Automated ball-strike (ABS)

The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system goes live this year. And as much as I hate an obviously bad call, I believe this is another step away from a tradition-based, romantic, agrarian—human!—pastime into something more sterile. I still vacillate about the pitch clock. Iʻm happy that the pointless superstitions of a lifetime .225 hitter, endlessly fidgeting with his hands in glove and feet in dirt, have been eliminated (for the most part). But you also sacrifice those aching moments, tied late with a 3-2 count and runners in scoring position, when the pitcher takes his time and draws out each pitch to whenever the hell heʻs ready. The ABS, though? Why donʻt we just build AI robots and let them perfectly play every position, while multi-camera AI umpires make perfect calls? Umpires do a very good job in real-time. And they have personalities, and thatʻs part of the game. We all know who the shitty umpires are (Angel Hernandez, anyone?), but they are easily identified and essentially ostracized. Weʻll see how it goes. My gut feeling is that we donʻt need it. My overreaction take is that this rule brings us one step closer to Skynet becoming self-aware, and deciding we are no longer the proper solution to the problem of existence.