ABS stats article through April

[dumbdumb]

this is just through April, but i really thought the catchers would be in the 90-96% range easily, and at the very lowest an 85%, with the "best seat in the house but you have to squat" situation,

but, i expect by the end of the season they will be tearing it up with a 90-96 or at the lowest 85%.

https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/walks-and-game-time-up-pitches-in-strike-zone-down-through-first-full-month-of-mlbs-robot-umpires

[johnnyg08]

Does only a 60% success rate from our F2s show that coin flip pitches really are coin flip pitches. 

 

 

[Velho]

I'd love to see those broken down further to separate the edges from the heights. It's unfathomable to me how PUs & F2s are managing the 27% / 52.5%

[The Man in Blue]

Walks are up 7.3% as pitches in the strike zone dropped markedly and the average time of games increased by 5 minutes through the first full month of Major League Baseball’s initial season with robot umpires.

Walks are up from 6.8 per game through April of last year. Over a full season, the average would be the highest since 2000 and the ninth highest in major league history, but walks have declined since the season’s start and averaged 6.98 per game from April 21-30.

Could it be that the ABS system us changing actual strikes to balls (cases where it is wrong) more often than it is correcting erroneous balls to strikes?

49 minutes ago, Velho said:

I'd love to see those broken down further to separate the edges from the heights. It's unfathomable to me how PUs & F2s are managing the 27% / 52.5%

Not just the horizontal vs. the vertical, but I'd like to see stats on the distances (particularly in each direction).  I did that random, non-scientific one-day survey a while back and showed that "errors" (calling 3D strikes as 2D balls) were slightly more prevalent than fixing egregious errors.

We've been to three Cardinal games this season, and I will say I don't think the ABS challenge has much to do with the game time.  I know the article said MLB is attributing 64 seconds added for ABS challenges, but in the park, it is very easy to miss the fact that a challenge is even occurring.  I would bet (ahh!) most people in the park didn't even know it occurred.  Since the system is measuring every pitch in real time (not going back and reviewing it), the turnaround is very fast.  I imagine generating the graphic and sending it to the board is the most time consuming piece.

The stolen base statistic surprises me, given the rule changes meant to goose that number.  

[orangebird]

54 minutes ago, Velho said:

I'd love to see those broken down further to separate the edges from the heights. It's unfathomable to me how PUs & F2s are managing the 27% / 52.5%

If I filtered this right, pitches low/high but down the middle have been overturned 54%

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&shadowZones=12|18&year=2026&challengeType=league&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0&sort=overturns_vs_exp_total&sortDir=desc&page=0&pageSize=50

While inside/outside but the middle of the zone vertically are at 53%

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/abs-challenges?gameType=regular&shadowZones=14|16&year=2026&challengeType=league&level=mlb&minChal=1&minOppChal=0

[BLWizzRanger]

Go all the way and track from a RHP or a LHP, pitching to a RHB or a LHB, further, an Umpire being right eye or left eye dominate. Left handed or right handed catcher.... sorry, got a little carried away.

[MadMax]

2 hours ago, Velho said:

It's unfathomable to me how PUs & F2s are managing the 27% / 52.5%

This 👆🏼 is why Boone & the Yankees (and other particular coaching staffs) want “those pitches” called Balls, and force the catchers to challenge, instead of called Strikes and forcing (his) Batters to challenge. 

He may be a ferret, but he’s a shrewd ferret. 

[dumbdumb]

On 5/3/2026 at 1:56 PM, MadMax said:

This 👆🏼 is why Boone & the Yankees (and other particular coaching staffs) want “those pitches” called Balls, and force the catchers to challenge, instead of called Strikes and forcing (his) Batters to challenge. 

He may be a ferret, but he’s a shrewd ferret. 

can i infer/mind read, that the above means that when the Yankee pitchers throw that pitch he wants it called a strike to force the other teams batter to challenge the pitch and not his catcher. he is shrewd on both sides of the coin, and wants everything his way especially with trying to bully/pick on the call up umpires into getting his way. really class act that guy.

[BLWizzRanger]

I was asked by a HS player if I thought HSs would get ABS.  I told him no that it was too cost prohibitive. But, why do they need the ABS since they already have APS - Automatic Parent System - that will let everyone know when a pitch is wrong. 

I would like to officially change that to the APS - Asshole Parent System.