{"id":655541,"date":"2026-04-01T00:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655541\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T00:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:48:22","slug":"explaining-baseballs-new-strike-zone-challenge-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/655541\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining baseball\u2019s new strike zone challenge system"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Neil Nakahodo<\/p>\n

\tPhoto by Getty Images, Illustration by Neil Nakahodo<\/p>\n

The Royals got their first regular-season look at Major League Baseball\u2019s Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system during opening weekend.<\/p>\n

In their first game, against the Atlanta Braves, catcher Salvador Perez successfully challenged three calls, turning three of the home plate umpire\u2019s called balls into strikes.<\/p>\n

Perez correctly identified pitches that ump Doug Eddings had misjudged. In each case, the pitch was narrowly within the strike zone. And all three overturned calls shifted the count in the Royals\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

The Royals see the use of ABS as a work in progress. For hitters, there are advantages and disadvantages, and the time of challenges is important \u2014 both in the count and when, in the course of a game, a dispute might be raised.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at the ABS Challenge System.<\/p>\n

\"Royals MLB.com How to appeal strike zone decisions in ABS<\/p>\n

To request a review, a player taps his hat or helmet. The signal must come within roughly two seconds of the call, preventing any outside assistance.<\/p>\n

Only batters, pitchers and catchers can initiate a challenge \u2014 not managers, coaches or other players.<\/p>\n

Each team begins with two challenges, losing the ability to challenge after two unsuccessful attempts. In extra innings, teams are granted one additional challenge, regardless of prior use. A team that successfully challenges (gets a call overturned) retains the right to use that challenge later.<\/p>\n

Challenges are not allowed when a position player is pitching and are not permitted after replay reviews.<\/p>\n

\"Hawk-Eye Hawk-Eye electronic line-calling debuted at Wimbledon last year, ending a 147-year reliance on human calls. Using roughly 10\u201318 cameras per court, the system tracks ball trajectory and delivers instant \u201cOut,\u201d \u201cFault,\u201d or \u201cFoot fault\u201d decisions in under a tenth of a second. Mike Hewitt Getty Images Inside the camera system powering ABS<\/p>\n

Twelve Hawk-Eye technology cameras installed throughout the ballpark track player and ball movement, feeding data into Statcast.<\/p>\n

\"hawk-eye\"\/ Source: MLB <\/p>\n

Seven cameras track player movement, while five are dedicated solely to the baseball\u2019s movements. Those ball-tracking cameras capture up to 300 frames per second, allowing the system to precisely locate each pitch within the strike zone and reconstruct its path.<\/p>\n

How ABS adjusts the box for every hitter<\/p>\n

During spring training, measurements were taken for each player. This enabled the ABS system to create a strike zone for each hitter.<\/p>\n

\"height-strike-zone\"\/ Source: MLB <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s compare Kansas City\u2019s Jonathan India (5-foot-10) and the Yankees\u2019 Aaron Judge (6-foot-7). Under the ABS model, India\u2019s strike zone measures about 18.6 inches tall and 17 inches wide \u2014 the width of home plate \u2014 while Judge\u2019s taller frame expands his zone to roughly 20.9 inches.<\/p>\n

\"Comparing Source: MLB <\/p>\n

The ABS strike zone is a flat 2D rectangular shape, 17 inches wide \u2014 the width of home plate. Its upper boundary is set at 53.5% of a player\u2019s height, while the lower boundary is 27%. The zone extends 8.5 inches forward and backward from the center of the plate.<\/p>\n

The zone was moved from the front of home plate to the middle, where the results were much more in line with where the hitter stands \u2014 and how the strike zone is traditionally called.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Neil Nakahodo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kansas City Star<\/p>\n

Neil Nakahodo is a graphic artist at The Kansas City Star. He\u2019s been with the company for over 20 years, producing illustrations, graphics and videos.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neil Nakahodo Photo by Getty Images, Illustration by Neil Nakahodo The Royals got their first regular-season look at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[33243,66750,5,83773,936,2123,55,2596,2595,4,252,3826],"class_list":["post-655541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-abs-challenge-system","tag-automated-ball-strike","tag-baseball","tag-hawk-eye","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-mlb","tag-royals","tag-statcast"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116326703254551108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}