{"id":606829,"date":"2026-04-14T19:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606829\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:09:11","slug":"mlbs-abs-system-could-be-factor-in-increasing-game-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606829\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s ABS system could be factor in increasing game time"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLB\u2019s ABS system could be one of the factors making games a \u201clittle longer this spring,\u201d with the time of a nine-inning game creeping up four minutes from last year as of Saturday, according to David Brandt of the AP. The average nine-inning game time is currently 2 hours, 42 minutes, up from 2:38 last season and 2:36 in 2024. Though an ABS challenge usually takes less than 15 seconds, the mini delays in the game \u201ccan add up if several pitches are contested.\u201d The ABS system might be making a \u201csmall dent in that progress, but game times are still considerable shorter than they were in the pre-pitch clock era.\u201d A nine-inning game lasted an average of 3:10 in 2021 (AP, 4\/13<\/a>). THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Jim Bowden wrote if ABS is the final determination of the strike zone, it should be used to \u201cmake every ball and strike call.\u201d He added in talking to many in the industry, his \u201cviewpoint is in the minority.\u201d The consensus in the industry seems to be that the challenge system has \u201cadded great entertainment value for the fans\u201d and it has become \u201csuch a huge hit that it will probably stay as a challenge system for the next several years, at least through the next CBA\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 4\/13<\/a>).<\/p>\n

GET EVERYONE: SI\u2019s Tom Verducci wrote good umpires are \u201cgetting their due (and it\u2019s often the younger ones).\u201d Erich Bacchus, who is working his fourth year as a full-time MLB umpire, called 466 pitches in his first three games behind the plate. Nine were challenged and only one challenge was successful. Will Little was off to a similarly impressive start: 501 called pitches over three games and only one overturned call on 10 challenges (SI, 4\/13<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MLB\u2019s ABS system could be one of the factors making games a \u201clittle longer this spring,\u201d with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,4034,591,85],"class_list":["post-606829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}