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IL Buffalo Bisons

ABS Challenge System Starts Friday at Sahlen Field

May 9, 2023 - International League (IL)
Buffalo Bisons News Release


Starting Friday, Bisons pitchers, catchers and batters will have the ability to challenge the ball and strike call of umpires and everyone in Sahlen Field will find out together if the call that was made was correct or not.

The "Automated Ball-Strike (or ABS) Challenge System" will make it's Sahlen Field debut on Friday as the Herd hosts the Syracuse Mets (6:35 p.m.), giving each team the ability to reverse the initial call by the umpire. It's part of a two-part ABS system that is now in place for all International League games.

For all Friday, Saturday and Sunday games, the umpires will be in charge of calling balls and strikes, but pitchers, catchers and batters have the ability to challenge the call. The challenge must be made immediately following the pitch and the players/coaches on the bench cannot assist with the decision to challenge. In fact, umpires can nullify a challenge if they feel the challenger has been helped by the bench. When a challenge is made, a video of the pitch will be played on the Sahlen Field scoreboard to either confirm or change the ball/strike call.

Each team will have three challenges per game, and if the player wins their challenge and the call is overturned, the team keeps their amount of challenges. If the team loses the challenge the team loses one of their three challenge attempts. A team cannot challenge any pitches in a game where they have failed on three challenges.

The Challenge system is not available for all days as games played Tuesday-Thursday, the system, rather than umpire, immediately determines if a pitch is a ball or a strike. The umpire hears the call in an earpiece and relays the call to the players and fans.

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