Reds manager Terry Francona doesn’t see the point of asking his veteran players to utilize the experimental Automated Ball-Strike system during spring training.
The ABS system for challenging calls is being tested out by MLB during spring training games, but it only will be used again in the minor leagues during the regular season.
“I’m OK with seeing our younger kids do it because they’ve done it,” Francona told reporters Friday in Arizona. “It’s not a strategy for [the MLB teams], so why work on it?
“I don’t want to make a farce of anything, but we’re here getting ready for a season and that’s not helping us get ready.”
Francona, the two-time World Series-winning manager who was hired by Cincinnati in October, added that he believes the ABS only “muddies the waters.”
The computerized system has been used in some form in the minors for four years, and MLB is collecting data from the spring training experiment to consider making changes to the system at the Triple-A level.
ABS allows pitchers, hitters and catchers an immediate objection to a ball/strike call.
Teams currently are allowed two challenges per game, which must come from on-field players and not the dugout.
ABS was used for the first time in Thursday’s spring training opener between the Dodgers and the Cubs in Arizona.
Chicago pitcher Cody Poteet, who appeared in five games for the Yankees last season, became the first player to challenge a call during the trial when he requested a review of a fastball to Max Muncy in the bottom of the first inning.
Poteet, acquired by the Cubs as part of the Cody Bellinger trade, won his challenge of the ball called by home-plate umpire Tony Randazzo, changing a 1-1 count to 0-2 before striking out Muncy.
