NORTH PORT, Fla. -- As the Braves tested the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System during Thursday’s workout, they were reminded of how confident they will need to be before using one of the limited challenges this year.
“It was good to get a look at it,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “It's going to be a learning process throughout this spring. Guys are going to be trying to learn -- from all intents and purposes -- a new strike zone. So it was a nice little trial run today, and the guys have a pretty good idea. Every once in a while, you get surprised. But I think even at this point in the process, they have got a pretty good idea of what the strike zone is.”
The age-old practice of disputing borderline pitches will continue, but the number of egregious misses should be reduced when the ABS Challenge System is implemented throughout the upcoming season. Here is everything you need to know about the system, including the fact that both teams will start a game with just two challenges, which will be kept if the challenge is successful.
Knowing the strike zone and knowing which situations would be most optimal to challenge in order to score will be learned by teams throughout Spring Training. The Braves continued their testing as Grant Holmes, Bryce Elder and Reynaldo López threw live batting practice on Thursday afternoon.
Challenges can only be issued by a pitcher, the batter or the catcher. But when asked about the ABS Challenge System last week, Chris Sale gave insight on why pitchers might not initiate many challenges. His reasoning goes beyond the fact their heads and bodies are still in motion as the pitch nears and enters the strike zone.
“I'm a starting pitcher,” Sale said. “I've never called balls and strikes in my life. Plus, I'm greedy. I know that I think they're all strikes, especially with the catchers nowadays, the way they catch the ball, the way they receive, they make them all look like strikes.”
Albies has playfully said that being vertically challenged might benefit him. But Thursday’s session also showed he has a good feel for the zone. To end both of his first two plate appearances against López, the second baseman took a pitch that was off the plate. His decision proved to be the right one when the stadium’s video board showed the first pitch was outside and the other was inside the zone.
Baldwin said it will be important for him and other catchers to have a good feel for how the zone calculated by the ABS Challenge System treats both tall and short batters.
“The top of the zone for a tall guy definitely gets bigger [than it was previously] and the bottom of the zone for a shorter guy definitely gets lower,” Baldwin said. “So it's just kind of knowing some things about that, and then obviously in these live [batting practice sessions].”
Austin Riley was coerced into challenging a Holmes pitch that clipped the bottom of the zone, losing the challenge. Later, Baldwin’s eyes didn’t deceive him when the scoreboard image showed he correctly challenged that an Elder pitch to Jurickson Profar went through the bottom of the zone.
“We're learning as we go,” Weiss said. “But we've done that the last few springs. There was the three-batter rule. There was the pitch clock. Now we're dealing with ABS, and you only stay in this league if you adapt well. We all thought all those things were going to be a bigger issue than they ended up being. It will probably be the same way with the ABS.”