The ABS System Is Winning Over Fans

Ken Davidoff tells Rich the automated ball-strike system is landing with fans one week into the MLB season, and the entertainment value is real in a way instant replay never has been.

Davidoff went to a Yankees spring training game a few weeks ago and came away surprised. ABS plays differently than he expected. He compares it to tennis at the US Open, where the review is part of the spectacle and the crowd responds to it instantly.

That is the key difference from replay. Replay stops the game dead. Two minutes of standing around trying to figure out if a guy is safe or out. ABS is a tap, a screen, a verdict. No downtime.

The umpires are getting worked up, which Davidoff acknowledges. He has read the same stories everyone else has, including a good one from The Athletic pulling quotes from umps on the field. The irritation is real.

But Davidoff lands on the bigger point. The goal is to avoid the WBC moment. United States versus Dominican Republic, game ending on a called third strike that was questionable. That is the nightmare scenario for the sport. With ABS, if your team runs out of challenges and a bad call ends the game, the blame shifts. It is the team's fault for burning challenges, not the umpire's fault for missing a pitch.

The entertaining moments are already piling up. Rich brings up Randy Arozarena on a 3-2 pitch, taps his helmet, starts walking to first before the challenge confirms it. Rich is waiting for the first ABS ejection where an umpire decides a player is showing him up.

Davidoff says that would be interesting, and that is where the storyline goes next.

Rich reframes the power shift. Fifteen years ago the umpire's word was decree. Then replay gave safe-out and fair-foul to the machines. Now ABS takes balls and strikes. The league has already floated a full robo ump where the home plate official wears an earpiece and just relays the call.

Davidoff doesn't want full automation. Rich doesn't either. But they both acknowledge the power ranking of the umpiring crew has taken a hit, and it is not coming back.

The week one takeaway is that the technology is fast, it is readable for fans, and it removes the worst outcome of a championship game ending on a bad call. The cost is the human element. Umpires losing a little more of what used to be their authority.

That tradeoff is the conversation baseball will be having all season.