarrassed by a bunch of overturned calls.
Who’s your favorite ump?
@raisins – Alan Porter
The challenge system works; it is actually better than I thought it would be. I have seen a number of games with it in the minors during the testing phase. It is quick; pretty accurate and it actually engages the fans to have some fun and excitement with it.
I can see them adding an additional challenge or so over time, but I would hate to see pure robo-umpery. It takes away an integral part of the game…the game within a game with pitcher / catcher / umpire. It would end up rewarding the command-challenged pitchers that I hate just as much as the elite command guys that hit their spots most of the time.
The umpires are not as bad as most seem to think – within reason the vast majority are professionals and fairly accurate (and yes, they have been tracked thoroughly for a long time). The problem is that we really notice the bad ones as they stand out. The biggest issue with a bad umpire is usually their own arrogance and temperament as they play diva, rather than impartial arbiter that should be noticed as little as possible.
The game within a game trope is not for the casual fan. Im not arguing the nuance exists but it’s not a necessity, especially when considering sport growth. In that sense, accuracy is more important and one teams SP shouldn’t be artificially rewarded due to their C framing ability.
The umpires union actually prefers Robo umping but the MLBPA prefers the challenge system- I’d say within a decade we’ll see it go full ABS.
Not everything should be redesigned for the casual fan; Manfred has already been tinkering the sport to death. And it isn’t a trope – it is reality. I was a catcher for over forty years. It isn’t just rewarding the catcher either as it is even more about the caliber of the pitcher.
The issue is not nearly as simple as the vast majority of saberdude posters will make it out to be. Baseball is a beautiful game, and a timeless game and we do not need to redesign it completely around the gameboy crowd.
I’m in favor of full automated robo umps. I don’t care about catchers ability to team a pitch. I don’t care for different umpires having a different strike zone every different game.
The rule book specifies what a strike is. Pitches should be called accordingly. Consistently. Across the board. Every day, every game.
Why should a team not be rewarded for finding and developing good framing catchers? Why shouldn’t a catcher with a good framing skill be rewarded considering all the punishment they’re taking?
C don’t even squat anymore, prioritizing one leg extended to favor framing over blocking. It’s much more saberdude on the field than the sport your romanticizing.
The reality is baseball may not be dead, but it is a fading entity. The pitch clock helped, but as TV contracts begin to wither in value and attendance lags across swarths of the league, it’ll take more than those of us with vested roots in the game to salvage its pragmatic future. Is robo vs ABS part of that? Maybe- but it’s really being kept above water by gambling more than sincerely passionate fans, so accuracy would seem to take precedent.
Speaking of gambling, if they go full robo-umps it’ll make it a lot harder for them to rig stuff.
Human umpiring is almost impossible to execute consistently. All this talk about the “human element “ is a bunch of crap.
That has been used by many umpires over the years, just to protect their jobs.
Joe West is the PERFECT example. West was a horrible umpire with a huge ego. So over time, his cronies tried to absolve him, by calling his K zone – as the Joe West Strike Zone.
No it wasn’t – because West was completely inconsistent from one batter to the next.
If MLB goes full robo-umpires, here’s hoping it goes full killer robo-umpires. And not a T-800 model, but a T-1000 liquid metal model.
Because it’s a useless, unneeded skill.
Unpacking the import of all of these rule changes in the Manfred era would be a worthy subject for the site to put all in one place – probably behind the paywall as it would take some real effort and time.
But I would guarantee that the breakdown when it comes to the “for tech solutions and time savers” vs. those that would prefer greater care taken with how the game is played (the major issue for me is the Little League ghost runner which I loathe) is pretty clear. Youngsters that never played the game above LL level and basically evaluate and enjoy the game through the eyes of fantasy baseball and sabermetric data, vs. those that played it for years and decades and / or have been true fans of the actual game itself and followed it by attending games and watching it on TV forever. Those that enjoy the flow and timeless nature, and are into the nuances that the game presents.
