A first-person look at the robot umpire system
WALDORF, Md. – Of all the potentially awkward moments I’ve had on a baseball field, perhaps none were as discomforting as those I spent last weekend waiting for a robot to speak to me.
The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs were the latest team in the independent Atlantic League to start using the automated ballstrike system, or a robotic umpire. It’s one of the experimental rule changes the league is using as part of a three-year agreement with Major League Baseball, allowing MLB to test various rules and equipment without affecting its minor league affiliates, while also increasing its scouting efforts in the Atlantic League.
A day after the ABS system was put into use at the Blue Crabs’ Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, the team welcomed a handful of media members to try out the system; so I got the honor of being a robot ump’s human companion as left-hander Tommy Thorpe threw his between-starts bullpen session.
The system uses Trackman, which is also behind the Statcast measurements that have become fixtures in MLB games since their introduction in 2015. A machine in the press box tracks pitches from the pitcher’s hand to the catcher’s mitt and relays whether they were strikes or balls to a device held by the home-plate umpire, who wears an earpiece to hear the call. While I was getting situated with the technology, Thorpe warmed up with catcher Josh Mcadams, and a monotonous, robotic male voice sounded in my ear.
“Ball,” it said, with Mcadams out of his crouch while the battery played catch. The calls seemed accurate and well-timed. Once Thorpe started actually pitching, the latter changed.
Thorpe’s throwing session came on the ballpark’s mound, rather than a separate bullpen or cage. The Blue Crabs didn’t position a screen behind Mcadams, so manager Stan Cliburn recommended I crouch behind the catcher for my safety. With the earpiece in my right ear and the smartphone-like device connected to it sitting in my right pocket, ABOVE: I got in my stance and readied for the call. Thorpe lifted his right leg and threw.
At first, I heard nothing. It took maybe five seconds for my robot partner to say, “Strike,” but when the majority of an independent baseball team is waiting for you to say something, five seconds feels like five minutes. By the time I quietly announced the call, Mcadams had already thrown the ball back to Thorpe. It’s uncomfortable to envision a similar delay happening in an official game with a crowd on hand, too, though MLB’S early reports on the system indicate minimal issues with timing.
I got about eight pitches in the role of robot-dictated umpire before handing off the device, with Cliburn chiding me for not issuing my strike calls loudly enough. Cliburn, 62, has more than three decades of experience as a minor league manager, including four seasons managing the Minnesota Twins’ Triple-a affiliate. The adoption of a robot ump is obviously a dramatic shift for the game he’s spent about half his life coaching, but one he is seemingly open to.
“Baseball’s about change. Life’s about change,” Cliburn said in his Mississippi twang. “Is it an adjustment? No doubt. It’s an adjustment for the players, but hey, the game’s about adjustments. You’ve got to adjust with the times. You’ve got to adjust with the changes. And when you do that, you stay in uniform and you have a long career.”
That’s what practically every Atlantic Leaguer is after. The Blue Crabs’ roster is littered with players who have experience in affiliated ball and are trying to get back. Thorpe, 26, was the Chicago Cubs’ eighth-round draft pick in 2014 but got released before last season. The Cleveland Indians took Mcadams, 25, in 2012’s seventh round as an outfielder, but he missed two straight seasons with injuries, and he played multiple positions for an independent team in the American Association last year.