Saturday’s Yankees versus Red Sox game came under scrutiny when DJ LeMahieu hit the chalk on the 1st base foul line, but the play was called “foul”. It’s a judgment call, initially. Yankees manager Aaron Boone later argued that that judgment call set a poor standard for the potential of the call getting overturned. After the game, Yankees beat writers mused that MLB should implement something like how tennis has done for the same kind of in/out-of-bounds kind of play.
It’s not like the technology doesn’t exist. HawkEye is the same system used both in tennis as in baseball. It’s the system used for pitch placement with ABS, skeletal frames you may see replays of, plus lots of other data. Goodness, HawkEye has been upholding and overturning in/out calls since being implemented in 2001 with cricket.
In the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader in Tampa, I saw the first check swing challenge. Home plate umpire called no swing, field ump confirmed; upheld.
Two pitches later, it happened again. Same swing: umpire said batter swung, no challenge because Clearwater ran out of challenges (you only get the one challenge). I spoke to two scouts about this yesterday, and they noted that they didn’t like the challenge because of the inconsistency.
Our mutual thought was, “why have the challenge if the rule is inconsistent? If it’s the same swing, you have to call them the same.” I think only having the one challenge to use is an issue, especially if an umpire is being inconsistent like this. Further, I think it’s frustrating for many parties with these judgment calls, whether it’s the check swing or other plays, when there’s only one umpire on the field in these Low-A and FCL games in Florida.
It seems that MLB is trying to create a firm rule for where there used to be a judgment call. I was surprised to learn that that wasn’t actually a rule but instead a judgment call by the umpires. The unwritten rule is that the bat can’t break the front plane of the plate. However, MLB/MiLB has it in the Florida State League where anything past a 45-degree angle from the front plane of the plate. They note in this article that “the previous wiggle room has led to some wide interpretations of a swing over the years. Every so often, online clips go viral from Game 7 of the 1965 World Series of Don Mincher nearly bringing the bat around his entire body on pitches from Sandy Koufax, only to be called as non-swings.”
The first test (seen above) was implemented in the 2024 Arizona Fall League season, and maybe it makes more sense if it’s visualized as the video shows. At “The Tank”, the Tarpons’ home field for 2025, there is no video scoreboard, only a primitive scoreboard like you’d see at a high school or D-III college. Perhaps at any of the other stadiums across the Florida State League where they also display pitch challenges it may make more sense, but without visuals it’s difficult to wrap your head around. Before ABS calls were shown on the scoreboard, you could still see the pitches come in via the Baseball Savant site.
One of the tests that baseball has done the past few years is the “pie slice”, which prevents too much of a shift and puts a 45-degree angle around second base. It led, in a way, to the current shift rules implemented by Major League baseball where teams have to have two infielders on each side of second base, except for when an outfielder is brought in. It provides more defensive strategy, but the pie slice was supposed to encourage more offense so that if the batter were to hit a ball over the “pie slice”, there wouldn’t be a defender in the way to stop the ball.
In case you haven’t watched a Low-A game anytime recently, most batters cannot control the ball as well as a Major Leaguer, like say Aaron Judge, can, so the point of creating more offense is rather limited.
Some rules tested in the FSL, like the shift rule, have been implemented in the Majors. Most notably, the larger bases, increased to 18 inch squares from 15 inch squares, were a test in late 2022. Apparently both teams and players liked the change, especially in regard to player safety, and it was implemented in the Majors in 2023.
In 2021, alongside ABS testing, MLB/MiLB tested limiting pickoffs in the FSL like what we see now in the Majors where pitchers are limited to 2 pickoff attempts per at-bat with a third failed pickoff resulting in a balk. Also in 2021, the pitch timer was implemented, again like what is currently used in the Majors.
Revisiting the original discussion, I think most fans would agree that MLB should use the technology already installed in stadiums and actively used by the league and teams and have a system in place to be able to challenge calls like what we saw on Saturday. The video above that discussed HawkEye noted that it is accurate on dirt and clay, despite not being used at Roland Garros. And of course it is, since it’s been used in cricket for over two decades.
I should also add that the commentators on the Dodgers/Padres game on Monday night were discussing how awful of a check swing call they saw in the top of the 1st inning. As the inning went on, they kept griping about how it should have been strike 3, preventing a Padres run from coming in. They also mentioned that there should be a rule instead of being a judgment call.
I don’t necessarily agree that the “no swing” determination should be greater than 45-degrees past the front plane of home plate. I think it should go off of what is the unwritten rule of not going past that front plane. What happens when these players get promoted to High-A where they go back to the unwritten rule guidance? I suppose the same can be said with how the size and shape of the strike zone is different in the Florida State League compared to the “traditional” strike zone. The strike zone is 20 inches wide (1.5″ wider on each side of the plate) with a two-dimensional rectangle at the midpoint of the plate. The top and bottom of the strike zone is set at 53.5% and 27% of the batter’s height, respectively.
Do you like the changes that MLB has made lately, and do you agree with the various tests that are being done in the Minors?
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