When I see the kids saying all of these things about it, the clear lack of understanding towards the game at all is very apparent. It would be better if they simply paid attention to their fantasy leagues and stayed out of the rest of it. That way they would never have to watch a 16 inning game of actual baseball and they could get back to their endless video games instead.
You can say that about every sport. The rulebook in basketball says what a foul is. The rulebook in football says what a hold is. I’m not sure what we are gainining here honestly.
“When I see the kids saying all of these things about it, the clear lack of understanding towards the game at all is very apparent”.
Last night we were at an Indy game, sitting behind the home team dugout. Two kids kept hassling the dugout for baseballs. A player told the kids after the game. A bit later, with the scoreboard in plain view, we were asked by these two kids if the game was over? We told them no (it was the 7th inning). Two come back again, hassling the dugout in the top of the 9th, the two were told no, after the game is over. Mind you the scoreboard hasn’t moved, so these two asked us again, when will the game be over? Again we told them not yet, it’s the top of the 9th. I guess baseball is more fun if you actually have a ⚾ in hand 😉
TV contracts have only been withering in the short term due to the shift from cable/satelite to streaming and the issues with Diamond Sports Group and their debt purchases.
Because a “strike” is an objective term and should be officiated as such.
Because it’s more important for pitchers to be rewarded for throwing strikes and hitters being rewarded for knowing the strike zone and laying off balls. This whole manipulation of cathers stealing strikes just by fooling the umps and making them look bad goes against all of that. It’s frustrating for the fans too.
Because the rule book defines what the strike zone is and rules shouldn’t be arbitrary and random.
What, you don’t like your rules arbitrarily defined and randomly enforced? 🙃
Hell I miss when catchers were actually valued for their blocking and throwing abilities and their leadership on the field. The heavy emphasis on framing is definitely “saberdude” stuff.
@NoQ – In the real baseball world, catchers are still valued for their blocking skills, control of the running game, game management, pitcher-whispering and leadership qualities. It is the saberdudes, fanboyz and pundits that tend to talk more about framing than before by a longshot.
Of course, catchers remain the most underpaid for what they bring, and are always the smartest and best-looking players on the team.
I enjoy watching catchers block balls in the dirt, throw out runners, and hit. I have never once derived enjoyment from a catcher framing a pitch. The sooner the guys who make their living on pitch framing are unemployed, the sooner we’ll have more talented and entertaining catchers to watch.
thats inaccurate, the umpires do not like it, they might say they like ot because they are not stupid and they know they can be replaced but its an abomination and they all feel that way.
Instituting the ABS challenge system won’t strengthen an umpires incentive to call a good game, it will create a nonchalance, a lack of honor call it. Today, being an umpire is an honor, its like swearing an oath to uphold the law. Umpires take on the responsibility to uphold the fairness and the decorum of the game, it’s that honor that motivates them to do so with the utmost care. You take away their respect, you take away their care, you take away their honor.
Overturning an umpires call at the plate or at first base is one thing, a home run, a foul ball, it’s hard to see sometimes. But balls and strikes are right in front of the umpires eyes, he calls that game to the best of his ability. You have some cocky hitter smirking at him after he wins a challenge, the umpire is shown up, and he loses his authority over the game. It’s going to lead to more bad calls, more scandal. Sure it’s one or two strikes, but you essentially are calling the umpire blind and a cheater everytime you make a call for that ABS system.
Use it to vet umpires, replace inconsistent umps, but don’t replace an ump whose calling the low strike even if the ABS thinks it’s a ball, as long as he’s consistent, he’s honest.
Umpires as a whole don’t cheat. A few bad eggs in the history of the game, a few bad nights, but it’s an honest and fair game with them in charge. Weaken that and your going to weaken the integrity of the game.
Umpires are not arrogant, they have to fight for their respect and they must uphold their authority, players, managers, they criticize the umps, they deserve to be tossed.
ABS is the destruction of baseball and if you dont see that then you’re not a fan, Id go as far as to say you might not even be human anymore. The players shouldn’t take a major league field with this ABS in place, they will also be guilty of destroying the game.
