ABS Challenge System Has Been Great

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo has but one voice, but his is the one that I am nodding my head to in agreement, and not just because his birth name is Salvatore Anthony, same as mine.

Early this season, Lovullo said of MLB’s implementation of the ABS challenge system, "I like it. I think players just want to get calls right. ... I know the umpires do their absolute best. They're not trying to miss calls. This game has changed over the past several years where the ball's traveling at an extremely high velocity and there's calls that are missed. It's very natural in this game. They figured out a way to perfect it and get it right. Major League Baseball continues to stay ahead of things.”

On that note, look, nothing is perfect. Not the least of which is this newsletter going soon to a paid subscription model which I feel bad about because I know I’m going to lose a lot of you loyal readers who won’t want to pay. I wish I didn’t have to do it, but after five years of doing all this work for free - even though I love it - it was time to try to make a little money as I inch closer and closer to my life as a Social Security collector.

The cost will be $5 per month, the bargain rate is $50 per year. I hope you consider sticking with me. I’m not sure when this will go in effect, but it might happen with Friday’s newsletter. If so, I’ll send an email out Thursday that should have some simple instructions on what to do for those who will become paid subscribers.

So yeah, nothing is perfect, but we are now more than two months into the ABS era, and it is doing exactly what it is supposed to do: When used properly - which is still a struggle for certain players (I’m looking at you Jazz Chisholm) - it is correcting missed balls and strikes, many of them changing outcomes to at bats, and it is doing so quickly and efficiently.

I’ve been a big proponent of ABS ever since it was introduced in the minor leagues and I’ve seen it working excellently here at Triple-A Rochester. For the life of me, I don’t know why it took MLB so long to bring it in after several years of data in the minors.

Unlike instant replay which still gets calls wrong, there is no debating ABS. The computer shows right down to the millimeter where a pitch lands, and there’s no gray area: It’s either a ball or strike and there’s no arguing. The only time a player or manager might argue is if an umpire is repeatedly being challenged and with these calls being so close, you’re bound to lose your allotted two and that pisses them off.

Today, I thought I’d share with you the numbers on how ABS is shaking out, courtesy of Baseball Savant.

Through Tuesday night, there have been 4,538 challenges, and 2,411 were overturned, meaning the umpire missed the call. Here’s the thing: That’s only a 53% turnover rate which shows you, for all our bitching, the umpires are pretty damn good at their job.

Catchers (and the occasional pitcher) are way better than batters at challenging. They have had 58% of their challenges overturned, while the batters have won just 47% of the time.

Now, here’s some team and player data to chew on.

The Diamondbacks’ batters have been the best at challenging, winning 57% of the time, though their wins haven’t been too impactful. Of their 34 wins, they prevented nine strikeouts but created just three walks. Compare that to the Tigers who rank tied for sixth with a 53% win rate, but have prevented a league-best 17 strikeouts and created six walks. The Reds are tied for third at 55%, and they’ve prevented 15 strikeouts and created eight walks. As for the Yankees’ batters, middle of the pack with a 50% win rate, nine strikeouts flipped, four walks created.

Sal Stewart (hey, another Sal!) of the Reds leads MLB with 30 challenges, 11 more than No. 2 Gary Sanchez of the Brewers, so it makes sense that he is No. 1 in overturns with 20, a 67% win rate. Among players with at least 10 challenges, Davis Schneider of the Blue Jays has the best win rate at 75% (9-for-12), followed by the Tigers’ Kevin McGonigle at 71% (12-for-17).

For the Yankees, Jose Caballero leads with 17 challenges and 10 wins, Aaron Judge is 6-for-8, and Trent Grisham 5-for-10. Then there’s Chisholm who is a dreadful 4-for-15, Ben Rice is 3-for-8, Cody Bellinger is 1-for-5 and Paul Goldschmidt is 0-for-3.

On the pitching side, the Cubs lead the way with a 71% win rate on 76 challenges, 16 of which ended up in a strikeout and five preventing a walk. By far, the most aggressive team has been the Marlins with a league-high 125 challenges and 74 wins, but that’s just 59%. The Twins have challenged 108, won 67 which is tied for second, and they’ve had big impact preventing 26 strikeouts and creating eight walks. The Yankees are tied for 15th with a 59% win rate.

