This year at Triple-A, the automated ball-strike system is responsible for calling all pitches Tuesday through Thursday, while a challenge system is in place Friday through Sunday.
In the challenge system, umpires call balls and strikes but pitchers, catchers and hitters can challenge calls, which are then directed to the automated ball-strike system. Each team gets three unsuccessful challenges per game.
The challenge system was in place during the Spring Breakout games in March, and one at-bat in particular showed the impact it can have:
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 17, 2024An overturned strikeout becomes a double to left field. How about that?
Top-ranked @Dbacks prospect Jordan Lawlar (MLB No. 11)'s pivotal challenge jump-starts a two-run inning. pic.twitter.com/6JrwV2qec2
There’s been talk in recent years about the challenge system potentially coming to the big leagues. Former Orioles right-hander Kyle Gibson is in favor of the idea.
“I think it’d be really cool for fans and the experience at the game,” Gibson said on Glenn Clark Radio May 21. “I think it takes a little bit of pressure off of the umpires in certain situations because they obviously want to get all the calls right and they’re doing their best to do so. That kind of helps them out, I think. I think it takes some of the arguing out of it and some of the banter, maybe keep some players in the game because once you’re out of challenges, you can’t argue. Once you use your challenges, you get the call, right or wrong.”
Rather than the entire team getting two or three unsuccessful challenges, Gibson believes hitters should each get one challenge a game and pitchers should get two or three.
“I just think if you have two or three a game [per team], you’re going to end up with players bantering back and forth about who gets to use the challenges,” Gibson said. “So I would rather them be individual players in charge of their own one challenge a game and whenever they want to use it, they can use it.”
Gibson, in the midst of a solid season with the Cardinals, touched on other topics, including …
On why he has such good memories from his time with the Orioles in 2023:
“I just think it really is no different for most people at their job, right? If you are around a group of people you enjoy being around and you’re all there for each other trying to push for a common goal, then you normally make some memories. You normally have some fun that you’re going to remember, and that’s what we did. It was a young group of guys with a few veterans mixed in that they brought in and a few veterans that were already there. We really weren’t expected to do a whole lot, but internally we knew we had a pretty good team and we beat some expectations and had some fun doing it. Even though it was a short time, I’ve tried to do my best the last few years in this game that I’ve been playing to really be present and be where I’m at and to enjoy it. Those young guys pushed me out of my comfort zone now and then and had me maybe having a little bit more fun than I normally would have, whether it was water hoses or doing the sprinkler or you name it. But that’s what makes it all part of the fun.”
On why it’s important to build the kind of culture the Orioles have:
“I think there’s something to be said about when guys get called up and they’re already comfortable with the people around them. That makes a big difference. Guys were already comfortable. Being young in the game, that’s tough to do. Or you lose a couple games and nobody’s fazed because they’re still doing the same thing because they’re having fun. They’re finding ways to entertain themselves, either at the field or on the road to make sure that everybody’s staying together and staying loose. That’s part of culture. … When you’re in a slump or you’re struggling on the mound, every now and then you kind of look around like, ‘Is everyone looking at me right now because I’m the one struggling?’ Well, a good culture kind of takes that away, and there’s not as much friction because when somebody struggles … everybody’s there trying to pick him up and making sure he’s ready for the next game because you’re going to need that guy.”
On why there was no panic when Gunnar Henderson was hitting .201/.332/.370 through the end of May last year:
“There was zero panic in that locker room about Gunnar Henderson being really, really good. The quality of at-bats that he was taking when he was struggling, if you can walk at the high clip that he was walking at, I think that’s the sustainability — on-base percentage — that people … get excited about. And then I think it was just some of seeing how pitchers were going to pitch him and seeing which pitches from each guy he’s going to be able to hit and find his hot zones and kind of be stingy to it and sticking to his strengths and figuring out when he needs to expand every now and then to protect. It was only a matter of time, as those guys in the locker room saw last year.”
For more from Gibson, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: St. Louis Cardinals Archive