Ahhh the fairness and decorum of arbitrarily defined rules being enforced randomly!
Did we find Joe West’s burner?
If you don’t get the game, you don’t get the game, and you noquarter89, and everybody else who likes this ABS, you don’t get the game, you should all become soccer fans or womens nba.
Unfortunately, you are all going to get MLB and I’ll have to go to soccer games and women’s nba. I do like Caitlin Clark like everybody else. Let’s go Fever :(
bwmiller79 don’t you have some clouds to go yell at?
The rule book defines what a strike is. Umpires interpret it arbitrarily and enforce it randomly. I like my rules to be rules. A strike is a strike and a ball is a ball.
Gary Darling. Nastiest mouth in the sport back in the day. And that was saying something!
Augie Donatelli
So many players get into coaching, managing, front office and broadcasting work after retirement. I’ve always wondered why they never pursue umpiring.
They don’t need to work after they retire. Definitely true of most MLBers.
Most umpires start young because they go through the same promotion process as players: Low A > High A > AA > AAA > MLB. And the promotion to MLB is blocked waiting for retirements. Not sure a retired player would want to go through that again!
Appreciate the insight. However, you’d think having played pro ball for so long and being involved in so many bad call situations, a player just might make for a good umpire.
Or maybe it just doesn’t pay that well.
There would be issues of impartiality. Any calls made that might favor an old team or teammate would be questioned.
MLB umpiring pays well compared to the average worker in America. It is nowhere near as lucrative as what any of the players make.
Even if umpiring paid on average the veteran minimum, I doubt players could just jump in and be able to call games consistently. Many who have a ton of experience have issues calling games consistently to varying extents.
I for one kind of like how players have to adapt to umpires perspective each game. But it’s hard to argue that the technology available would not be far more accurate. Ultimately every pitch and play should be called accurately for what it truly is and technology without a doubt would be more accurate than human umpires.
MLB umpires can start around $150K or so, plus all expenses and per diems, etc., while the top end of the pay scale for very experienced ones is in the $400-500K range.
For a guy that never quite broke through in the majors this might have some appeal, but it is quite a road to get there as we are not factoring in the low paid time that it takes to make it to the program while umping tons of games at the Legion, college, semi-pro, and senior league levels just to gain the experience to be accepted. Also, when they do make it they are basically on the road for 8 months of the year.
I got to know Alan Porter rather well, as he umped a bunch of our games in the Philly region before he got accepted (and he fast-tracked like crazy after that). He was the best umpire that we got to see – fair, hard-working; knew his job and the rules and there was not an ounce of diva to him at that time. As a catcher, we would chat all game long every time he had the plate, which was almost all of the time. I was really happy for him when he pulled me aside and let me know that he was moving on up and this was his last game handling our league. It was only a couple of years later that I saw him doing some games in the majors, and a couple of years after that he was a permanent guy. But the reality is that he was grinding for years to get to that point, handling as many games per day as he could get into his schedule and the per game fees were not great. He could make a living at it with hustle, but there are no fancy cars for umpires until they get to the majors.
Thank goodness with the crap umpires
Can’t come soon enough. Hopefully batters will legal be able to tap their helmets again
Better than nothing, but it’s still not enough. They need the entire system automated for every pitch, so we can get rid of these “Framing’ catchers who steal strikes that can’t hit.
I don’t understand the half measures. They can do it now and will do it in a few years anyway
Ego. If you go fully automated, both the pitcher and hitter will still be peeved if he did not agree with the cyclops call. Gotta keep blue involved in ball and strike calls.
It’s a tough job to be sure, but so many incompetent umps, will be glad when this new system is installed.
They’re not necessarily incompetent. It’s just really really hard to do. The best players in the world miss calls too, and they make a LOT more money
Because if they do miss a “Call” constantly, the team they play for would either bench them or cut them. The umpires can stay doing their jobs for as long as the league wants them to stay employed, no matter the amount of times people call them out for mistakes and constant missed calls.
They took our jobs!!!
