00:00Also understand this, so much times in the past couple, it's like baseball is one of those sports that doesn't
00:04evolve all that much.
00:05But over the past couple of years, Craig, the evolution of the ghost runner on second base, the pitch clock
00:08comes in, you know, the shift taking that away, the bigger base paths, excuse me, bigger bases that you have.
00:14The one thing I do like, Craig, is eventually I do think we're going to robo-umps.
00:18What we heard about over the past couple of years in the minor league systems, as you know, we're going
00:21to start to be able to challenge these, you know, umpires to see what it is.
00:24Brought it in spring training, I thought it was well.
00:26It's very interesting to see it around Major League Baseball.
00:29Now that it's in effect, then there are challenges.
00:32When do you want to use it?
00:33Do you want to use it early in the game?
00:34Craig, I find myself watching the Philadelphia Phillies game going like, oh, that ball was outside.
00:37Why is he not challenging you at this point?
00:39So it's almost like in the NFL, when do you want to use that challenge?
00:42Same thing in Major League Baseball now.
00:44Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up, Donnie, because that was the discussion in March was, oh, this ABS
00:50is ruining everything.
00:52There's challenges in the second inning and the third inning.
00:54And yes, for CB Buckner, that has been the case.
00:57But for every other umpire in Major League Baseball, what you're seeing, Donnie, is exactly what you said.
01:04Why was everybody hitting that panic button?
01:06Because let's just use Bryce Harper.
01:08Because Bryce Harper knew he was coming out of the game in the third inning.
01:11So of course he was going to challenge early in the game.
01:13If you look at the data, I watched a presentation made by Major League Baseball in the offseason, exactly the
01:18percentages and who wins and who loses and when the challenges were.
01:22Remember, this happened all throughout AAA last year.
01:24This is going to normalize.
01:26We did see a lot of success in the first couple of days of the season with challenging the umps.
01:32Folks, it's going to be about 50-50.
01:34This is what AAA did.
01:36I mean, these are close to big league hitters all last season.
01:38You're not going to see pitchers challenging.
01:41The teams have told the pitchers, stay out of it.
01:44Now, that doesn't mean that they're not going to.
01:45But all pitchers, Donnie, what do they think?
01:48They think they got a strike, right?
01:49Like, that was a strike.
01:50It is not for them to challenge.
01:52You're going to see hitters challenge.
01:53They're going to be right at 50%, a little bit below over the course of the season based on the
01:58data.
01:58You're going to see catchers challenge.
02:00And they are going to be above 50% over the course of the year.
02:04Now, we have an outlier with CB Buckner.
02:06I understand that.
02:06I even saw them in the spring, and there was a lot of mishaps too, okay?
02:10But you know what that's going to do, Donnie?
02:12And you have to wonder, will that cost guys some jobs, unfortunately, with just balls and strikes?
02:18And I think it's something that baseball is going to have to take a close look at.
02:21But don't freak out.
02:22We've got a long way to go with this.
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