Triple-A games to start fully using automated ball-strike challenge system
When an electronic ball-strike system arrives in the big leagues at some point in the next few years, it wonât be used to call every pitch. Major League Baseball made that clear Tuesday, when it sent a memo to all 30 teams informing them that starting next week, that electronic ball-strike technology will switch to a challenge system only in Triple-A games.
The memo was originally obtained and reported on by ESPN.
The automatic ball-strike system, known as ABS, has been used in Triple A since the beginning of last season. But as part of that experiment, the technology was used to call every pitch in only three games a week. The other three games per week employed the challenge system.
But as The Athleticreported last summer, minor-league players, coaches and staff expressed their vehement unhappiness with the way the full-time ABS worked. And last month, commissioner Rob Manfred signaled this change by saying he was in favor of using a challenge system that resulted in only a handful of ball-strike challenges per game.
Speaking at the quarterly owners meeting, the commissioner said that âthose who have played with it do have a strong preference for the challenge system over ABS calling every pitch. And that has certainly altered our thinking on where we might be headed.â
The league then surveyed players and staff in Triple A this season. In its memo to the clubs, the league said that 61 percent of those surveyed preferred the challenge system, while only 11 percent favored using ABS on every pitch. The other 28 percent supported human umpires calling all balls and strikes.
MLB also surveyed spectators at Triple-A games. It said it found that twice as many fans preferred the challenge system, compared with those favoring full-time ABS.
So starting next week, the league will use Triple-A games to try to determine what type of challenge system works best. In the Pacific Coast League, teams will still get three challenges per game, as they do now â and will retain their challenge when theyâre right. In the International League, however, clubs will get just two challenges per game â but also will retain their challenge when theyâre right.
In its memo, MLB said the reduction in the International League was essentially an experiment to determine if fewer challenges could âreduce the frequency of high-challenge games.â Almost 40 percent of Triple-A games have seen more than six challenges. In surveys, 89 percent of fans said they preferred no more than six â and 53 percent said three or four was ideal.
However, baseball will continue to experiment with a full-time ABS at lower levels in the minor leagues. In a memo to minor-league teams and departments, MLB said that the Low-A Florida State League will continue to use the electronic ball-strike technology full-time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, as has been the case for the last several years. From Friday through Sunday, that league will use the challenge system. Florida State League teams will still have three challenges per game.
At the owners meetings, Manfred said that it is now unlikely that MLB will be ready to use any form of electronic ball-strike technology by next season. However, industry sources have told The Athletic that the league is aiming to iron out ABSâ technological challenges in time to roll out the system in the major leagues by 2026 if all goes well.
What Tuesdayâs memo made apparent, however, was that if those robot umps do arrive in 2026, theyâre almost certain to be used only to correct the most egregious mistakes â via a challenge system similar to the one used now for instant replay.
I get the concern with the video... but I just don't trust the box, and the ball movement into and out of the box, enough to say he was wrong on all of those pitches.
When we were kids, we were told belt buckle to knees...over the plate...was a strike. I don't see the size of the box changing...which could be real, or it could be slight enough that I couldn't see it. I assume that if I look at Jose Altuve's zone and Aaron Judge's zone... I could see a difference. I'm sure someone out there has done some studying of this...but I don't see it.
As importantly, there are a lot of pitchers now with a ton of movement (down and sideways)... and the strike zone is a box, not a plane. Catchers sit well behind the plate, so the ball moving half an inch or an inch over 3-4 feet (from the front of the plate to the catcher's mitt) seems possible. I appreciate that the balls rarely enter the strike zone from the side, but I'm OK giving pitchers the benefit of the doubt.
Good and bad refs are usually the same for both teams. I'm OK with 2-1 games, so I think it's fair to make the hitters have to protect a bit more and not assume that the ump is going to make the perfect call.
But can we talk about the mittens that extend a runner's hand 6 inches on a slide? That's something now completely out of control!
Yeah, I don't entirely trust the overlaid, graphic "box", and height of the batter certainly has to be considered. Pete Rose never stood up straight in the box - he was always in that tight crouch - so his strike zone had to have been substantially shorter than that of Dave Kingman or George Foster, even if Rose were standing straight up.
What bugs me is the arrogance of some of the worst umps. Angel Hernandez is finally gone, but he was one of the worst. Ron Darling once said that it isn't an "official" game unless Angel put his mark on it somehow. Hunter Wendelstedt is another one - I remember him coming out of the box one time, years ago, to try to stare down Bumgarner, who had been grumbling about his calls behind the plate. Even the announcers were saying "What's he doing out there? He needs to get back behind the plate."
I had come across an article somewhere talking about how Cody Bellinger was walked on four straight strikes, so I figured there was a video somewhere. But, yeah, pretty bad all around.
I get the concern with the video... but I just don't trust the box, and the ball movement into and out of the box, enough to say he was wrong on all of those pitches.
