Human umpires have been calling balls and strikes for over 150 years; but now Major League Baseball is looking at replacing those humans with an automated system.

Arguing balls and strikes is the one thing that will get a player…or manager…thrown out of the game; but it doesn’t stop fans in the stands from expressing their opinions of the calls,  Arguing balls and strikes is a time honoured tradition.  While they all follow the rules, each umpire has their own interpretation of the strike zone – the human factor.

This year during spring training, the MLB will be testing the ABS – Automated Ball-Strike System – in about 60 percent of the games in both the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues to determine whether the system would be suitable for the regular season games in the future.

MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword spoke on the system saying, “this is a pretty big decision for the game of baseball that we want to get everybody to weigh in on.”

With 13 ballparks covering 19 teams; every team will get a chance to experience the system.

The full ABS system is not planned for use in the spring training games, but rather an ABS Challenge system where the human umps will call the game but the system will be brought in similar to the “video assist” in football to review the call.

Each team will have two chances to “challenge” the call but only the batter, pitcher, or catcher can ask for the challenge and must be made immediately after the umpire’s call by tapping on his hat or helmet.  The “Hawk-Eye” will display the call on the video board.

Like a challenge in football, if a team wins the challenge, they keep the challenge; they only loose the challenge if the umpire’s call is upheld.

The ABS system has been tested in the Minor Leagues since 2019.

While the ABS is popular among the fans and players; the longer games because of the ABS was not.

There are 13 ballparks where the ABS system will be in use:
Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies Salt River Fields
Los Aneles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox Camelback Ranch
Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres Peoria Sports Complex
Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals Surprise Stadium
Cleveland Guardians and Cincinnati Reds Goodyear Ballpark
Toronto Blue Jays TD Ballpark
Philadelphia Phillies BayCare Ballpark
New York Yankees George M. Steinbrenner Field
Detroit Tigers Joker Marchant Stadium
Pittsburgh Pirates LECOM Park
Minnesota Twins Hammond Stadium
New York Mets Clover Park
St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium