Some umps fear ABS is causing fans to judge them by near-impossible standards

Most businesses would balk at creating a system that subjects some of its employees to public embarrassment. But with its implementation of the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system this season, Major League Baseball did just that to its umpires.Some fans see the early results from ABS as proof umpires are incompetent. Some players and league officials say the opposite actually is true. But not all fans grasp the distinction between a call overturned by a tenth of an inch and one overturned by two inches. They just see that it was reversed, and draw their own negative conclusions.Advertisement