When we were kids, we were told belt buckle to knees...over the plate...was a strike. I don't see the size of the box changing...which could be real, or it could be slight enough that I couldn't see it. I assume that if I look at Jose Altuve's zone and Aaron Judge's zone... I could see a difference. I'm sure someone out there has done some studying of this...but I don't see it.
As importantly, there are a lot of pitchers now with a ton of movement (down and sideways)... and the strike zone is a box, not a plane. Catchers sit well behind the plate, so the ball moving half an inch or an inch over 3-4 feet (from the front of the plate to the catcher's mitt) seems possible. I appreciate that the balls rarely enter the strike zone from the side, but I'm OK giving pitchers the benefit of the doubt.
Good and bad refs are usually the same for both teams. I'm OK with 2-1 games, so I think it's fair to make the hitters have to protect a bit more and not assume that the ump is going to make the perfect call.
But can we talk about the mittens that extend a runner's hand 6 inches on a slide? That's something now completely out of control!
Yeah he wasn't playing favorites but they did come in bunches.
I had come across an article somewhere talking about how Cody Bellinger was walked on four straight strikes, so I figured there was a video somewhere. But, yeah, pretty bad all around.
Last night's Cubs-Giants game is the clearest argument for Robot Umps that I've ever seen. This shows 1.2 runs to the Cubs' favor but it was really 4+, because the 3-run homer for the Cubs came with 2 outsâshould never have happened.
Last night's Cubs-Giants game is the clearest argument for Robot Umps that I've ever seen. This shows 1.2 runs to the Cubs' favor but it was really 4+, because the 3-run homer for the Cubs came with 2 outs—should never have happened.
Spencer Bivens' pro career so far:
Lions de Savigny-sur-Orge (France)
KotláÅka Praha (Czech Republic)
Washington Wild Things (Frontier League)
Gastonia Honey Hunters (Atlantic League)
San Jose Giants
Sacramento River Cats
Eugene Emeralds
Scottsdale Scorpions
Richmond Flying Squirrels
Tomateros de Culiacán (Mexico)
San Francisco Giants (3 innings, Win)
See? The MLB takes these violations seriously. Eyes forward. Do not look at that guy ovâHEY! I SAID DO NOTâ
I don't want to see Ohtani kicked out either and I don't care about this guy but yeah if they gave Ohtani a pass, they'll have to go PeteRose on several players every year to remind Ohtani what he has to lose. I consider this guy just the first sacrificial career-.217 player to be tossed onto the Altar of Reminderâ¢
I think this is a pointless, unnecessary consolidation.
As recognized in the article... "for all the meticulous record-keeping, the what-ifs of segregation can never be resolved." So accept the limitations, note them, and agree that Josh Gibson and Ty Cobb were both amazing ballplayers, who were the best at something for a single season in their respective leagues.
The AL and NL teams/player never played each other outside of the World Series, so decades worth of great players never competed against the other greats of their time, yet they're all in the hall of fame. Yet we still want their stats in an easy-to-compare format. Yet we still revere guys simply because of those statistics when there were others playing at the same time who clearly deserve the same respect.
There will always be asterisks in baseball stats. Home Run king is:
Hank Aaron
Sadaharu Oh
Barry Bonds
All Time Hits Leader
Ty Cobb
Josh Gibson
Ichiro Suzuki
I just want it to be clear when I'm looking at "records," that there are asterisks all over the place, and I don't want to have to go hunting for the full story. Bonus if an entire swath of Americans don't get shut out just because of some desire to keep things clean.
https://www.nytimes.com/athlet...
as of Wednesday, Josh Gibson will replace Cobb as the leading hitter in the official records of the game. At .372, Gibsonâs career batting average eclipses Cobbâs by six points.
I think this is a pointless, unnecessary consolidation.
As recognized in the article... "for all the meticulous record-keeping, the what-ifs of segregation can never be resolved." So accept the limitations, note them, and agree that Josh Gibson and Ty Cobb were both amazing ballplayers, who were the best at something for a single season in their respective leagues.
https://www.nytimes.com/athlet...
as of Wednesday, Josh Gibson will replace Cobb as the leading hitter in the official records of the game. At .372, Gibsonâs career batting average eclipses Cobbâs by six points.
Sources: Ex-Angels IF David Fletcher bet with Mizuhara bookie
David Fletcher, a former Los Angeles Angels infielder currently playing for the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A affiliate, and a friend of his, who also played in the minor leagues, both bet on sports with the Southern California bookmaker who took wagers from Shohei Ohtani's longtime interpreter, according to multiple sources detailing the activities.
Fletcher, who was Ohtani's teammate from 2018 to 2023 and has been described as one of his closest friends in baseball, placed bets with the bookmaking operation of Mathew Bowyer, sources said. Ohtani's former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, also bet with Bowyer and eventually stole nearly $17 million from the Japanese superstar to feed his addiction, according to prosecutors.
Ohtani and Fletcher while with the Angels...
MLB was very happy to see this go away so cleanly and quickly... but you have to wonder if there is more to this story.
