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Major League Baseball is reportedly planning on using the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system during the All-Star Game next Tuesday in Atlanta. It will be the same system that the league tested out during Spring Training games this year and has been in use in Minor League Baseball since the 2023 season.
The Athletic reports that just like during Spring Training, teams will be given two challenges and get to keep them if their challenge is successful. The challenges may be made by pitchers, catchers and batters, but must be made immediately after the umpire’s call.
Interestingly, despite the Automated Ball-Strike system being more accurate than human umpires, a large number of MLB players are against implementing it on a full-time basis. In a poll of 134 players conducted by The Athletic in June, a surprising 63.4 percent said they don’t want the Automated Ball-Strike system to be used in regular season games. 17.2 percent voted that they would prefer the use of the ABS system, while 19.4 percent weren’t sure.
One pitcher who is against the use of the ABS system claimed, “Why would you remove the human element? The game will fundamentally change in a way that fans are definitely not going to like. It will make injuries and the competitive nature of the game worse. There would be fewer balls in play and the games take longer.”
On the flip side, ESPN reports that MLB officials told them that 72 percent of fans who were polled during Spring Training said the ABS system had a “positive” impact on their experience at the game. On top of that, 69 percent said they wanted it to be used for regular season games, and just 10 percent gave it a negative review.
The ABS system was first used in the independent Atlantic League in 2019, then tested in the Florida State League in 2022. For the past two seasons, it has been used in Triple-A.
“My single biggest concern is working through the process and deploying it in a way that’s acceptable to the players,” MLB commisioner Rob Manfred said in June. “There’s always going to be things around the edges that we need to work through and whatever, and I want them to feel like we respected the committee process and that there was a full airing of concerns about the system, and an attempt to address those concerns before we go forward.”