Hitters win more ABS appeals as playoff challenge rate rises

Hitters are using baseball’s new challenge system more successfully in October. Through the 25 games of the Wild Card and Division Series rounds, batters won 29 of 51 appeals of ball-strike calls, a 57% success rate compared with 49% during the regular season, the Associated Press reported Monday.

The rise comes as teams challenge more often. Clubs averaged 4.8 appeals per game in those rounds, up from 4.3 in the regular season. Overall, 71 of 121 postseason challenges overturned the call, a 59% success rate.

The system leaves the first call with the plate umpire. MLB’s official ABS dashboard explains that only the batter, pitcher or catcher may initiate a review. Each team starts with two challenges and loses the ability to challenge after two unsuccessful appeals. Successful challenges therefore preserve the option to contest another pitch. Teams begin each extra inning with a challenge even if they have exhausted their supply.

That makes a challenge both a correction and a decision about which pitch is worth contesting. The improved hitter success rate does not alone explain why it rose; it describes how the first two playoff rounds played out.

The four clubs still playing entered the League Championship Series with different results. Cleveland won seven of 13 challenges, Milwaukee eight of 16, Tampa Bay three of five and Los Angeles two of six, according to AP. Those small samples provide context, rather than a prediction of the next contested pitch.

MLB’s video from Sunday’s Dodgers-Brewers opener supplies a current example of a ball call being overturned. The first postseason with ABS continues to give teams another way to change an at-bat before the next pitch.

Sources

Playoff ABS results · MLB: ABS rules and dashboard · MLB: ball call overturned in NLCS opener