TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — After four years of experiments in the minor leagues, a computerized system is being tested Thursday that calls the ball and strike in a Major League Baseball Spring Training Exhibition Game.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is a supporter of the automated ball strike system and can be used to assist umpires for MLB Home Plates as early as 2026, but they cannot be replaced.
Starting in 2024, MLB focused on a challenge system in which human judges make calls to each original. Data from spring training tests may cause MLB to change the system for Triple A games this season.
How does an automated ball strike system work?
The stadium is equipped with cameras that track each pitch and determine whether they crossed the home plate within the strike zone. In early tests, the referee wears an earbud, hears a “ball” or “strike” and communicates it to the player and the fan using traditional hand signals.
The challenge system adds wrinkles. During spring training, Human UMP calls all the pitches, but each team can challenge two calls per game and not add additional innings. Teams will maintain their challenges when successful, as well as major league team regulations, using video reviews first used for home run calls in August 2008. Widely expanded to many calls in the 2014 season.
Only the batter, pitcher or catcher can challenge the phone and send a signal through the helmet or cap faucet. And no assistance from dugouts is permitted. You must perform the challenge within 2 seconds, and the pitch and strike zone graphics will appear on the scoreboard and broadcast feed. The judge will then announce the updated count.
MLB estimates the average 17 seconds of the process.
Where is ABS tested?
MLB installed the system at 13 Spring Training Ballparks, home to 19 teams. Florida Stadium in the Florida State League is a ballpark shared by Miami and St. Louis, in addition to stadiums in Detroit, Minnesota, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Toronto.
All five Arizona test sites are shared: Diamondbacks/Colorado, Chicago White Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland/Cincinnati, Kansas City/Texas, Seattle/San Diego.
Teams can play very different numbers of games in ABS tests, but around 60% of spring training games are scheduled for trial use. Diamondback is scheduled for 29 ABS games, but the Cubs have just seven ABS games.
What is the technology?
A camera’s Hawkeye Pose Tracking System is installed and used to track the pitch and use whether they are in the strike zone based on the height of each batter measured without shoes before the team’s first test game I did. MLB estimated the calibration process in less than 1 minute for each player.
In tests there will be eight cameras at most of the spring training ballparks, and 12 cameras at Diamondbacks/Rockies Stadium.
The strike zones that Big League referees actually call tend to be oval, while the ABS strike zones are rectangular, like the rulebook.
Develop consensus on what a computer strike zone should be BE was a problem.
When did MLB first start using ABS?
MLB has begun experimenting with ball/strike technology Independent Atlantic League in 2019.
The challenge system was tested in 2021 Eight of the nine ballparks that make up the Florida League. ABS was promoted to five Triple A parks in 2022, In 2023, we expanded to all Triple A Stadiumswith the first three games of each series and only human robots Challenge System The last three. The system was introduced in early 2024, MLB switched to the all-challenge system on June 25th last year..
How successful was your team last year?
The overall return rate over the entire triple-A season was 51%, with a challenge due to defense winning 54% and attacking winning 48%. The challenge is that there are two challenge limits per game, with an average of 3.9, including 2.2 due to offensive.
Major League video reviews have slightly better success rates. The team increased the success rate of video reviews to 53.7% last seasonthe Boston Red Sox led at 67.9%.
Only 1.6% of the initial pitch were challenges, but the numbers increased to 3.9% on two strike pitches, 5.2% on three ball pitches and 8.2% on all counts.
Challenge percentages were more likely later in the game. 1.9% of the pitch was challenged in the first three innings, while 2.5% were challenged in 3.6% from fourth to sixth, seventh, eighth and eighth.
How did the computer attack Zon?
Has E changed over time?
MLB has changed the shape of the ABS strike zone several times.
It started with a width of 19 inches in 2022 and dropped to 17 inches to match the width of the home plate. When the strike zone was narrowed, walking increased, and only minor changes in strikeout rates changed.
The top of the striker zone was 51% of batter heights in 2022 and 2023, rising to 53.5% in 2024 after pitcher complaints were too low. The bottom of the strike zone was 27% since 2022, after being initially set at 28%.
The batter’s stance is not taken into consideration.
The ABS makes ball/strike decisions at the midpoint of the plate, 8 1/2 inches from the front and 8 1/2 inches from the rear. It contrasts with the rulebook zones that referees call, with zones being cubes and strikes being pitches that cross every part.
The strikeout rate rose by 0.5%, while the walk rate rose by 1% in full ABS games and 0.8% in challenge games.
How does ABS affect broadcasting?
Broadcast Strike Zone Boxes can chip and shout if they want to try and fans may scream at players to challenge. MLB plans to experiment with several broadcast alternatives. He shows the ball, but not the box. Displays only the corners of the box.
How can players give feedback?
Available to all teams, the Dugout iPad has an application called Protabs that allows players to check pitches against individual strike zones. Information is updated for each plate appearance, allowing players to give MLB comments to the single pitch and the entire system.
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