LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Half the time, Louisville Bats catcher Chuckie Robinson loves the Automated Balls and Strikes System.
The other half of the time? He wasn’t sure about it.
Robinson’s internal debate stems from the duality of the catcher position. On the one hand, the catcher is there for the pitchers. On the other hand, the invaders must also be hit.
“I feel like it took away the long strike — advantage hitters,” Robinson said. “Guys with big curveballs can clip underneath, but the sideline is tough. It definitely forces pitchers to throw in the zone, for sure.
Triple-A baseball began using the ABS system in late April, with full ABS games for the first three games of the series and then a challenge system used for the remainder of the series. games that allow pitchers, catchers and batters to challenge the umpire’s balls and strike calls by using HawkEye technology, similar to professional tennis.
The challenge system has gotten mostly positive reviews across the board. But the full ABS system, the so-called “Robo Umps” gets the highest marks from the hitters.
“Honestly, I like it,” said Matt Reynolds of Bats.
The 32-year-old Reynolds has 528 major league plate appearances with four different teams, including 277 with the Reds over the past two seasons.
Tuesday night against the Worcester Red Sox, Reynolds won looking at a two-seam fastball away called a strike by ABS. He didn’t believe it was, and turned around and asked the umpire what he saw.
“He said, ‘I think it’s a (attack) at the plate.’ I said, ‘OK. I don’t think you’re right,’” Reynolds recalled. “We have iPads in the (dugout) now telling us. It was one of those clipper strikes. It was, well, now I know. I like the fact that I can show up at the park and know that the strike zone is strike zone every day.
That consistency is one of the things hitters want. It’s common for players to come to the ballpark and immediately check to see who is behind the plate. Just like the players have a scouting report, so do the umpires. As much as every umpire wants to call the same strike zone, this is a physical impossibility. While ABS isn’t perfect, it’s at least consistent.
“It just teaches pitchers to get across the plate early, you can’t eat,” Bats lefty Andrew Abbott said. “You just have to go out there and if you get hit, you get hit. Prime example is when I went out the other day, I threw three innings of 30 pitches. Throwing strikes, they got a couple of solo homers off me, but they put the ball in play early and got the first-pitch out. As a pitcher, that’s what you want.”
Since coming up from Double A, Abbott has made seven starts for the Bats, four with full ABS and three with the challenge system. Overall, he was 3-0 with a 3.05 ERA, 54 strikeouts and 14 walks in 38.1 innings for the Bats. In his four full-ABS games, Abbott has a 1.93 ERA with 32 strikeouts and seven walks. In three games under the challenge system he has 22 strikeouts and six walks in 15 innings and a 4.80 ERA.
Even with that knowledge, Abbott still favors flesh-and-blood umpires calling strikes.
“For the most part, I like human error because I think that’s what baseball is really about,” Abbott said. “We will make mistakes. Pitchers have wild pitches. Outfielders lose balls. All of that is embodied in the game. “
It changed his pitching, he said, knowing where the strike zone was and how to take advantage of it.
Reliever Alan Busenitz has pitched in both the big leagues and Triple A this season. He said he can throw his curveball lower, because the lower strikes are called more. His backdoor pitches aren’t called strikes, though. Most everyone agrees that the robot zone is narrower than human umpires.
However, he said it was not a big difference.
“I don’t know if I really noticed it,” said the 32-year-old Busenitz. “Honestly if the catcher said it was there and the umpire would have called it.”
Then there are technical glitches. Abbott said in his Syracuse start, the ABS went down during the game and the umpire behind the plate started calling balls and strikes like normal.
The one thing everyone agrees on is that if ABS is adopted full-time, it will change catching, making the subtle art of pitch framing extinct. Robinson said he even frames pitches in complete ABS games, just to keep the skill sharp, even if it doesn’t benefit his pitcher in that game.
“The art of framing kind of goes out the window when it’s full of ABS,” says Robinson. “But in the challenge, you can still frame pitches and you still have value in that part of the game.”
Whether the challenge system comes to the big leagues first or full ABS is implemented, it looks like there’s room in the game for robo umps in the future. The fact that there is so little hard debate in Triple A makes it seem more likely or better proof that it works.
“As far as consistency and getting the calls right, I think it’s the best thing I’ve seen,” Reynolds said.
Even Abbott, who never liked it in theory, really liked it in practice.
“I think it helps,” Abbott said. “It’s like a pitch clock that speeds up the game. There is a clear dividend in everything they do. It might not be next year, it might be another year, but I think in the end, it might make the game better.
The one thing it doesn’t pick up on is the fans booing the umpire. Although it was announced before the game that ABS was being used, many fans in the stands did not understand what it meant. As in every baseball game everywhere, someone further away from the plate than the umpire will voice their disagreements with the call, even if the target of their anger is irresponsible.
“I don’t think (fans) know what the challenge system is,” Abbott said. “You hear it in every ballpark, people yelling at the umpire. But I guess that just comes with the territory.”
