spring training abs testing

[dumbdumb]

i think? this article will be liked although i could not get into it to read, but i am still giving the link. if there is some number to challenges and the time used is pretty quick from experiments in the minors, why not let each team use 3 or 4 or even 6 challenges, and you get to keep if you are correct. what'!s another 3 minutes per game, if the amount and time it takes is in the article.

and remember, as long as you are correct and the ump is wrong, you will never run out of challenges, even if given only 1 challenge per game, but which players are managers going to protect and who does not get protected. hey if you are under the mendoza line but you don't get 2nd chances too, that could affect your average and your future paycheck too.

and yes, i know that there are some 7th game of the world series types that if the umpire even just misses the first pitch of the game (and thats the only one all game) it totally puts the batter or pitcher in a hole so deep 0-1 or 1-0 and changes the whole total complexion of the whole game from the get go, and that is why you lost the game on just that one pitch and we all might as well go home and quit the game right then and there because of that one pitch, the game is fixed cause the umps are terrible.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6085976/2025/01/24/roboumps-test-spring-training-mlb/

 

 

[Velho]

Here is an unpaywalled article on ABS

https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/mlb-to-test-abs-challenge-system-in-spring-training/3571431/

Major League Baseball will test out its Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system at various ballparks during spring training this year, the league announced earlier this offseason. 

Diamondbacks fans will watch more games with players challenging balls and strikes than any other fanbase, as The Athletic’s Evan Drellich reported on Friday that a league-leading 29 of Arizona’s spring training games will feature ABS.

The challenge system uses Hawk-Eye cameras to track each pitch. Umpires still make all the calls, but teams will get two challenges for balls and strikes this spring training, according to Drellich. Clubs keep their challenge if successful. Half of the 10 Cactus League parks will feature ABS.

Fans at Salt River Fields who attended the Spring Breakout prospect showcase last year had the chance to see ABS work in action, with players tapping their heads to challenge and the pitch location quickly showing up on the scoreboard in left field.

Here’s what it looked like in a critical spot during a Triple-A game last year:

https://x.com/MiLB/status/1836242412403867968

MLB started testing ABS full-time in Triple-A in the second half of last season, but the experiment dates back to minor league games in 2022. Many major league veterans, unless they went through a rehab assignment in minor league games, will have the chance to try it out for the first time. Many younger players and prospects have at least some familiarity with it.

Testing out the challenge system in major league spring training is the biggest test yet for its potential future implementation in games that count. Perhaps the social media strike zone screenshot will soon go extinct.

[dumbdumb]

20 minutes ago, Velho said:

Here is an unpaywalled article on ABS

https://arizonasports.com/mlb/arizona-diamondbacks/mlb-to-test-abs-challenge-system-in-spring-training/3571431/

 

Major League Baseball will test out its Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system at various ballparks during spring training this year, the league announced earlier this offseason. 

Diamondbacks fans will watch more games with players challenging balls and strikes than any other fanbase, as The Athletic’s Evan Drellich reported on Friday that a league-leading 29 of Arizona’s spring training games will feature ABS.

The challenge system uses Hawk-Eye cameras to track each pitch. Umpires still make all the calls, but teams will get two challenges for balls and strikes this spring training, according to Drellich. Clubs keep their challenge if successful. Half of the 10 Cactus League parks will feature ABS.

Fans at Salt River Fields who attended the Spring Breakout prospect showcase last year had the chance to see ABS work in action, with players tapping their heads to challenge and the pitch location quickly showing up on the scoreboard in left field.

Here’s what it looked like in a critical spot during a Triple-A game last year:

https://x.com/MiLB/status/1836242412403867968

 

MLB started testing ABS full-time in Triple-A in the second half of last season, but the experiment dates back to minor league games in 2022. Many major league veterans, unless they went through a rehab assignment in minor league games, will have the chance to try it out for the first time. Many younger players and prospects have at least some familiarity with it.

Testing out the challenge system in major league spring training is the biggest test yet for its potential future implementation in games that count. Perhaps the social media strike zone screenshot will soon go extinct.

thanks again for the above

would still love to see (of course without paying) the paywalled version.

oh well

[johnnyg08]

I heard a little nugget about the impacts of the ABS system....the F2s are now intentionally butchering strikes on the borders to try to make a pitch look worse than it is...then getting the strike upon challenge. So this is where we're at now. Sigh

[Velho]

4 hours ago, johnnyg08 said:

I heard a little nugget about the impacts of the ABS system....the F2s are now intentionally butchering strikes on the borders to try to make a pitch look worse than it is...then getting the strike upon challenge. So this is where we're at now.

