All examples of famous robots.
Joining that list in 2026 will be Major League Baseball’s Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS), pejoratively known as “robot umps”. Site-runner Ben already dove into the ABS details a number of weeks ago so I won’t rehash that, other than to say it is interesting that only batters, pitchers, or catchers—not managers—will be allowed to initiate the challenge protocol. I feel like this may perpetuate some interesting conversations about managerial authority on the matter within clubhouses.
For the most part, this seems like a good step forward for MLB. As good as umpires have become (more on that momentarily), they are human beings and will understandably miss precise calculations of spheres traveling 90+ mph that often feature tremendous breaking movement, all while the catcher explicitly positions them for the best—though not most accurate—outcome.
But while looking at the tremendous Umpire Scorecard website, I was amazed at what I found—most notably that umpires continue to get more accurate behind the plate.
For those of us who watched baseball in the 1990s, we vividly recall pitchers like Tom Glavine extending outside corner strikes to the point of lunacy—epitomized by the “Livan Hernandez game” of the 1997 postseason.
But by 2015—the first year of Umpire Scorecard data—this had largely been cleaned up:
Amazingly, despite upticks in velocity and breaking ball usage that should make umps’ livelihoods even tougher, those percentages have improved dramatically in the past decade:
Like I said, I do still believe ABS will be a nice tool in the toolbox, so to speak, for MLB to push those accuracy rates even higher. The league seems to be slow-playing the entire process, which I also think is smart—measure twice & cut once, as they say.
But in an age where so many occupations—from cinema to the classroom—turn a wary eye towards artificial intelligence, it is important to remember that living, breathing umpires continue to be remarkable arbiters of our great sport. I sincerely hope that ABS provides them a helping hand rather than pushes them off the diamond.
