The wildest thing about baseball is the thing that separates a great pitch for a strike at the edge of the zone and a terrible pitch for a ball is literally the smallest of distances. Rewarding pitchers for doing a great job instead of punishing them is the strongest argument for robot umps
I think the challenge system adds an amazing human element. It gives you three more humans with agency to be right or wrong. It adds drama and twists and strategy to the game. I don't think i'd like using it on every pitch, but the challenge is electric.
What is this obsession (some) people have with the "human element"? Do you want people hand timing 100m dash with stop watches? When you have a better system, you use it.
We don’t need the umpire to unmask and make that announcement. The process could be streamlined. But then … is the umpire communicating verbally with anyone? If so, could that person just do the announcement?
I'll watch a differnt league if they ever go ABS on every pitch. That's not baseball, that's a different, worse sport at that point. You'd get rid of the drama, pitch framing, pitchers expanding K zones, hitters contracting K zones, interpersonal comm between pitchers, catchers, batters, mgmt w ump.
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Reward pitchers for hitting their spots and hitters for having a good eye.
Probably need to tweak the actual strike zone definition when it's called consistently and accurately, but that's what the minors are for.