On defense, challenging has been done almost exclusively by the catchers. Only a few pitchers have tried, and they haven’t been very good at it. Freddy Peralta of the Mets leads in challenges (5) and wins (3). Max Fried is second in both categories, going 2-for-3.

As for the catchers, Milwaukee’s William Contreras has challenged 91 times, 22 more than anyone else, but he has won just 57% of the time which is middling among those with at least 30 attempts. The best guys have been Carson Kelly of the Cubs who has been right 82% of the time, followed by Salvador Perez of the Royals (72%), Tyler Stephenson of the Angels (71%) and Agustin Ramirez of the Marlins (71%)

The Yankees catchers have been pretty mundane, Austin Wells winning 61% leading to seven strikeouts and preventing two walks, and JC Escarra winning 59% leading to five strikeouts.

Ron Darling made a great point on a Mets broadcast recently, explaining catchers are far and away the best at challenges, and why hitters and pitchers make so many bad decisions, especially at low leverage times in games when it doesn’t even matter.

“Listen, the two worst at it are pitchers and hitters. Why? Because they’re fully invested in the throwing of it and the at-bat,” said Darling. “Their eyes are deceiving them. That’s what’s happening. This should be a team challenge each and every time, and you should really be cognizant of holding at least one of them for a late situation - maybe bases loaded or whatever. It just seems to me to be very selfish at times.”

⚾ OF Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs: The Cubs continue to be a mystifying team as they lost at Wrigley 5-2 to the Rockies who are the worst team in MLB, but it wasn’t PCA’s fault. He led off the bottom of the first with his 14th homer, following up on his performance Monday when he hit for the cycle. It was the first cycle in MLB this year, the 13th in Cubs history. PCA had been struggling, but since May 30 he’s been on fire - a slash line of .435/.459/.913 with an OPS of 1.373, eight homers and 12 RBI. Yet in those 16 games, the Cubs are 7-9.

⚾ SP Hunter Brown, Astros: Houston beat Detroit 4-2 as Brown made his first start since March 31 after missing 2 ½ months with a shoulder strain. He delivered 5.2 solid innings allowing just one run on three hits and three walks in a duel against former Astro teammate Framber Valdez. Houston’s struggles this year go beyond losing its ace, but still, it had been a huge void. Brown finished third in the NL Cy Young balloting last year when he put up a 2.43 ERA and 1.025 WHIP in 31 starts with a 3.61 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s been a horse ever since 2024 when he broke into the Astros’ rotation.

⚾ 1B Kyle Schwarber, Phillies: Wait, first base? Yeah, Schwarber played first for the first time as a member of the Phillies, and the first since 2021 when he was with the Red Sox. He was there because manager Don Mattingly wanted to give Bryce Harper a DH night. It didn’t help Harper who went 0-for-3, but Schwarber hit his MLB-leading 25th homer which gave Philadelphia a 7-0 lead in the fourth on the way to an 8-2 win over the Marlins. The Phillies are now 31-14 since Mattingly took over for the fired Rob Thomson.

⚾ SP Reid Detmers, Angels: He has been on a big-time heater and right now, he may become the hottest player on the trade market who’s not named Tarik Skubal. Detmers threw seven scoreless, three-hit innings as the Angels blanked the Diamondbacks 7-0. In his last five starts the lefty has a 1.36 ERA, yielding just five runs and 12 hits in 33 innings with 39 strikeouts and five walks. His WHIP for the season is 1.000 and his strikeout-to-walk ratio is 4.17. He’s making only around $2.8 million and won’t be a free agent until 2028, so yeah, many teams should be interested at the deadline.

⚾ OF Bryan Reynolds, Pirates: While Brandon Lowe hit the game-winning homer in the ninth inning of Pittsburgh’ 6-5 victory over the A’s, Reynolds was the reason Pittsburgh was in that position. He went 4-for-5 with two homers, one from each side of the plate, the fourth time he’s done that in his career. He hit a solo shot in the sixth that got the Pirates within 4-2, and then a two-run blast in the seventh that tied it at 5-5. Reynolds is one of those guys who flies under the radar every year, but he’s such a solid player with a career slash line of .272/.350/.459 and an OPS of .810. However, he plays for the Pirates so no one pays attention.