It’s about time. Umpires seem to be missing more ball-strike calls this year than ever. Phil Cuzzi is the new Angel Hernandez. Why not drop the worth 10-20% of umpires to AAA each year and bring up the best 10-20% of umps from AAA? If it’s good enough for players, it should be good enough to weed out umps who we can all see are underperforming.
Speaking of Triple-A, is Jen Pawol ever going to get the call to the majors? Or are the Lords of Baseball still horrified that a woman would be a better umpire than some of the men?
Isn’t it within the realm of possibility that they might be horrified that she might be worse, & obviously so?
Pawol is a crew chief in Triple-A, so she’s perfectly capable of working in the majors.
The only people who can’t understand that are male supremacists with a mindset frozen in the 1950s.
There’s a Twitter/X feed that shows umpire grades. Overall, they’re not nearly as bad as fans believe. The little box on TV is not really accurate.
The strike zone this year has a smaller margin for umpire ratings, and players have noticed the zone is “smaller” now.
How many people are going to strive for a job that doesn’t pay that well, is already completely thankless, and on top of that now there is a one in five chance every year you get demoted?
A pay range of approximately $150k to $450k depending upon years of service, with winters off and $275,000 annual retirement at age 62 for 10 years service time.
$400 per diem and first class airline travel.
Not exactly poverty wages.
And you only work around 3 hours a day when you do work. Maybe 6 tops if it’s a DH.
*worst
ABS still needs some tinkering with but when it get implemented it should be used for every pitch. Nobody’s rooting for framing or blown calls (or the ejections when the ump’s ego gets hurt)
They already had the tech down to accurately track all pitches years ago. It’s a matter of gathering enough data to see how players/managers utilize challenges.
If you use it for every pitch then what would you challenge? I’m saying take umps out of the equation entirely…as long as the kinks are worked out (ex. no way a pitch 95% outside the zone should be considered a strike like I’ve seen in the minors)
I would love to have a full ABS system implemented but it’s too drastic of a change to suddenly not have umps call pitches in one season. I think a slower implementation process is the correct one.
The only change I would make would be to see the challenges upped from 2 to 3. I mean I don’t agree with not using a challenge until like the 7th inning. You never know when THAT moment will occur. Say you’re down 3 in the 3rd inning , Bases loaded and a 3-2 count and you get THAT call? That could change things from a big inning to a zero. The games always been about 3 strikes, Why change now?
This is overdue…
On another subject, MLB needs to limit the number of IL slots because not all teams can horde players by stashing them on the IL. It’s roster manipulation and it’s an area MLB needs to investigate.
Everyone was so against it before but I think now, people are tired of umpires screwing up and making the game about themselves
I’d also like to see a maximum of 2 option assignments per year per player, rather than this endless pitcher shuffle every ten days. Also let guys with 3 years service time reject outright assignment after DFA without losing guaranteed salary, rather than the 5 years service now
Two isn’t enough to alter the status quo. A challenge takes mere moments. Five per squad would keep the umpires a bit more honest without effecting total game time.
The reality is you only get penalized if you’re wrong, which is fair. As long as you’re right, you can challenge as much as you want….
I understand, but a non star batter may be cautious to use one of potentially only two challenges in most situations.
As it stands, you’re going to see very little challenging before the 7th inning and mostly top of the order hitters utilizing the system.
In Spring Training, there were plenty of mid and bottom of the order players challenging egregious calls. 4 bad challenges are too much. If pro ball players don’t know the strike zone, that’s their problem….
It’s time has come. With the increased velocity and movement on the ball the umps just aren’t good enough to see the pitch to the mitt. If they use the current system in place in AAA you get as many challenges as you want as long as you win until you get 2 misses then you’re done so use them wisely and it doesn’t slow the game down at all.
Be interesting to see how they handle the grey zone. That was a big problem in the equivalent cricket system. Took a couple of years to get everyone happy.
They eventually settled on half a ball. So in taking that across, if ump calls ball, and more than a half a ball is in the strike zone, it’s overturned. But if less than half a ball is in the zone, they would stick with the umpire and it’s a ball. Getting to that took a long time. Settled in now and it’s all good.
foppert- I’ll tell you how it works here. Any part of the ball hits any part of the zone it’s a strike. There is no ” Grey Area”.
