This year's MLB spring training could prove more consequential than any in years past as MLB will experiment with ABS, the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, to ensure the home plate umpire gets as many ball and strike calls correct as possible. On Thursday, the league announced how exactly this new challenge system will unfold.
Teams will have two challenges each at the beginning of each game. They are permitted to use a challenge whenever they'd like to challenge a ball or strike call; the ABS, or the robot umpires, will determine whether the pitch was indeed a ball or a strike. A successful challenge will change the call and teams will be able to keep the challenge. A failed attempt, though, forces a team to lose a challenge.
