MLB Installs 12-Camera Robot Umpire System for 2 Challenges per Team
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 2
MLB Installs 12-Camera Robot Umpire System for 2 Challenges per Team
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 2
Summary
Major League Baseball has put its Automated Ball-Strike challenge system into use, limiting reviews to two challenges per team over nine innings, with successful challenges replenished.
The A.B.S. relies on 12 Hawk-Eye cameras and AI analysis to track each pitch and estimate its location to within a hundredth of an inch.
The system currently affects only one or two calls a game, but critics argue it points toward a future in which automated strike-zone rulings replace human judgment on every pitch.
That debate has turned the rollout into a broader argument over whether baseball should preserve one of its last visible human elements behind home plate.