St. Paul Saints play first home game with new automated strike zone
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Fans at CHS Field may notice eight new cameras, mounted around the stadium. They're there as key parts of a new automated strike zone called "ABS" – or "Automated Balls and Strikes."
Last week, the system was implemented across all of AAA baseball.
"I think east to west on the corners are really good. North-south, I think I've had some pitches where I'm like, 'Oh, that could've been a strike,'" said St. Paul Saints catcher Tony Wolters.
Not everyone is 100% on board. But it's widely agreed: the less-fluid zone benefits hitters more than pitchers.
"Pitchers have always been able to just throw to certain spots. And if they hit the spots enough, then the umpire is eventually gonna start calling it a strike," said Saints manager Toby Gardenhire. "Or they know what the umpire is gonna call and what he's not gonna call, so they pitch to that. Now, there's no human element in it at all."
Here's how it works: the cameras track the pitch, then send the data to the server, which sends the result of the pitch to the human umpire's headset and he makes the verbal call.
"I wanna swing at strikes and the zone doesn't change," said Wolters. "It feels like it stays very consistent, so you can know the zone a little bit better."
The system is used fully in the first half of the week's games. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, teams still use a human home plate umpire. But players can challenge balls and strikes. The result of that challenge is displayed live on the stadium's jumbotron for everyone to see. The Saints won a challenge on the road last week, when Kyle Garlick had a strikeout overturned.
"The guys were more excited about that than they were about anything all game long. One challenge we win, and they're all jumping up and down and screaming," laughed Gardenhire.
There are in-stadium operators who select the correct batter. The strike zone is still bigger or smaller depending on a player's height.
"Usually things like this, if they get to AAA then that means they're pretty close to making it to the big leagues, so I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see this in the big leagues here in the next year or so," said Gardenhire.
There's no point in arguing – automated balls and strikes is the future.
