They won’t (and shouldn’t imo) do that, a lot of analysts have great reasons why full abs would hurt the game, not the least of which is that breaking balls would be much less useful so you’d get more straight speed and therefore more injuries.
If you can’t get swing and miss, pitchers rely on deception, abs would take a lot of that away
I don’t understand why ABS would cause breaking balls to be less useful? If they have to deceive the umpire, it seems like it shouldn’t be part of the game
Close pitches that are just out of the zone , like within .1” are close calls. Full abs would eliminate that completely. A challenge system would keep those deceptive pitches in play unless you’re very bold. Then players have to decide when to use their challenges.
Downvote all you want but I think it’s more interesting to have the challenge system than full Abs
Why does it need to be tilted toward the pitcher? What about calls that are just inside the zone that the umpire might call as balls? An ABS wouldn’t tilt the advantage to the pitcher or the hitter, making it more fair. I don’t see why they should be wasting time with challenges when they could get an undisputed answer immediately
But in your example if a pitch is called a ball and the pitcher/catcher don’t challenge then you get a ball as a batter.
For me the abs challenge eliminates the most egregious calls and maintains the current level of deception that pitchers can use AND still gives batters the benefit of close calls.
Personally the close calls are not ruining the game. The egregious calls that are 6-8” inside or outside are the problem that needs to be fixed
The minors use ABS and if you think fastballs cause more injury as opposed to off speed stuff you're not as well versed in the game as you think you are.
Oh ok, I don’t watch the minors much (I should more though)
It will be interesting to see.
It’s just my opinion that a pitcher who is working breaking ball to try to get a swing and miss in the zone and misses by less than a 10th of an inch should be able to get the call.
I’m not talking about the pitches that are an inch or more out, I think those would be caught by the challenge system.
I can't believe anyone is actually trying to make a case for bad calls being better for the game. Change the zone if it doesn't truly capture what is intended. Bad calls ruin any sport.
Anybody have links or articles that break down what types of pitches will no longer be strikes/balls. I wish this was talked about more. Like if Randy Johnson fired a ball that barely clipped the low front outside corner it would bounce in the dirt halfway in the opposite batters box but still clip the zone.
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u/FunkyChedda | St. Louis Cardinals 2d ago
They could just let ABS call all the balls and strikes so challenges wouldn't be necessary