Ok. Cricket went with that first up. Then big game situations happened when umpires were being overturned when it was within the techs margin of error. The umps were pissed off, the team on the end of it was pissed off. It was a bit of a mess. The half a ball thing was the compromise to keep people happy.
That reminds me, I’ve always wondered if cricket umpire Steve Bucknor was related to MLB umpire CB Bucknor…
No idea. Opposite ends of the respect scale though !
Bring it on!
The replay won’t lie!
Call it The
C B Bucknor
Eye in the Sky!
Because of the umpires union being so good unfortunately umpires aren’t being fired for performance. What has happened is there are a bunch of old men calling these games and when you’re 65 I have to believe your vision/judgement/decision making has to be deteriorated from an umpire in his 30’s. I’ve seen more missed calls and inconsistent zones this year than ever before and I think this is long overdue. Hopefully it passes and with technology we’ll see more competent umpires since we have the ability to track their performance.
I still respect the umpires. They’re job isn’t easy. Doesn’t mean there can’t be improvement, but I’m very anti bashing the umps, which seems to be everyone’s favorite thing to do on the internet nowadays, thanks to jomboy
You’re also…
No fun.
No fun at all
And thankfully you’re one of the very few who does
What a bad “they’re” by me too.
It kinda sounds like Roberto de Vincenzo. “What a stupid I am!”
In the games I’ve seen with reviews, it helps fans realize the umps are right way more than they think. Those 2D, static boxes on tv have ruined baseball fans.
Yes on this. Umpires miss at least one ball-strike call per at bat according to the box on the screen.
No.
That’s idiotic.
Its boring.
It’s unsportsmanlike
It’s other words.that get.me.banned
It’s a damn Commie plot!
So, one of the only jobs AI and machines won’t be taking is the one that should be first on the list…
We can have robo-taxis but not robo-umps?
I just don’t understand why we don’t use the technology to get all the calls right in the first instance. Why introduce the unnecessary complication of a challenge system.
Why TF are we gonna use a challenge system. Let’s get every call correct
Based on the comments here, it’s clear to me now that MLB hires umpires out of the parking lot of the nearest Home Depot. If they only stopped doing that, we wouldn’t need an ABS system.
As I’m watching the White Sox and Tigers’ game, the home plate umpire has already missed 4 ball/strike calls (according to automated K zone) and it’s only in the bottom of the 1st inning.
a few thoughts
1st, can any hitter or pitcher challenge? in theory the 1st batter of the game can challenge the 1st two calls?
what about managers? shouldnt they be able to challenge?
finally, while i agree umps make terrible calls on occasion, and auto system is needed, it will be very anti climactic and sad to watch game 7 of the world series, and on the final out a pitcher challenges ball 4 or a hitter challenges strike 3, and thats how it all ends.
The ABS is wrong half the time by over a half an inch! No!
@dbacknation
We need the Greg Maddux ABS zone.
That’s the problem. Do you say it’s 100% accurate to the millimetre, or do you say there’s a margin for error zone with the technology and revert to the umpires decision if the situation falls within that.
If the four players on the committee have no power, what is the point of them being there? If the 6 league personnel have over 50% of the vote, there really is no point in having the players or the umpire there at all because the league will just do what it wants anyway.
Why not just have system call balls and strikes 100% of the time?
Because that WOULD slow the game down to a crawl. And that’s not necessary.
Don’t worry, it’s heading towards that
Maybe tech grows so that it’s a faster process. Right now you tap your head, The ump takes his mask off, Asks the magic wizard and then either changes the call or not. A few times a game-fine. All the time? I don’t think we’re quite there yet.
