After a somewhat successful* year-long trial of automated balls and strikes (ABS) in the Atlantic League, MLB will bring in these ‘robots’ to second-guess their human umpires at nine of Florida’s spring-training games. The ABS system makes use of TrackMan radar technology, already in play for StatCast.
After MLB’s tech-team improves ABS’s reliability and accuracy, it might be worth using, but only if it speeds up the game. Using ABS simply to challenge calls will just make things worse, while eliminating the spectacle of on-field blow-ups by volatile managers like Billy Martin (former Minnesota Twin). When the calls are made by invisible radar, who do you throw the dirt at?
“You turn back (to the umpire and say), ‘TrackMan?’ They say, ‘Yeah,'” “‘Well, I’m not going to argue with you.’ Because it’s the robots.”
Southern Maryland Blue Crabs outfielder Tony Thomas commenting on the experimental use of ABS in the Atlantic League
PS. When the baseball robots get smart enough to call balks, then we’d all best bunker down for them taking over the world.
*Baseball America reporting Imperfections And All, Robo Umps Make Significant Impact