With the introduction of baseball’s new Automated Ball Strike system came a lot of uncertainty. No one was sure how fans would react to something so different. Well after almost a week of baseball being back, I’m ready to say I’m a fan.

Firstly I think the league got it right with how they set the ABS challenge system up. Each team gets two chances to challenge whenever they like and only loses a chance if they’re wrong. Plus it only takes about 5-10 seconds to complete the review, so there’s minimal delay. The thing I like the most is how much the fans have embraced these ABS reviews when they happen. Like when Eugenio Suarez kept the bases loaded with back to back successful ABS challenges.

I do feel for the umpires on some level. Having your mistakes blasted to a stadium full of people must get frustrating after a while. Then you add in the millions of views it’s attracting online. But at the end of the day, we want the calls to be correct. Hopefully it pushes the umpires to get better as well.

We’ll see where we stand on the ABS system after the season, but in the small sample size so far it’s been a home run.