👍
Should’ve been implemented after a very successful trial run in the minor leagues and select spring training facilities
I hate all of the changes that Manfred has implemented, especially the ghost runner. And I will always be on the side of tradition and keeping the human element of baseball in tact. There have always been bad ball/strike calls. However, this season it seems as though the umpires themselves are pushing for automated balls and strikes by making calls that are clearly wrong. I’ve seen strikes called on pitches that are two or three ball widths outside the zone…and it’s been constant this season. So I am in favor of the challenge system if for no other reason than to shame the umpires into being more accurate.
Are home plate umpires, as a whole, worse this year than previously? It does seem that way but I’m wondering how much of that is a desire to get this system going.
I’d argue that the umps are better now than they were two decades ago because they’re under constant scrutiny with tech. Every major mistake now gets immediately pointed out and it reverberates on social media magnifying missed calls.
I’d argue that the pitchers are better too with more of an ability to make late movement a thing. Umps are human. The see a pitch and assume WHERE it’s going to end up and make a too quick decision. I know of no other pitcher that gets screwed more than Javier Assad from the Cubs who has great late movement and gets squeezed all the time. So it’s 50/50 as to who’s improved more or less but decent point YBC. But then there are the Angel Hernandez’s who will never get better and never get fired. That needs to be addressed also.
Hernandez retired a year ago. I think C.B. Bucknor is the new worst ump
Yeah but it was about 3o years too late.
People overthink the challenge system. Umpires are right almost all of the time and when they’re demonstrably wrong, this allows the change. We *could* just have ABS tell the umpire what the call is, but honestly, a lot of these are calls the pitcher and batter aren’t expecting – high sliders that clip the outside. Stuff that’s not worth challenging doesn’t need to be automated. If any of y’all watch tennis you see the system works.
True re tennis. But there’s a real physical line involved. I’d imagine that ups the accuracy quite significantly.
In all for it but here’s a scenario.
Game 7 World Series. 0-0 bottom of the 9th. Bases loaded, 2 out. 3 and 2 on Judge and Camilo throws a slider down and away. Judge looks at it and it gets called ball 4. Game over. Giants challenge. Tech shows the ball hitting the zone by the width of a hair. Overturned. Giants go on to win in extras. I’m thinking New York burns down that evening. Obviously exaggerated, but that’s the type of scenario which brings the tech undone.
I knew it….
It’s all been a conspiracy to destroy NYC…..
Its a damn Commie plot!
The end result = more unemployment.
You’re all gonna lose your jobs to……..
The Machine.
It’s steals some drama because a close final call to end the game is basically a guaranteed challenge (if you have any left). Staring at a Jumbotron to see who won or lost feels really anti-climatic.
More likely to go the other way with Judge, who leads MLB since 2017 in called strikes that are actually balls. He’s about to become even better.
I hate the idea of robo umps. But the challenge system is so good for fans (and players) to see how right the umps are most of the time. A few of the blatant calls will be overturned. It’s a great balance.
The cricket experience was great for the blatant mistake. Trouble when deciding the real close ones.
And both sports require a bit of luck mixed in. In a game where a bat hitting the ball a millimeter lower can be the difference between a home run and a fly out, the strike zone should have a small element of luck. Right down the middle is called 100% of the time, on the edges is called 90% of the time. Keeps the sport human and makes the game enjoyable. People will just cry about new things (instead of dealing with their daddy issues) once this comes along.
Why bother. Just get rid of the umps calling strikes balls and just have them call plays at the plate but leave that to challenge too. Certain terrible caused all this. Or maybe just take their union away so they can actually be held accountable.
^^^ certain terrible umps..
The challenge system isn’t enough. EVERY pitch should be called by ABS.
The umpires miss on so many pitches that it is impossible to know what the strike zone is.
My team used to have an announcer who I loved his play by play calling. “Right down the middle for ball 4!”.
With only 2 challenges, I don’t think this will impact the role of catchers “Framing” pitches” to any large extent.
I think they will be used for those egrious calls we see….
One thing I hope they do, is use the umpire grading to weed out umps who are terrible at calling Ball/Strikes…or at least make sure they only work 1/2/3rd base. There is definitely a range in the quality of Ball/Strike calling between umpires. Some rarely miss a pitch (I’m not counting quibbling about a fraction of an inch right along the edge of the strike zone….) while others are just wildly inconsistent and miss pitches by inches over and over…the bad umps maybe by a foot….
