ANAHEIM — It is no surprise that Taylor Ward is in favor of the change to the way balls and strikes will be called next season.
Ward has had 62 pitches outside the zone called strikes against him this season, which is the second most in the majors, according to Major League Baseball data. The next highest on the Angels is Jo Adell, at 44.
“I’m all in for it,” Ward said.
MLB announced on Tuesday that next season they will install the Automated Ball Strike (ABS) challenge system that was tested this year in spring training and has been used for a few years at Triple-A.
The hitter, pitcher and catcher will each have the ability to challenge a pitch by tapping their helmet or cap immediately after the call. An animation will then be shown on the scoreboard, letting everyone in the ballpark know at the same time whether the call was correct.
If the team that challenges the call is correct, they retain the challenge. A team can only be wrong twice. That means there will be some strategy involved that wouldn’t be if the ABS was simply to used to make every call.
If a player makes an incorrect challenge early in the game, that could be costly later in the game.
“It’ll be an interesting team dynamic in the clubhouse, from teammate to teammate,” Ward said.
In Triple-A, many teams don’t even let their pitchers challenge, because they’re too far away to make an accurate judgment. The catcher has to make the decision.
“If it were me personally, I would never challenge,” right-hander Kyle Hendricks said. “I’m 60 feet away. Sometimes I think it’s a strike and I go look at the iPad and it’s not. I’m always gonna trust my catcher. They’re the ones seeing the plate. They’re right there. That’s what I would do if it were me, trust my catcher if there was a big call that we needed to make in that moment.”
While Ward is one of the hitters most victimized by bad calls, Mike Trout is tied for the major league lead with 113 incorrect calls that benefitted him. That’s no surprise to many, because a player of Trout’s stature gets the benefit of the doubt from umpires.
Next year, the catcher will be able to have those overturned.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe said he’s “excited” about the new system.
“I think it’s something that can be super useful,” O’Hoppe said. “And I think it takes some weight off the umpires too. I think it could help them get a better understanding of where the zone is off on a night.”
It could also reduce some of the pitch-framing responsibility from O’Hoppe. Catchers will still need to frame pitches because the umpire is always going to make the initial call. However, a catcher won’t be burned by a bad frame job at a big moment, because he can challenge.
“I’m looking forward to it because I’ve struggled on the receiving side this year, and hopefully it’ll get some pitches that were (called) balls that are strikes,” O’Hoppe said.
Among the Angels’ hitters, first baseman Nolan Schanuel is known to have the best idea of the strike zone.
“I won’t challenge unless I 100% know it’s a ball,” Schanuel said.
NOTES
The Angels are still waiting for further opinions on the MRI results on right-hander Robert Stephenson. The reliever felt something in his elbow last weekend. …
Hendricks reiterated what he said on Sunday, that he’s going to wait until after the season to decide if he’s going to retire. Hendricks dismissed a report that indicated he had decided to retire. “I wasn’t even asked about it in the article that I saw,” Hendricks said. …
Trout was not in the lineup on Wednesday. Trout had started 18 games in a row, since missing two games with a skin infection earlier this month. He hit his 400th career homer on Saturday. “Just a day to get his mind clear a little bit and back at it,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said.
UP NEXT
Royals (RHP Michael Lorenzen, 6-11, 4.70 ERA) at Angels (LHP Mitch Farris, 1-2, 6.52 ERA), Thursday, 6:38 p.m., FDSN West, 830 AM