MLB Catchers Outperform Batters in Early ABS Challenges

Catchers outperformed batters in Major League Baseball's inaugural full week of challenges to automated ball-strike calls, with the Detroit Tigers and catcher Dillon Dingler leading the way in successful appeals.

Through the first 139 games of the season, which began late March, teams made 542 challenges to the Automated Ball-Strike System, or ABS, overturning 299 calls for a 55.2 percent success rate. Fielding teams won 59.7 percent of their 293 challenges, including 60.4 percent by catchers on 280 attempts. Batters succeeded on 49.8 percent of their 249 challenges, while pitchers filed just 13 and won six.

The rate marked an improvement from 49.5 percent at Triple-A last year, where defenses won 53.7 percent and batters 49.5 percent. Detroit topped all teams at 75 percent success, overturning 15 of 20 calls, followed by Arizona at 71 percent and Baltimore and Cincinnati at 67 percent. Minnesota issued the most challenges with 32, winning 20 for a 63 percent rate, while Texas had the fewest at 10, succeeding on four. Cleveland fared worst at 32 percent, with Washington at 38 percent and St. Louis and Texas at 40 percent. Detroit's catchers succeeded on 80 percent of calls,...