MLB All-Star Game is leveling up its intrigue by unveiling automated strike zone

San Francisco Chronicle​

5 days ago

Major League Baseball tends to come up short on planning ahead. While the Oakland A's franchise caught fire, the higher-ups just sat back and watched it burn. As ballgames crept toward midnight, it took years to institute the simple rules that changed everything.
Now, all of a sudden, we will have an automatic strike zone in the game next season. That's what we're told, anyway, and the lead-up is about as informative as the trailer for 'Alien.' You don't have the slightest idea what's coming.
It won't be robots in umpires' clothing, in case you've been away. Tuesday's All-Star Game will feature the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), a clever way of retaining the umpires but allowing pitchers, hitters and catchers to challenge — and ideally reverse — a bad call.
Teams are allowed two challenges per game, but if they are correct, they're allowed to keep it. Managers have no say in the matter. The challenge must come quickly, and the digital response will be immediate. Video boards will allow fans to view the result at the same time as the teams.
It really does sound quite reasonable, but why keep it under wraps? Just when everyone looked forward to ABS throughout this year's spring training, only 13 ballparks had the technology installed and many players got only a fleeting glimpse. Now it emerges from secrecy, in the All-Star Game, apparently destined for full-time use in 2026.
A great number of players have experienced ABS, which has been used extensively in the minor leagues, but that's a far cry from digital responses deciding a Giants-Dodgers game in September — or the seventh game of a World Series riding on somebody's challenge.
As we prepare to learn on the fly, a few things to keep in mind:
• A lot of All-Stars get only one or two at-bats in the game, and it's a pretty big deal, with families and friends glued to the action. If they're called out on strikes by a terrible call in the third inning, they're bound to challenge. When the games start for real, it will be imperative to back off all such notions until the late innings, when games are in the balance.
(Quick note on better times: Willie Mays came to the plate at least four times in 15 different All-Star Games. When the National League rallied for two runs in the 10th inning to win the 1961 game at Candlestick Park, the key figures in that rally were Mays, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente.)
• Fun to think about, especially for those who deeply resent incompetent umpiring: A hitter draws a walk on four straight challenges — strikes reviewed as balls — because the blown calls were just that obvious.
• Catchers are understandably upset about losing the art of 'framing' — turning errant pitches into strikes with a flick of the glove — but they can frame to their hearts' content if the opposing team is out of challenges.
• Still, the whole idea behind the new wave of catching — dropping to one knee, instead of the traditional squat — is to make it easier to 'frame' pitches near the dirt. That's about to become a lost art. At the very least, with a runner on third in a crucial situation, catchers will get off that knee so they'll have a better chance to block a bouncing wild pitch with the body (instead of reaching out like an infielder for an improbable backhand stab).
• In a farewell to nuance, umpires won't have the authority to offer a slightly wider strike zone to masters of control (think Greg Maddux or Tarik Skubal), or tightening it for pitchers whose lack of control becomes an annoyance.
• Handy tip for hitters certain that 'strike three' was a ball: No need to fly into a rage and get yourself ejected by an overly sensitive ump. Simply tap your helmet: the designated request for a challenge. You just might get lucky.
Looking elsewhere
• When the Giants drafted outfielder Dakota Jordan out of Mississippi State last year, scouting reports likened his tools to Bo Jackson's: power, speed, explosiveness and a sense he could do just about anything. Assigned to begin his pro career with the Class A San Jose Giants, Jordan was hitting .303 heading into the weekend with 100 hits, nine homers, 67 RBIs and 27 stolen bases (caught just four times) in 78 games, including a 453-foot grand slam. Definitely a prospect worth following.
• Snapshot from the career of pitcher Bobby Jenks, who tragically died of cancer at 44 this month: Breaking in with the White Sox in 2005, he found himself closing ballgames down the stretch and right through a World Series title. As the final two outs went down in Houston, Jenks got two great plays from his shortstop: diving headlong into the stands to catch a foul ball, then charging a slow hopper over the mound to make a bullet throw. That man was Juan Uribe, known around here as the Giants' third baseman on the 2010 champs.
• Something to remember through the endless procession of batters hit on the hand: It's not always the pitcher's fault. Self-preservation is a foreign language to hitters who stand close to the plate, then dive into a pitch that might be only inches off the strike zone. 'I don't think they're even concerned about it,' Texas manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. 'There's no fear. And I mean, fully committing and going right into the pitch. Some guys just have a hard time turning out of the way.'
• It's always fun to hear national writers compare big-league ballparks, with Oracle always ranked among the best. Except there's no longer a debate, not if you've seen those astonishingly gorgeous drone shots on the Giants' telecasts. The Bay, the marina, the Golden Gate Bridge, the stadium itself from angles you've never seen before — no other park comes close.
• With the WNBA All-Star Game coming up on July 19, people wondered how Caitlin Clark would get along with coach Cheryl Reeve (assigned to Clark's team), who helped keep her off the U.S. Olympic team and always seems ready for a catty dismissal. They mused about Clark selecting Angel Reese as the players' draft went down, perhaps to thaw a simmering but lively rivalry.
No chance. Clark suggested the teams trade coaches, which was nice for opposing captain Napheese Collier (coached by Reeve on the Minnesota Lynx) and for Clark's warm relationship with Sandy Brondello. And as the draft went down, Clark clearly wanted no part of Reese.
Quite likely, the feeling was mutual. But Reese has gone out of her way to discount the 'I hate Caitlin' chatter. She seems just a bit resentful of Clark's runaway popularity.
A couple of NBA comparisons come to mind: Moses Malone, like Reese, was the world's greatest rebounder. Grinding out the dirty work, he didn't get nearly the attention of his Philadelphia 76ers teammate, Julius Erving, who staged mind-blowing shows with his dunks and drives in the early '80s. And when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson broke into the NBA, 'we hated each other at the beginning,' Magic said, 'because we wanted to beat the other guy so badly. Eventually, as everyone knows, we became very close friends.'
Maybe I'm naïve, but in time, I can see Clark and Reese sharing some smiles and laughter. That would be just as compelling as a feud.