AgRyan04 said:

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Have the players been wrong on any challenge tonight?

FORGET CHALLENGES! BRING ON ABS FOR EVERY PITCH!

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May have been a "might as well challenge" scenario but Stowers challenged a called 3rd strike and lost.

Good call, I forgot that one

So they were what 7 out of 8?

I've wanted robo umps for years. Anything to make games feel honest. I feel the same way for all sports

I use this pitch as an example. This pitch was a ball. However, with the shape of the pitch and the way it couldn't be received well by Pierzynski, the pitch really wasn't that far off the zone when it crossed the front edge of the plate. With ABS you'd have pitches of this type that are diving down and away and nicking the zone before they land in the dirt being called strikes. Hitters will lose their minds. Hitting is hard enough as it is.

IMO those types of pitches will be the equivalent of the play where the baserunner is safe by a mile and nobody is faulting the safe call but he might have popped off the bag one millimeter so we have to stop and look at it.

I miss that ballpark.

Same. AC is nice but the new one doesn't capture one iota of the charm of the old one.

In an All ABS scenario, we wouldn't have to even stop to take a look at it....it'll flash up on the screen as quickly as it does with the umpire....and if it was a strike it'll be a strike and if it's a ball it'll be a ball

CampingAg said:

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I use this pitch as an example. This pitch was a ball. However, with the shape of the pitch and the way it couldn't be received well by Pierzynski, the pitch really wasn't that far off the zone when it crossed the front edge of the plate. With ABS you'd have pitches of this type that are diving down and away and nicking the zone before they land in the dirt being called strikes. Hitters will lose their minds. Hitting is hard enough as it is.

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Just FYI, ABS isn't calling it from the front of the plate or in a 3-D zone. ABS is calling it from the mid-point of the plate (8 1/2" back from the front of the plate).

But your overall point stands that ABS will call some pitches we normally think of as balls as strikes and that will be an adjustment for players and fans.

Interesting. Did not know that. I do think ABS is better than a challenge system. The fewer game stop downs the better. I am not an IT guy by any means, and I wonder how they are going to program the top and bottom of the zones, the definitions of which are so vaguely worded. "An area below the hollow of the knee". How do you program that (not that humans get it 100% right either).

It is based on the player's individual physical measurements

"Like the plate, it is 17-inches wide. The top end of the zone is at 53.5% of the player's height, while the bottom is at 27% of the player's height. The depth of the zone is 8.5 inches from both the front and back of the plate."

www.mlb.com/amp/news/automated-ball-strike-calls-mlb-spring-games.html

AgRyan04 said:

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It is based on the player's individual physical measurements

"Like the plate, it is 17-inches wide. The top end of the zone is at 53.5% of the player's height, while the bottom is at 27% of the player's height. The depth of the zone is 8.5 inches from both the front and back of the plate."

www.mlb.com/amp/news/automated-ball-strike-calls-mlb-spring-games.html

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Just adding to this for clarity that it is players standing height without shoes (like a measurement at the Dr's office). It is NOT based on batting stance height like how a strike is defined in the rule book currently.

An absolutely dumbfounding call pic.twitter.com/8VihXC0AXa

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 29, 2025

Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out on this pitch. pic.twitter.com/XjK1cBCLiG

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 2, 2025

Runners on 2nd & 3rd and this is strike three. Cubs lose by 1.

I like umpires, but they do themselves no favors when they miss really easy calls and then stubbornly hold to them. We're going to have robo umps or ABS here soon but mostly because of the hubris of the human umps not to fix themselves when they miss an obvious one like the two above posted by AgRyan04.

As someone else mentioned earlier, instant replay has given us the idiotic replays where we see if a guy's hand lifted .5 of a millimeter off the bag while the tag is being held on him, and ABS is going to give us strike calls when .5 millimeter of the ball touches the bottom left corner of the ABS strike zone. Not sure I like either of those developments.

Maybe they can program it so at least 25 percent of the ball must be in the zone for it to be a strike.

What would the advantage of making it 1/4 of the ball vs any part of the ball when going to ABS? Seems to me if they were going to change it like that it would be to the human umpires benefit, not ABS.

If the pitch is a strike, then it's a strike. This takes all the guesswork out of it.

AggieEP said:

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I like umpires, but they do themselves no favors when they miss really easy calls and then stubbornly hold to them. We're going to have robo umps or ABS here soon but mostly because of the hubris of the human umps not to fix themselves when they miss an obvious one like the two above posted by AgRyan04.

As someone else mentioned earlier, instant replay has given us the idiotic replays where we see if a guy's hand lifted .5 of a millimeter off the bag while the tag is being held on him, and ABS is going to give us strike calls when .5 millimeter of the ball touches the bottom left corner of the ABS strike zone. Not sure I like either of those developments.

Maybe they can program it so at least 25 percent of the ball must be in the zone for it to be a strike.

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I'll agree I don't necessarily like the side effect of replay showing a player came .5 mm off the bag.

But why don't you like a strike called when the ball only caught .5mm of the zone? I mean that's a strike. Would you rather it called a ball? Then a ball that was .5mm out of the zone called a strike? Because that's what happens now.

Go full ABS, buzz the ump, he signals the call. I don't like to challenge system. They miss too many calls the entire game and there's no reason to stop a game when the call can be done right the first time.

1000%

AgRyan04 said:

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What would the advantage of making it 1/4 of the ball vs any part of the ball when going to ABS? Seems to me if they were going to change it like that it would be to the human umpires benefit, not ABS.

If the pitch is a strike, then it's a strike. This takes all the guesswork out of it.

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The defined dimensions of what a strike is doesn't include an extra 3 inches because of the diameter of the ball. The zone is the edge of the plate per the rules. Pitchers have enough advantages as it is right now, going to 25 percent of the ball doesn't change a lot but gives the hotter more of a fighting chance when a ball is on the corner.

I honestly don't know how human umps do as well as they do. The job looks impossible. It's not even a criticism of them. It's just an acknowledgment that technology can do something better. Typewriters were really cool, too. So were telegraph offices. And punched card readers. And catapults.

DannyDuberstein said:

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Go full ABS, buzz the ump, he signals the call.

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Can you imagine the shock Angel Hernandez would feel having the robot unhinge his world like this?

fc2112 said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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Go full ABS, buzz the ump, he signals the call.

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Can you imagine the shock Angel Hernandez would feel having the robot unhinge his world like this?

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He would have been more buzzed than John Daly at a Russian wedding.

MLB has moved on to women and children umpires this weekend

First pitch in MLB history with a woman behind home plate is a blown call. pic.twitter.com/Is1eknEJol

— Baseball Scouting (@BSBSCOUT) August 10, 2025

Lol

She's not going to be real popular giving 4 inches off the plate inside. Basically an unhittable location.

Ump scorecard had her just about in line with league average, FWIW.