![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UNJN5R2NDIDQIQSIDLRDOCPNPM.jpg\")
Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve (27) watches a replay of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Houston, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis) <\/p>\nHouston Astros’ Jose Altuve (27) watches a replay of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox in Houston, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo\/Ashley Landis) <\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Catchers were far more successful than batters through Major League Baseball\u2019s first full week of challenges to robot umpires, led by the Detroit Tigers and Dillon Dingler.<\/p>\n
The overall success rate in the Automated Ball-Strike System was 55.2% (299 of 542), with fielding teams winning 59.7% of challenges (175 of 293), including 60.4% by catchers (169 of 280).<\/p>\n
\u201cI like it a little more. I was pretty staunch against it, which I still may be to some degree,\u201d New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.<\/p>\n
There were just 13 challenges by pitchers, who won six. Batters were successful on 49.8% (124 of 249).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s its own game inside the game, almost,\u201d Tampa Bay catcher Hunter Feduccia said.<\/p>\n
Success rate was up from 49.5% last year at Triple-A, where defense won 53.7% and batters 49.5%<\/p>\n
Detroit won the highest percentage of calls at 75% (15 of 20) while Arizona was at 71%, and Baltimore and Cincinnati both 67%.<\/p>\n
Minnesota called for the most challenges with 32, winning 20 for a 63% success rate. Texas had the fewest, winning 4 of 10.<\/p>\n
Cleveland was the least successful at 32%, with Washington at 38% and St. Louis and Texas at 40%<\/p>\n
Detroit catchers were 8-0, with seven wins by Dingler.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JSXHI3TQJWIO3V74W4YHBGOOQE.jpg\")
Detroit Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler throws to first base for an out on a St. Louis Cardinals’ Victor Scott II bunt in the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya) <\/p>\n
ABS\u2019 impact could be seen when Atlanta played at Arizona last Thursday. The Braves were ahead 2-1 when the Diamondbacks\u2019 Ryne Nelson threw a 3-2 curveball on the upper, outside corner to Ozzie Albies that was called a strike by Malachi Moore. Albies challenged and headed toward first even before ABS showed the pitch missed the strike zone by 1.1 inches. The walk started an eight-run rally in a 17-2 romp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some of these games, it\u2019s had a more of a swinging effect on outcomes of at-bats and how things change than maybe even you thought,\u201d Miami manager Clayton McCullough said.<\/p>\n
Logan O\u2019Hoppe of the Los Angeles Angels had the most victories, successful on 10 of 12. The Marlins\u2019 Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez won 7 of 9 and the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 Will Smith 8 of 11.<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s Cal Raleigh won 4 of 9 and the Athletics\u2019 Shea Langeliers 3 of 9.<\/p>\n
Among batters, Mark Vientos of the New York Mets and Iv\u00e1n Herrera both went 3-0. Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels was 3-1 along with Philadelphia\u2019s Kyle Schwarber and Tampa Bay\u2019s Jake Fraley.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s Hunter Goodman and Washington\u2019s Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. were both 0 for 3.<\/p>\n
Boone said Yankees staff and players daily review challenges made and opportunities missed.<\/p>\n
Players still are getting used to ABS. Washington\u2019s Jorbit Vivas tapped his helmet signaling for an appeal on March 31 when the Nationals already had exhausted their two challenges.<\/p>\n
Among umpires, Mike Estabrook had 11 of 12 calls overturned (91.7%), Andy Fletcher had 15 of 17 (88.2%), Ron Kulpa and Paul Clemons each 7 of 9 (77.8%) and Chris Segal 10 of 13 (76.9%), according to taptochallenge.com.<\/p>\n
Will Little had just 1 of 10 calls reversed while Erich Bacchus was perfect with no overturned calls in five challenges. Others with low overturn rates with at least five challenges included Emil Jim\u00e9nez (1 of 5), Jordan Baker (2 of 8), Ryan Additon and Nick Mahrley (both 2 of 7) and David Rackley (3 of 10).<\/p>\n
Offense at record low<\/p>\n
Offense again lagged through the first 139 games of the 2,430-game season.<\/p>\n
The .234 big league batting average is down from .239 through 12 days last year (including the two games in Japan), when it finished at .245. The average usually increases as the weather warms. The full-season low of .237 was set in 1968.<\/p>\n
Runs per game averaged 8.8, up from 8.7, and stolen bases dropped to 1.4 per game from 1.6<\/p>\n
Fastball velocity at record high<\/p>\n
Average fastball velocity is 94.6 mph, up from 94.1 mph through the first full week last year. The final figure increased in each of the last five seasons to a record 94.5 mph in 2025. It was 91.9 mph when MLB first started tracking in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I was facing the same pitching as I did my rookie year back when guys were throwing 88-mile-an-hour sinkers over the plate,\u201d said 33-year-old Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges. \u201cThat pitch doesn\u2019t exist anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Game time<\/p>\n
The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 43 minutes, up from 2:37 at this point last year, when it finished at 2:38.<\/p>\n
Pitch clock violations averaged 0.17 per game, down from 0.22 through 139 games last year.<\/p>\n
Attendance<\/p>\n
MLB\u2019s average crowd of 31,725 through 138 dates was up 1.5% over 31,255 for the same period last year.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston and Steve Megargee, and AP freelance writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve (27) watches a replay of the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) during the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-667459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-houstonastros","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116361065641270659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667459","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=667459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}