This story was excerpted from Tim Stebbins’ Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CLEVELAND -- MLB’s new Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System powered by T-Mobile is still in its infancy stage. For all the experience players gained using it during Spring Training or perhaps even in the Minor Leagues, our regular-season sample size is only a month’s worth.
Naturally, there has been a learning curve for players and teams while they grow accustomed to baseball’s new norm.
“I think that's a learning process we ourselves are in the middle of,” Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said.
The Guardians have been one of the Majors’ least successful teams using the ABS system in the early going. Entering Tuesday, Cleveland hitters had won seven challenges with a 29 percent overturn rate (7-for-24), which ranked last in MLB.
Defensively, the Guardians are leaving it to their catchers to challenge, rather than their pitchers. Entering Tuesday, Cleveland had won nine challenges with a 53 percent overturn rate (9-for-17), which was tied for 21st with the Orioles and Blue Jays.
Rhys Hoskins entered Tuesday as the Guardians’ most successful hitter with ABS (2-for-3). No other Cleveland player had won more than one challenge. Among catchers, Austin Hedges ranked as the most successful (7-for-10 entering Tuesday), ahead of Bo Naylor (2-for-5) and David Fry (0-for-2).
Here are a few early takeaways from the Guardians’ ABS experience.
Their top priority is the number of overturns, not the overall rate
“Success rate isn't the ultimate barometer,” Antonetti said. “I think what you're trying to do is how do you get the most calls right?”
This has continued to be the Guardians’ prerogative, certainly offensively, and there’s wisdom behind it. A team can have a high success rate, but in a limited number of challenges.
The more challenges you make, the more you may overturn. Then, you’re ultimately giving yourself a better shot to sustain an inning to score runs.
There’s also the fact that, in a small sample (such as the first month of the season), a success rate can be skewed. If a team is encountering home-plate umpires who call a great game, it may have fewer calls to challenge. Their percentage may sit higher with limited data.
“It'd be cool if you were 100 percent,” Fry said. “But I’d probably rather be 10-for-80 than 3-for-3. If we can get more runs, let's go get them.”
The Guardians want to challenge more
The Guardians have been challenging a fair amount, and they want to even more. Their hitters entered Tuesday tied with the Blue Jays and Braves for eighth most (24). Their catchers were tied for 25th most with four other teams (17).
“We know as an entire group, we need to be a lot more aggressive,” hitting coach Grant Fink said. “We're just not aggressive enough. … We do not want to be tentative with it. It's OK to miss some, as long as we're ripping them off at the right times.”
You can imagine what some of those times include: with runners on base or in scoring position; if overturning a call can flip an at-bat or if it can turn a strikeout to a walk; and if the original call was an obvious miss.
“Ideally, in their minds, we're leaving with none, or at least only one,” Steven Kwan said.
The learning curve is real
Balls and strikes were called one way for over a century, and this is an adjustment. Consider life for a catcher: Each hitter has a personal strike zone and was measured for it during Spring Training. Catchers must adjust each at-bat.
“There is a true difference in when a 6-5 guy comes up versus a 5-10 guy,” Fry said. “There's actually a difference in that zone.”
Among hitters, Kwan said he’s still learning the top of his strike zone, among other things, including getting a feel for the best time to challenge. He was the first Guardian to use ABS this season. He challenged a called-strike three that was upheld in the third inning on Opening Day.
Fink also noted there have been a few instances where a guy forgot he could challenge. It’s understandable considering a hitter has a lot of things to focus on while at the plate, and the limited window to challenge. Perhaps an umpire’s call is quiet, and by the time a hitter realizes they should challenge, it’s too late to do so.
These are all things that, over time, will subside as ABS becomes second nature for players, not unlike the pitch clock, as Fry noted.
“Now it's like, ‘Oh, I forgot what [the game] was like pre-pitch clock,’” Fry said. “It's gonna be one of those things, it's just another part of the game.”