With MLB adopting an Automated Ball-Strike system this season, an ABS walk spike felt inevitable. Batters have drawn walks in almost 10% of their plate appearances this season, the highest walk rate since 1950. Pitchers are struggling to adjust to the new strike zone, while offenses are prospering in the majors. This is ultimately a good thing for baseball, leading pitchers to throw more strikes to avoid walks and create more offensive opportunities and shorter games.
Why The ABS Walk Spike Is Good For Baseball
What makes ABS fundamentally different from years prior is the size of the strike zone. Before the new system, the language used to describe the strike zone was open to interpretation. The old strike zone started at the middle of the hitter’s torso and ran down to the “hollow of the kneecap”. There was a lot of variance between umpires on how they called balls and strikes, which had to change. Under ABS, the rules for the strike zone are much more specific: it starts from 27% of the batter’s standing height and runs to 53.5%, and is 17 inches in width. The new system allows for more consistent calls from game to game and isn’t going away anytime soon.
The walk spike is good for baseball because it forces pitchers to adjust. If the strike zone is smaller than it used to be, then ABS will reward pitchers with good location and pitchers who can generate contact for easy outs. The hard-throwing pitchers who struggle with control have little room for error with ABS, which is good because the system rewards highly skilled pitchers. This will affect how ballclubs scout and develop players going forward, with pitchers that have finesse to their game becoming en vogue. While some pitchers (like Chris Sale) may be averse to using ABS to challenge balls and strikes, it has already impacted the game for the players on the mound.
On the other side of the coin, ABS has had an interesting impact on offense. Despite the walk rate being much higher than normal, MLB’s batting average is actually down from last year, from .242 to .240. The league’s slugging percentage is the lowest it has been since 2014 at .386, meaning teams aren’t capitalizing with more runners on base. It is still early in the season, but it is concerning that ballclubs aren’t doing more on offense with a smaller strike zone that should favor hitters. In theory, teams that play “small ball”, using singles and sacrifice outs to create runs, should have a lot of success under ABS, but time will tell if that actually plays out.
At the end of the day, ABS will be one of the better changes for baseball in recent years. It is a system that rewards pitch location and the batters getting good reads on pitchers. It’ll change how organizations construct rosters and what strategies managers will use to either manufacture runs or close out games. The MLB is in a new era of change and growth, and ABS enables officiating consistency that the sport has never seen before.
