MLB is putting a spotlight on the next generation of players this week with a series of games called the Spring Breakout that feature rosters of franchises’ top prospects. And because the games are being played under minor league rules, fans were treated to another look at the future of the game.
The minor leagues use the so-called “challenge system” to call balls and strikes, under which the home plate umpire calls the pitches but both teams have the ability to challenge a call. When a challenge is made, the final call is made by the Hawk-Eye pitch tracking system.
In the second inning of Thursday’s game between the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates prospects, Baltimore’s Cade Povich delivered a pitch near the corner of the zone that the umpire called a ball. Catcher Silas Ardoin wasn’t sure the ump made the right call, so he challenged it. Hawk-Eye determined that the ball just barely nicked the corner of the strike zone, and so the call was overturned.
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