This season, the automated ball strike system (ABS) is coming to Major League Baseball. Pitchers, catchers and hitters can all challenge an umpire’s ball or strike call by tapping their helmets. Teams receive unlimited challenges each game until they fail twice.
With the advent of this new rule, teams need to determine what their strategies should be for how to utilize these challenges. The Nationals should make sure that pitchers never challenge and that they save offensive challenges for when runners are in scoring position.
Even though pitchers are capable of challenging balls and strikes under this new set of rules, the Nationals need to make sure that their pitchers never utilize this new capability. Pitchers are 60 feet and six inches away from the strike zone. They do not have a perfect conception of what the strike zone is. Catchers meanwhile are directly behind the strike zone. Why would pitchers challenge for the Nationals when there are catchers with a much clearer view.
Pitchers are also emotional, and the Nationals especially have a very young group of pitchers who may be immature or have less knowledge of what a Major League strike zone is. Catchers can make much clearer judgements. Last spring training when MLB piloted ABS, catchers overturned calls 56 percent of the time while pitchers only overturned calls 41 percent of the time. The Nationals would be throwing challenges away by allowing pitchers to execute them.
The Nationals should also wait until there are runners in scoring position to execute their challenges on offense. Situations with runners in scoring position are key moments of the game where wins can swing to losses and vice versa. In these situations, it is vital that batters control the count. Hitters have a large advantage when they are ahead in the count compared to when they are behind. In order to produce runs, the Nationals should save their challenges and try to give their hitters count advantages in the most crucial moments of the game.
Still, this does not mean that the Nationals should hesitate to use challenges when the umpires clearly miss calls. The team just should not be reckless and challenge everything. Challenges can be incredibly strategically important and they should be saved for the most important moments. Moreover, in these important moments, the most qualified player on the field should execute the challenge. On defense, this is the catcher, not the pitcher.