Robot Reversals Show Clear Trend About Older Umps

Robot umps are in—and they're exposing which humans are having the hardest time keeping up. Hint: It's the older ones, reports the Wall Street Journal. Major League Baseball's new automated ball-strike system is overturning their calls more often than anyone else's, according to data crunched by the website TapToChallenge, which tracks ABS stats. Umpires under 40 see about half their challenged calls reversed. The rate climbs to 54% for those in their 40s, to 57.2% for those 50 and older, and to 58.2% for the 16 umpires who are 55 or older.

One of the roughest outings came from 63-year-old CB Bucknor, whose calls were reversed six times in one game. He is among seven umps with an average age of 61 who have taken buyouts and will retire after the season. Leaguewide, MLB says umps are still getting 95% of all called pitches right, their highest collective accuracy ever. But ABS, which can flip calls that miss the zone by a tenth of an inch, leaves no room for the individualized strike zones that were standard when the older umps were in their prime. Younger umpires, raised on the technology in the minors, are outperforming their more established counterparts: The five best performers with ABS are all under 40 and mostly part-time call-ups. Read the full story.