Robbie Manfred Does It Again!! All 30 Triple-A Ballparks Will Use Robot Umps This Season

"The electronic strike zone will be used in all 30 Class AAA parks in 2023, sources told ESPN, seemingly another significant step toward the implementation of the technology at the big league level in the near future.

The Automatic Balls and Strikes system, commonly referred to as ABS, will be deployed in two different ways. Half of the Class AAA games will be played with all of the calls determined by an electronic strike zone, and the other half will be played with an ABS challenge system similar to that used in professional tennis."

I think we all knew this was coming eventually, but now it's inching closer to the big leagues. Big man Buster is reporting that all 30 stadiums in AAA ballparks will be equipped with the automatic balls and strikes system, so now you can't yell at your favorite umpire when he blows a strike on the outside corner! Blame the robots! It's not "if" it will get to the bigs, it's "when". We've seen it used in the Atlantic League, Arizona Fall League, some Single-A parks and now we will see it all over Triple-A. 

We're also going to see the challenge system that goes along with it. A lot of us thought the challenges would slow the game down and all that. But if it's like what we saw with Jasson Dominguez in the AFL than it may not be that bad for the automated balls and strikes system. The replay only takes what, 10 seconds? You get the call right and you move on. 

You obviously will have to limit how many challenges each team gets and that is a whole new strategy. Do you blow a challenge on a 2-1 count in the 2nd if it is clearly a ball? Or are you holding onto your challenges for the later innings when you may need them more for a big call. The ABS system is also going to completely change how some catchers line up and how they receive the pitch. Are we done with pitch framing? Is ABS going to adjust the zone for a guy like Jose Altuve vs a guy like Aaron Judge? Is there a way to glitch out the camera and frame the pitch to fool the cameras? Probably not, robots are smarter than all of us. 

If this ABS system is successful at this level it's a no brainer that we will see it in MLB Parks and I'm not a fan of this at all. I love the human element of the umpires and their strike zone. Do you want the calls to be right? Yes. But you have to leave human element in the game. You have to. You have to let catchers frame pitches, you have to let them control the game. By removing the balls and strikes calls from the umpire you are basically just making sure the catchers are blocking balls in the dirt and throwing out runners, reward the guys like Adley Rutschman and Jose Trevino for their pitch framing. I get why they are doing this but this isn't baseball, it's not.