🔼 Yankees (44-27): They put on an offensive clinic against one of the best pitchers in MLB. Davis Martin came into the game tied for the MLB lead with nine wins, and his 2.41 ERA was second in the AL behind only Cam Schlittler. He had allowed just three home runs all season, and then he gave up three to Spencer Jones, Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt in the first four innings. The Yankees had 16 hits as every player in the starting lineup had at least one as they crushed the White Sox 12-2.

🔼 Nationals (39-35): They’re on a four-game winning streak after a 6-4 victory over the Royals as Curtis Mead broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh with a three-run homer off Daniel Lynch. James Wood had two RBI and raised his OPS to .967, and Nasim Nunez became just the seventh Nationals player to hit two triples in the same game.

🔼 Mariners (38-36): The AL West is a terrible division, but Seattle is clearly the best of the bunch and after so much sputtering to this point, the Mariners seem on the brink of pulling away. Coming off a sluggish 4-6 road trip, they now lead the A’s by 1.5 games after they beat the Orioles 3-1. Logan Gilbert threw seven excellent innings of two-hit ball with 10 strikeouts, and in his first game back after missing more than a month, Cal Raleigh broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run single in the seventh.

🔽 Guardians (39-34): Life without star third baseman Jose Ramirez won’t be pretty for a Cleveland team that struggles at the plate. Ramirez broke the hamate bone in his left hand Saturday and he’s going to be out 6-8 weeks. This was the Guardians first game without him after a rainout and a day off, and they lost 2-1 to the Brewers managing just four hits.

🔽 Rays (41-29): Remember when Tampa Bay couldn’t lose and when they beat the Yankees for the fourth straight time on May 22, they were 34-15 and up 5.5 games in the AL East? Well, baseball is happening for the Rays. They are 7-14 since after losing a classic 1-0 pitchers’ duel Tuesday night as Drew Rasmussen was great, but he gave up Shohei Ohtani’s homer in the sixth for the lone run, while LA’s Justin Wroblewski and three relievers combined on a three-hit shutout. Now the Rays trail the Yankees by 2.5 games.

🔽 Padres (37-35): It is truly insane how bad San Diego’s offense is. They lost 3-2 to the Cardinals, managing just four hits, lowering their team average to an MLB-worst .216. They’re also dead last in runs per game (3.81), on-base percentage (.289), and OPS (.647). Look at these on-base numbers: Manny Machado (.255), Jackson Merrill (.272), and Xander Bogaerts (.301). Fernando Tatis is at a solid .344, but he has just two homers and a .688 OPS. San Diego is now nine games behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

Joe Cronin probably would have been a borderline Hall of Fame candidate based solely on his 20-year playing career, during which he won the 1930 AL MVP award and finished in the top of the voting six other times, made seven All-Star teams, and finished with a career batting average of .301, an on-base of .390, and an OPS of .867 across 2,124 games.

But what surely pushed him over the threshold to induction in 1956 is that in 13 of his final 15 years - from the age of 26 to 40 - he was a full-time player-manager and even an occasional general manager, two seasons for the Washington Nationals and 11 for the Boston Red Sox.

While posting a managerial record of 1,235-1,055 which included two AL pennants, one with each team (1933 Washington, 1946 Boston), Cronin slashed .300/.390/.473 with an OPS of .863. Can you imagine any of today’s younger managers doing this? No way.

Cronin stopped being a full-time player after 1941 when he was 34, but from 1942-44 he became his own favorite pinch hitter and on this day in 1943, he accomplished something that has been done just one other time. He called on himself to pinch-hit in both ends of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A’s at Fenway Park and he homered in each at-bat.

In the opener, trailing 4-1 in the seventh, Cronin hit a tying three-run homer over the Green Monster off Russ Christopher, and Boston went on to win 5-4 on a walk-off error by A’s first baseman Dick Siebert. In the nightcap, he hit another three-run shot in the eighth off Don Black but it wasn’t enough to prevent an 8-7 loss.

The only other player to hit pinch homers in each game of a twin bill was Hal Breeden of the Montreal Expos on July 13, 1973 against the Atlanta Braves.

These were two of the five pinch-hit homers Cronin hit in 1943 and he remains the only player in AL history to reach that level. In the NL - where there were many more opportunities to pinch hit because it did not adopt the designated hitter until 2022 - there have been 13 players who hit at least five in one season with the record of seven shared by Dave Hansen of the Dodgers (2000) and Craig Wilson of the Pirates (2001).