Weiss: Communication key as replay evolves

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- With the mechanics of instant replay still being discussed, Rockies manager Walt Weiss said the club is trying to figure out how it will handle possible replay challenges.

Most likely, the Rockies will have to assign some personnel on a rotating basis -- it won't be one person for 162 games -- to monitor replays and try to deliver word to Weiss in the dugout whether to challenge a call. But how that will occur, especially with video rooms in different places depending on the park, and who will do it are variables.

"We don't have all the answers yet," Weiss said. "There's got to be some kind of rapport there between the manager and whoever is up there watching."

Video rooms must be in an area where a door may be closed and can't be in the dugout. The rule is to prevent signs from being stolen by the opposition and relayed to players. At Coors Field, for example, the Rockies' video room is down a runway from the dugout, up a short flight of stairs, then down a hallway. How word will be relayed from the video monitor, and how quickly that can happen, are to be determined as well as who will be doing the monitoring and communicating.

It's different from football, where coaches are seeing the video and relaying info into a headset to the head coach. It sets up for someone possibly unknown to the public, being in position to provide crucial information that could determine a baseball game. Weiss said he will not ever make that person a fall guy if the challenge goes wrong.

"The way I look at it, it's never going to be that guy's fault," Weiss said. "Ultimately, I'm the one.

"Whoever it is, that's how I'll communicate it to him: 'It's going to be on me. It's not going to be on you.'"