Automated strike zone coming to minors
NEW YORK » If a minor league player says an umpire is acting like a robot this year, he might be right.
Computer umpires for balls and strikes are coming to a low-level minor league but are a while away from the big leagues.
Major League Baseball plans to use Automated BallStrike technology (ABS) in eight of nine ballparks at the Low-A Southeast League, which starts play May 4 across Florida as minor league baseball resumes after a one-year break caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Major League Baseball Umpires Association agreed in its labor contract that started in 2020 to cooperate and assist if Commissioner
Rob Manfred decides to utilize the system at the major league level. MLB intends to include the subject in talks this year to replace the agreement with the players’ association that expires Dec. 1.
“It’s hard to handicap if, when or how it might be employed at the major league level, because it is a pretty substantial difference from the way the game is called today,” Chris Marinak, MLB’s chief operations and strategy officer, said Wednesday during an on-line presentation on 2021 innovation and fan engagement.
MLB tracks the accuracy of ball-strike calls by its plate umpires but doesn’t release the figures. Umpire Ángel Hernández, in a lawsuit filed against Major League Baseball,
said his accuracy on ballstrike calls increased from 92.19% in 2012 to 96.88% in 2016.
The independent Atlantic League became the first American professional league to let a computer call balls and strikes at its All-Star Game in July 2019 and experimented with ABS during the second half of that season. It also was used in the Arizona Fall League for top prospects that year, drawing complaints of its calls of breaking balls.
“The goal here is really to focus on demonstrating system reliability and to start to get more athlete feedback from more players, coaches and umpires,” Marinak said. “The technology is really in pretty good shape.”
Minor league experiments this year also include pitch timers at Triple-A, DoubleA and Low-A (15 seconds with bases empty, 20 seconds with runners), a limit of two pickoff attempts per plate appearance at Low-A with an automatic balk for a failed attempt on a third, a requirement pitchers must step off the rubber before pickoffs at High-A, a requirement infielders at Double-A have both feet on the infield dirt and an option to require two infielders on each side of second base; and 18-inch bases instead of 15-inch at Triple-A.
Marinak said players subject to the ABS will be measured before their first game, and the top of the strike zone will be 56% of their height and the bottom 28%. The strike zone will be measured two-dimensionally at the front of home plate.