Behind the Scenes of the Automatic Balls and Strikes System

This season MLB teams will have the ability to challenge ball and strike calls made by the home plate umpire. The system used is called the Automatic Balls and Strikes system and it is run by Major League Baseball.

Each team begins the game with two challenges. A pitch call can only be challenged by the batter, catcher, or pitcher and must be done immediately following the call. At that point the home plate umpire seeks assistance from the ABS system and a graphic of the pitch is shown to the crowd on the video board.

If the umpire was correct, the call is upheld and the team loses that challenge. However, if the call is overturned the team retains that challenge. Overall, calls are upheld far more often than overturned.

I sat behind the two men operating the ABS system at the Angels vs. Royals game in Tempe yesterday and observed how it works in real time.

It looks like a much more advanced version of Gameday.

As you can see from the cover picture, the graphics look quite familiar to anybody who has followed a gamecast on MLB. There is a graphic of a batter and a strike zone. The pitch is tracked via trackman and displayed on that screen.

What is different is that the ABS system tracks more data and appears to have calibration settings along the margins. Also, the screen flashes green for a ball and red for a strike making it far easier to keep up to speed in real time.

There is a surprising amount of communication with the home plate umpire.

The primary technician running the ABS system has a headset and microphone that is linked with the home plate umpire. Prior to first pitch, the home plate umpire was looking for the technician so he knew where to signal. The technician was able to guide him and waive to him.

No communication happens during an inning unless there is a challenge. However, the umpire asked about specific calls after several half innings. Full disclosure, I could not hear the umpire but I could hear the responses by the technician. I am making an assumption but the responses make the questions obvious.

For example, after the top of the first inning the technician told the umpire he had only missed one call and that it was by about an inch and a half. After the bottom of the first inning the technician looked back at a specific pitch and said "you were right on that one."

Umpires can also ask the technician to mark a certain call so they can review it later. Major League umpires are the top of their profession and using the system to get even better.

The ABS system is quick.

There was one ABS review while I was in the booth sitting behind the technicians. In the top of the 4th Angels pitcher Jack Kochanowicz was awarded a strike that was challenged by the Royals hitter. As the display of the pitch along with the green border on the screen was still visible, the correct call was made within seconds and the game resumed.

ABS technicians are not allowed to answer questions from the media.

While the overall workings of the system are pretty obvious, I was curious and asked the technicians a question between the first and second innings. They politely told me they could not answer questions from the media but appreciated I was so fascinated by their work.

There could be a number of explanations for this. The Cactus League is Spring Tranining for everybody including umpires and staff. There were two technicians working the game and they talked fairly discreetly between innings but they were in the press box surrounded by media so it isn't all that secretive.

What I did notice is just how easy it is to lose track of the game flow while watching and categorizing each individual pitch. With new data every 10-20 seconds to record there's little time to realize there is a man on second base or even the score. It will take a very focused crew to run this system and these technicians will earn whatever MLB is paying them.

The biggest surprise was the level of communication between the umpire and technicians. Working in tandem is always better than working alone.