Harrelson? He used to do that all the time too.
Umpires miss balls and strikes with such regular frequency that the fans, in their minds, have created a larger strike zone so that we don’t get pissed off all the time.
But the bigger strike zones don’t capture the strikes thrown by pitchers that are incorrectly called balls. They’re just bad overall. Some worse than others. I understand the concern about catchers framing but find other ways to become more impactful. If we have the technology to get calls more accurate why not use it. Why not just let umpires call balls and strikes and have computer overrule them automatically when they’re wrong. That way they don’t feel as useless.
Missing a strike, thrown by a pitcher, definitely seems more nefarious than calling a borderline ball a strike.
Completely changes the ABs both ways, batters and pitchers. Pitch selection, location, etc. You don’t think it matters to a pitcher if they’re down 2-1 versus being up 1-2?
As long as they have limits on the number of times it can be used, and as long as it doesn’t take more than 5-10 seconds, I am all for it.
ABS judges each pitch using a 2 dimensional plane at the center of home plate. I always thought the strike zone was 3 dimensional- any part of the ball crosses any part of the plate. How do they reconcile the difference?
It should happen sooner rather than later. I was watching Parker Meadows lead off for the Tigers a couple of days ago. The first pitch was a strike at the top of the zone that was called a ball. Then, on the 3-1 count, a pitch that was well off the plate was called a strike. It’s kind of hard for a hitter to know the strike zone with such inconsistencies. The strike zone is the strike zone. A hitter shouldn’t have to swing at pitches well off the plate in difference to an umpires version of the strike zone.
If they are going to use an ABS to correct the ump’s call, then why not just use the ABS to make the correct call all the time?
What, we need to keep the human error element in the game to make it feel more real?
Seiya Suzuki is pumped and so am I!!!!
I loive the system but I believe each batter in the starting lineup should get 1 challenge.
Manfred should address the inequity that exists for a DH/two way player (basically just Ohtani).
If Ohtani is allowed to remain in the game as a DH when he leaves as a pitcher, then we should allow ALL teams to have to ability to move the designated hitter into the field without losing the DH spot.
Make sure you show Andrew McCutchen where to stare…
Better but still problematic. MLB is saying they aren’t yet fully committed to getting almost all the calls correct. And to put it on the player to call their own balls and strikes is absurd. The system should be in use for every single pitch. Why not have 99.9% accuracy on calling balls/strikes when it’s available?
And there needs to be new standards in place for an umpire to have the authority to eject a player. It can’t just be that they’re butt hurt.
I’m not a fan of this challenge system. Use the technology to get the calls right. Umpires call all balls and strikes. When they’re wrong the computer automatically overrules them. Umpires in NY will have a direct feed to the home plate umpire’s ear to tell them when they’re wrong. Seems silly to go to the challenge system. Many teams won’t challenge if they want to save it later in the game. Not enough time to check wrong ball/strike calls between pitches.
Hey everyone, I’m a purist! I like when rules are arbitrarily defined and randomly enforced! hUmAN eLEmENT
FOH
And All the MLB’s progress as it pertains to pace of play and rhythm of the game is going down the crapper with this. Whatever…Manfred is just going to continue to try and appease people who don’t like baseball as it was played for hundreds of years…he’s a joke and has turned the great game into a joke but I’m done getting mad about it because it is what it is…
you ever watch a web page load for ten or fifteen seconds, it sucks. Everytime you call to that ABS it pauses the natural flow of the game and interjects this AI bullhonk and its like watching that damn arrow spin around on the computer screen.
Whats going on is something way bigger, it’s a destruction of humanity.
This is beyond stupid. It will slow the game when there is a better system that’s more accurate and 100% automated..
How much did the umpires’ union pay to ensure roboump was not used?
The reviews go really quickly, it won’t add much. It’s a step in the right direction at least. We were never going to full ABS overnight, this is a transition phase.