If you're a Major League Baseball (MLB) fan, you must have formed an opinion by now about the implementation of the Automatic Ball-Strike system (ABS) this season. My feelings about it were initially mixed – if a call went my team's (NY Mets) way, I was happy with it, but when it went against my team I hated it. Now that we've reached June, I've decided that I dislike it altogether no matter how the call goes.
What is ABS?
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| What the ABS looks like on TV |
ABS stands for Automatic Ball-Strike system. It allows players to challenge the home plate umpire's call of balls and strikes. The system uses Hawk-eye cameras and T-Mobile's 5G technology. This allows for precise tracking of the pitched ball to determine whether it is a ball or strike. The goal of using the system is to provide an opportunity to question a human umpire's decision if it seems that it is incorrect.
How It Works?
Each team starts the game with two challenges. If the challenge shows a call is incorrect – say the human umpire's call of a strike is determined to be a ball – the call is overturned and the team retains the right to challenge another call. If the human umpire's call is found to be correct, the call stands and that team loses the ability to challenge during the rest of the game.
If the game goes into extra innings, each team is awarded an additional challenge. The idea behind this is that most players are using the challenge based on the notion that the game is nine innings long. Players cannot be expected to hold onto a challenge for extra innings when there is a reasonable assumption that the game will only go nine innings.
Who Challenges the Call?
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| Player tapping his helmet signal |
This is an important aspect of the use of the system because it is immediate in nature. A player has little or no time to check with the manager in the dugout, so it is on the player to make a split second decision about making a challenge that perhaps can change the outcome of the game.
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| Juan Soto of the NY Mets |
There is a consideration of a discussion before a game between the manager and players about who can make a call. For an example using my Mets, manager Carlos Mendoza might want a star player like Juan Soto be the one to challenge a call over rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing. There's a distinct possibility that this happens.
Immediate Visual Availability
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| Umpire checking ABS challenge |
Once the challenge is made, the challenged pitch appears (which includes a strike zone box and the ball) on stadium video screen and on the television broadcast of the game. The system shows exactly where the pitch crossed through the strike zone – allowing people in the stadium and watching at home to see whether the ball is inside or outside of the box.
The ABS Strike Zone
While the human umpire's strike zone can vary every time a pitch is thrown, the ABS calculates the strike zone with accuracy for each individual hitter. Each player is measured during spring training with a player standing up straight without wearing shoes.
The top of the zone is set by using the player's height as is the bottom of the zone. This makes the system player specific, and there's nothing arbitrary about it. It will be the same unique zone every time for each player, so this makes it seem like it is the perfect technology solution to the varying human umpire's strike zone liabilities.
The Red Flags
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| A home plate umpire |
My number one red flag is the umpires of the game. Umpires – and all their human fragility – have been a part of the game since baseball began in 1876. Now, even though I've seen some umpires make bad calls, the majority are hard working people who want to get their calls right.
ABS has umpires worried about the future. As I mention in the title of this article using a Terminator movie title, the rise of the machines is scary in baseball too. The ABS can make an umpire look bad, and in some cases – with an extremely wrong umpire call – it can humiliate them. Imagine having a job performance review available in seconds in front of 50,000 fans in the stadium and millions of fans on TV. That does not seem appropropriate.
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| Player arguing a call with human ump |
There are also those baseball enthusiasts who enjoy when a bad call results in an argument between a player and umpire or the manager and umpire. This is all about human nature, and there is something about seeing a player or manager letting off steam that is cathartic because they are expressing what the fans are feeling. The ABS unrelentingly steals these memorable moments from us.
Fear of Expansion
The embarrassment of umpires is bad enough, but the talk of inevitable expansion – and I've heard about this on talk radio, read about it online, and have had discussions in person – is that MLB will eventually expand ABS to cover every pitch of every game. In this NY Times article, you can get an idea about how players and managers feel about going full ABS – meaning many of them are not happy about every pitch being electronically tracked.
If we have no umpire behind the plate at some point in time, what will happen to the other umpires on the field? Will the ABS ever be crew chief for a game – the crew chief is the most senior umpire on the field for a game. Over time it could happen that the ABS would be more senior than new umpires, so how would that work exactly?
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| Are there Robo-umpires in our future? |
If they can replace the home plate umpire, will the other umpires be next on the list? Will we face a time when we have a full robotic umpire crew – meaning robots at first, second, and third base too. How does a manager or player argue with a robot? Wouldn't the robots always be right?
Moving Forward
As mentioned previously in this article, I was initially okay with ABS in its limited capacity in MLB as it is now; however, my opinion has changed. The human factor has always been important in the game of baseball, and ABS diminishes that more that it should be doing.
A lot has changed in MLB over the years – for example, I still hate the designated hitter – but at least a DH is a human being. I don't think we want baseball to ever become a game where the rules are enforced by robots. If that happens, will robotic players be the next step forward? That will ruin the game beyond repair because robots don't go on injury lists and don't need to be paid, and they would break every record because they could play for an infinite amount of seasons.
I wouldn't watch that kind of game. Would you? I'm worried about your answers more than you can know.
Please check out this video for a very concise explanation of the ABS system.
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