The major ethics issues animating discussion early in the baseball season are arising from the new computer ball and strike calling system, or ABS. Each team begins with two challenges. A batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge any strike or ball call at home plate, but must do it immediately by announcing “Challenge!” and touching his cap. Challenges that are made after two seconds elapse may be disallowed by the umpire. If a challenge results in a changed call, that challenge is preserved. If not, it is lost.
Already, game results have been affected by the rule. That’s not a surprise at all. Major League Baseball (MLB) umpires miss an average of about 10 to 15 calls per game; the overall accuracy rate was around 92%. in 2025. Every game generally includes at least one incorrect call, and it is estimated that 8.5% of all games have bad calls that alter the score. The accuracy of the umpires has increased since computers started double-checking them, but umpires still made 26,567 incorrect ball and strike calls during the 2025 MLB regular season, and any one of them might have altered a game’s outcome. Some early results:
1. The younger players are better at challenging than the veterans, because the system was used in the minor leagues the last couple of years. Red Sox player Trevor Story was called out on strikes on a pitch that looked well out of the strike zone, but didn’t challenge. Sox TV color man Lou Merloni, an ex-player, said that after a career of thinking that an umpire’s call was final, veteran players are likely not to remember that they could challenge until the two seconds have passed. Now players are being criticized for their strike-challenging skills.
Ethics Alarms 
C.B. BUCKnor.
(I know because Bob Brenley sings out/spits out that name any time C.B.’s calling a Diamondbacks game. Brenley evidently goes way back with him and his ineptitude.
Stupid of me. I have a weird habit of forgetting the names of people I detest. He’s such a terrible umpire. Fixed.
He delegitimizes the umpire’s union and MLB’s administration of the game.
Bill “Billy Buck” Buckner is probably still rattling around in you brain as well.
“(C.B. Bucknor’s) such a terrible umpire.”
So, might putting him on 1st base instead of behind the plate lessen the impact of his gross incompetence?
Not Exactly…
PWS
Half-measure. He should be fired. The union protects him.
You beat me to it, Paulie. MLB umpire CB Bucknor ridiculed for bad call | Fox News
That’s ’cause I watched it in REAL TIME against MY Milwaukee Brewers….not knowing at the time it was the phuque-wit to whom you were referring.
The announcers were pleasantly unimpressed…
PWS
Two seconds? Ridiculous. The whole appeal regime is a huge Rube Goldberg machine that’s not even necessary. “Now players are being criticized for their strike-challenging skills.” WHAT? Why aren’t umpires being criticized for their pitch calling skills? This is just featherbedding by the umpires union and MLB.
Should it be 5 seconds? 10 seconds?
It should be a giant display over the center of the outfield that says “Ball” or “Strike” for each pitch. There is still plenty for the umpire to do beyond the ball and strike calls. There is no reason, at all, to support not just letting the computer do something that it is clearly better at doing.
I volunteer as a youth league official. I’d HAPPILY be replaced by a computer that does a better job than me. Making a call in a state championship SUCKS.
This song came to mind…but what else IS there for an umpire to do (I don’t watch that much baseball I’m afraid):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04N1yEjMZas
Thank you, Matthew. As usual, the EA commentariat has a reporter on the ground. Right behind home plate.
If the technology is there to call balls and strikes, and the calls by the ABS system are more reliable than calls by a human umpire, then why don’t we by default let ABS call all balls and strikes , hereby eliminating human error?
I think that progression is inevitable, because you are right: if the technology is there and is superior, why not commit to it? But the brass may be right that such a revolution will be too jarring in a single step. They also have calculated that the challenge dynamic will add to the strategy of the game. I suspect there are some umpire labor relations issues underlying the matter as well.
“I suspect there are some umpire labor relations issues underlying the matter as well.”
YA THINK?!
It will add to the strategy of the game, I agree, just as regular challenges by managers have become an indelible feature — every time there’s a close call, the cameras shift to the manager holding up a finger.
Challenges to decisions of umpires add to the drama of the game but do nothing to add to the integrity of the game. Moving to ABS prioritizes integrity over drama as it should. The purpose of the game is to win from the other team; the umpire should not be a factor deciding the game.
I was looking at some stats last night on ABS to date (less than a week, to be sure). The overturn rate was almost exactly 50%. I forget now whether it was position players or catchers who were at 54% success rate.
There was also a pre-season article on who players thought would be best at making ABS challenges (yes they really did ask that question). There were a handful of players that got high (presumptive) marks, but also there seemed to be a consensus that pitchers would not be able to be good challengers, simply because they were too far away.
I expect ABS challenge success rate to be a quoted stat well before the end of this season.