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Toronto Sun
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Robot umpires to make All-Star Game debut, another step toward possible regular-season use in 2026
Published Jul 14, 2025 • 2 minute read FILE - The Automated Ball-Strike System plays on the scoreboard after a pitch call was challenged during the first inning of a spring training baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the San Diego Padres, Feb. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. Photo by Carolyn Kaster / AP ATLANTA — Tarik Skubal views the strike zone differently than robot umpires. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'I have this thing where I think everything is a strike until the umpire calls it a ball,' Detroit's AL Cy Young Award winner said ahead of his start for the American League in Tuesday night's All-Star Game. MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 and will use it in an All-Star Game for the first time this summer. Each team gets two challenges and retains the challenge if it is successful. 'Pitchers think everything is a strike. Then you go back and look at it, and it's two, three balls off,' Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes, starting his second straight All-Star Game for the National League, said Monday. 'We should not be the ones that are challenging it.' MLB sets the top of the automated strike zone at 53.5% of a batter's height and the bottom at 27%, basing the decision on the midpoint of the plate, 8 1/2 inches from the front and 8 1/2 inches from the back. That contrasts with the rule book zone called by umpires, which says the zone is a cube. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I did a few rehabs starts with it. I'm OK with it. I think it works,' said three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. 'Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve should have different sized boxes. They've obviously thought about that. As long as that gets figured out, I think it'll be fine.' Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred anticipates the system will be considered by the sport's 11-man competition committee, which includes six management representatives. Many pitchers have gravitated to letting their catchers and managers trigger ball/strike appeals. Teams won 52.2% of their challenges during the spring training test. Batters won exactly 50% of their 596 challenges and the defense 54%, with catchers successful 56% of the time and pitchers 41%. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hall of Famer Joe Torre, an honorary AL coach, favors the system. After his managing career, he worked for MLB and helped supervised expanded video review in 2014. 'You couldn't ignore it with all the technology out there,' he said. 'You couldn't sit and make an excuse for, 'Look at what really happened' the next day.' Now 84, Torre recalled how his Yankees teams benefitted at least twice from blown calls in the postseason, including one involving the strike zone. With the 1998 World Series opener tied and the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning, Tino Martinez took a 2-2 pitch from San Diego's Mark Langston that appeared to be a strike but was called a ball by Richie Garcia. Martinez hit a grand slam on the next pitch for a 9-5 lead, and the Yankees went on to a four-game sweep. Asked whether he was happy there was no robot umpire then, Torre grinned and said: 'Possibly.' Then he added without a prompt: 'Well, not to mention the home run that Jeter hit.' His reference was to Derek Jeter's home run in the 1996 AL Championship Series opener, when 12-year-old fan Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall to snatch the ball above the glove over Baltimore right fielder Tony Tarasco. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Columnists Columnists NFL NHL Golf
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Robots are closing in! MLB to use Automated Ball-Strike challenge system during All-Star Game
Feb. 2025 photo of the Automated Ball-Strike System plays on the scoreboard after a pitch call was challenged during the second inning of a spring training baseball game in Phoenix. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press) The MLB All-Star Game has served disparate purposes over the years. It always has been a showcase for baseball's top talent. Once upon a time, the outcome determined home field advantage in the World Series. In recent years, it has been a fashion runway for ridiculous uniforms. This year, it will be an incubator. Advertisement The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System will take its next measured step toward regular-season implementation when it is used in the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Atlanta. Just as ABS was conducted during spring training, each team will get two challenges that can be made only by the pitcher, catcher or batter. Successful challenges are retained. The player making a challenge taps his cap or helmet to let the plate umpire know that his ball or strike call will be reviewed. The ubiquitous Hawk-Eye system tracks the trajectory and location of the pitch and and a graphic of the pitch is displayed on the scoreboard while the call is being reviewed. Read more: The Dodgers need a break, and a lot of help | Dodgers Debate Advertisement In the minor leagues, ABS has been tested since 2021 and the ABS challenge was implemented in 2022. Major leaguers got their first taste during spring training. Result? Not much difference from the calls made by human umpires. Strikeouts were reduced slightly and walks increased a tick. 'We have made a lot of progress in the way the system works,' MLB vice president of on-field strategy Joe Martinez said at a media-demonstration session during spring training, 'and also the way we weave the system into the game play. And we're at a point in triple-A where we have a system that the players like, the coaches like, the umpires like and the fans like.' The shape of a major league strike zone as called by umpires isn't the precise cube seen on television but takes a rounded form that bulges wider in the middle of the zone and tightens at the top and bottom. Advertisement Human umpires continue to improve, in no small part because pitch tracking puts every call under a microscope. MLB umpires have improved their accuracy in calling balls and strikes every year since pitch tracking technology was introduced in 2008, according to FanGraphs. Accuracy has spiked from 81.3% to 92.4%. Expressed another way, incorrect calls have been reduced by nearly 60% in 15 years. Read more: Clayton Kershaw grateful for 'weird but cool' All-Star selection as 'Legend Pick' Major League Baseball negotiated a change with the umpires association last offseason in how home-plate umpires are evaluated, effectively tightening the strike zone. The change decreased the margin of error for umpires in their evaluations, resulting in fewer called strikes off the edges of the plate. Still, a handful of calls are missed in nearly every game, and the all-stars will have an opportunity to tap their caps and challenge at least two calls per team. Should the experiment be a hit with participants and fans, the next step will be for the 11-person MLB competition committee to consider implementing the challenge system for the 2026 regular season. Advertisement All-Star notes — All-Stars will wear what they wear during regular-season games, meaning those unsightly uniforms that were uniformly panned by players and fans the last several years will remain in a closet somewhere. This will be the first year since 2019 that players wear the regular-season uniforms of their teams. — Department of serendipity: The All-Star Game will take place on Tuesday (7/15) in Atlanta, the number and location of Hank Aaron's historic home run in 1974 that vaulted him past Babe Ruth to become MLB's all-time leader at the time. Hammerin' Hank blasted No. 715 off the Dodgers' Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The tribute will re-create the moment through the use of projection mapping and custom pyrotechnics at the end of the sixth inning. — MLB All-Star week begins Saturday with the Futures Game. The MLB draft will be held Sunday, the Home Run Derby is scheduled for Monday with the All-Star Game taking place Tuesday. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