What's the reason for the gamesmanship? I'm missing it. How does this help the defense win the game? Unless the entire point is to make PU look bad it?

[The Man in Blue]

I came to say that I like this use (particularly with HawkEye).

I stayed to agree with @Velho.  What the heck is the point?

How does a catcher "butcher a strike on the border?"  

[dumbdumb]

5 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

I came to say that I like this use (particularly with HawkEye).

I stayed to agree with @Velho.  What the heck is the point?

How does a catcher "butcher a strike on the border?"  

remember my sign on, but taking a guess here, you only have 2 seconds to give the challenge sign, and if you see catcher with glove on ground and challenge you have now lost a challenge. or something similar to this.

[BLWizzRanger]

I came to say that I like this use (particularly with HawkEye).
I stayed to agree with [mention=5211]Velho[/mention].  What the heck is the point?
How does a catcher "butcher a strike on the border?"  

How about not sticking the pitch and bringing the glove back to the center of the plate to give the elusion the ball was off further than it was?

I can see early in the game, that if you get the other team to blow their challenges, than they dont have them at the end of the game when all runs count 'more.'

I can hear it now.... bottom of ninth, tying run on third, 3-2 count, low pitch... Judge strikes out on the pitch because there aren't any challenges left. If Soto didnt lose that challenge in the third....

Sent from my SM-F721U1 using Tapatalk

[Replacematt]

17 hours ago, Velho said:

What's the reason for the gamesmanship? I'm missing it. How does this help the defense win the game? Unless the entire point is to make PU look bad it?

It entices the offense to use their challenges early so they don't have them later. There's a large psychological impetus to challenge something so "obviously" wrong.

Plus, once the ruling is confirmed, there's an additional psychological impact on second-guessing whether to challenge similar-looking pitches later.

[The Man in Blue]

Thank you guys, I was thinking gamesmanship against the umpire.  That all makes sense.  

[johnnyg08]

For the reasons stated above. 

[dumbdumb]

articles today.

just manipulate the zone each year to get the results you want for games (forget the definition of the zone), or just give the new number variables like in the article at the start of each year (ie don't hide those numbers and variables or change them midseason either on the sly without reporting that fact).

high scoring, low scoring, lots of home runs, fewer home runs (ie live ball era or year, dead ball era or year) whatever, to get and keep FIS (aka: fanny(s) in seat(s). as long as it is consistent players can adapt, or so they say. and the article says they have already done some manipulations in the trials each year in MiLB anyway.

https://www.wrdw.com/2025/02/21/mlbs-automated-ball-strike-challenge-system-be-used-8-braves-spring-training-games/

[dumbdumb]

another nice article, and when scrolling, also click on "the play that ruined baseball and look at the old time sliding plays, and why the phantom touch at 2nd might have ruled the day.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/robot-umpires-have-come-to-mlb-and-they-re-making-players-look-completely-clueless/ar-AA1zBVS4?ocid=BingNewsSerp

[dumbdumb]

another from bleacher reports

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25163401-predictable-and-hidden-consequences-mlbs-new-abs-challenge-rule

and see how close this article written in 2009 has become.

 

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2009/10/31/umpires-technology

now, since articles are saying you can do 3 ABS's reviews per minute, that is 5 minutes total extra minutes for a 15 ABS reviews for a game or think of it as a 15 misses on a 150 called pitch game, which would get you a 90% score for evaluation purposes, if no misses were challenged for some reason. so an extra 5 minutes if you let them challenge you to be perfect and add 5 minutes to the game. there is always a tradeoff.

or, how about you could only challenge on a 4th called ball or called 3rd called strike. other dinged pitches just go down as un-challenge-able and the fortunes of battle, or only challenges on the 3rd and 4th ball for the pitcher and 2nd and 3rd strikes to batter making 3 pitches in a 7 pitch sequence un-challenge-able. hey, its beginning to look a lot like calculus, everywhere you go. take a look at the 3 and 2, it's that time once again, at the home plate door.

hey, before you blow a fuse, remember my sign-on