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The Minor League Baseball system is introducing a change to its ball-strike format at the Triple-A level. The announcement suggests that home plate umpires are here to stay despite criticisms about inconsistency.
‘Ump Shows’ have seemingly become more and more prevalent in the MLB over the last few years, much to the displeasure of viewers.
Ejections and missed calls are impacting games, and with the visibility of television and social media, the cries for change have grown louder than ever. That change is on its way, though it won’t completely remove the human aspect from the game.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports that the ABS (automatic ball-strike) Challege System will be implemented full-time in the MiLB come next week.
Major League Baseball sent a memo to farm directors Tuesday indicating that beginning on June 25, all Triple-A games will use the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system as opposed to full ABS, which was previously used for half the week.
The move is another indication that the league is inching toward implementing the challenge system at the major league level, though commissioner Rob Manfred has said that move is still at least another season away from happening.
This means that rather than bringing in robot umpires, batters will have the chance to challenge calls that they believe to be incorrect. This has typically been done by the batter stepping out of the box and tapping his helmet for a pause in action.
The catcher also has the opportunity to challenge calls they believe to be wrong.
It’s certainly a move in the right direction, though it won’t completely remove the human element from behind the plate – no matter how much fans might want it to be gone.
There are restrictions to the challenge system, most notably the number of times you’re able to question the call. Still, it will provide a higher sense of accountability, and we’ll obviously see a decrease in missed calls.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had teased the idea of a full-time, all-automated system in previous talks, but it doesn’t appear that that will be the case.
Whatever the league ultimately decides to do, it likely won’t be implemented until at least 2026.