All-Stars Abbott, De La Cruz help Reds beat Marlins 7-2, halt Miami's 11-game road winning streak
Cincinnati Reds' Noelvi Marte celebrates in the dugout after hitting a two-run homer during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds' Will Benson celebrates as he crosses home plate after hitting a solo home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Miami Marlins pitcher Valente Bellozo throws during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz celebrated in the dugout after Will Benson hit a solo home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds' Noelvi Marte celebrates in the dugout after hitting a two-run homer during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds' Will Benson celebrates as he crosses home plate after hitting a solo home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Miami Marlins pitcher Valente Bellozo throws during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds' Elly De La Cruz celebrated in the dugout after Will Benson hit a solo home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Cincinnati Reds pitcher Andrew Abbott throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Cincinnati, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) CINCINNATI (AP) — Andrew Abbott pitched seven innings of shutout ball a day after being named an All-Star, Elly De La Cruz hit a pair of RBI doubles and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Marlins 7-2 on Wednesday night, snapping Miami's franchise-record 11-game road winning streak. Abbott (8-1) was named to the NL All-Star team on Tuesday, replacing Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Advertisement Against Miami, Abbott allowed one run on six hits and two walks while striking out five. The 26-year-old left-hander lost his shutout bid and left the game when Heriberto Hernández hit a two-out RBI single in the eighth. The Reds ended a four-game skid. The Reds scored three runs in the first and fourth innings with De La Cruz hitting RBI doubles in each. Noelvi Marte hit a two-run homer, his fourth of the season, in the fourth. Will Benson added his eighth homer in the eighth. Reds manager Terry Francona moved within three wins of his 2,000th career victory as a manager. Miami's Sandy Alcantara (4-9) gave up nine hits and six runs over five innings. Connor Norby hit his sixth homer of the year off Emilio Pagán in the ninth. Advertisement Key moment De La Cruz sparked a three-run first inning with an RBI double to get the Reds on the board. Austin Hays and Tyler Stephenson added RBI hits, and the Reds never looked back. Key stat Abbott has given up more than one earned run in just three of his 16 starts this season. Up next Miami's Cal Quantrill (3-7, 5.40) pitches against Cincinnati's Nick Lodolo (5-6, 3.58) on Thursday. ___ AP MLB:
Japan Today
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Japan Today
MLB plans to use robot umpire challenge system in All-Star Game next week
FILE - The Automated Ball-Strike System plays on the scoreboard after a pitch call was challenged during the first inning of a spring training baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the San Diego Padres, Feb. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) baseball Major League Baseball plans to use its robot umpire technology for ball-strike challenges in Tuesday's All-Star Game at Atlanta, another step toward possible regular-season use next season. MLB said Wednesday it intends to make the All-Star announcement Thursday. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges during the spring training test, with 617 of 1,182 challenges successful in the 288 exhibition games using the Automated Ball-Strike System. ABS was installed at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams, and an animation of the pitch was shown on video boards displaying the challenge result for spectators to see. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last month that the ABS system was likely to be considered for regular-season use by the 11-man competition committee, which includes six management representatives. 'I do think that we're going to pursue the possibility of change in that process and we'll see what comes out at the end of that,' he said. 'The teams are really positive about ABS. I do have that unscientific system that I use: my email traffic. And my distinct impression is that using ABS in spring training has made people more prone to complain of balls and strike calls via email to me referencing the need for ABS.' During the 2024 regular season, 10.9% of called pitches in the strike zone were ruled balls and 6.3% of called pitches outside of the strike zone were ruled strikes, according to MLB Statcast. MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Toronto Sun
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
MLB plans to use robot umpire challenge system in All-Star Game next week
Published Jul 09, 2025 • 1 minute read FILE - The Automated Ball-Strike System plays on the scoreboard after a pitch call was challenged during the first inning of a spring training baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the San Diego Padres, Feb. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. Photo by Carolyn Kaster / AP Major League Baseball plans to use its robot umpire technology for ball-strike challenges in Tuesday's All-Star Game at Atlanta, another step toward possible regular-season use next season. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account MLB said Wednesday it intends to make the All-Star announcement Thursday. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges during the spring training test, with 617 of 1,182 challenges successful in the 288 exhibition games using the Automated Ball-Strike System. ABS was installed at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams, and an animation of the pitch was shown on video boards displaying the challenge result for spectators to see. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last month that the ABS system was likely to be considered for regular-season use by the 11-man competition committee, which includes six management representatives. 'I do think that we're going to pursue the possibility of change in that process and we'll see what comes out at the end of that,' he said. 'The teams are really positive about ABS. I do have that unscientific system that I use: my email traffic. And my distinct impression is that using ABS in spring training has made people more prone to complain of balls and strike calls via email to me referencing the need for ABS.' During the 2024 regular season, 10.9% of called pitches in the strike zone were ruled balls and 6.3% of called pitches outside of the strike zone were ruled strikes, according to MLB Statcast. MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019. Olympics Basketball Uncategorized Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA
