Coming in 2026 but just as a challenge system. Why can't we just get 100% of the calls right? Why do we need a challenge system?
Why not enhanced vision for the ump and then we don’t have to waste everyone’s time, but the umpire still gets paid to be out there. This is about one thing, saving their jobs even though it is essentially non essential.
The challenge system just makes the umpires look bad when they miss calls. Fans in the stands are all going to scream for challenges all game long. I think most everyone would be fine with just allowing the robot to call the strikes and balls the entire game. We’ve all become comfortable watching on TV and seeing if the ball is within the rectangle.
The ump will exist regardless of whether they call balls and strikes. They manage the game, make home plate calls, etc. ABS is being implemented in stages because its a multi-billion dollar business and they don't want anything to go wrong. It was the same in tennis.
I think most challenges will be correctly challenged so we may be easily looking at teams getting to challenge 8, 10 maybe even as many as 12 pitches in a 9 inning game.
So much depends on what the gray area overlap is. The "confirmed" vs "call stands" is They have been testing this in exhibition games this year and the minor leagues for 2 years and 52% of calls have been overturned. It will frequently still be close enough to be a judgement call
Having been to several minor league games where this is in practice I’d say it works well and I’m a fan.
Interesting thoughts and stats on the ABS system through ~25% of the season: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...trikes-system-early-numbers-lessons-analytics
God read, I really like it after thinking I would hate it and I am learning there are times when it's not optimal to use the challenge.......looking at you Cam Smith
Interesting. I would have expected walks to go down. I expected the strike zone to overall shrink, but I expected breaking balls up and down in the zone to be called strikes more. I expect catchers are more accurate than hitters at challenging, but that hitters have a ton more opportunities to challenge correctly to undo framing.
It seems like malpractice on the part of the Red Sox to challenge so little - they are at a little over 1 per game. Assuming they are succeeding half the time, that leaves close to 1.5 opportunities to fail per game that they aren't using. And given how much they lose, they should be randomly challenging any close pitch in the 8th or 9th innings and hope for some luck.
Challenges should either reset in the 9th inning and each extra inning or go the football route of taking it out of the teams control the last 2 minutes of a game and OT. ABS takes over 100% in the 9th inning and extra innings.
Catchers have the best point of view for challenges and have the advantage for most of the game (as hitters most likely will challenge due to an emotional response and not exactly seeing the pitch fully).
Imagine implementing this theory in Vegas at any given craps table. “Yea I can see I’m getting hammered but I’m going to keep doing it because ya know luck and odds” The good thing is you just run out of challenges pretty quick, can’t get more from the ATM
I think the better analogy would be repeatedly being given promotional use-it-or-lose-it tokens at a craps table and just choosing to lose them instead of randomly betting somewhere and hoping you get lucky.