Plenty of things have gone right for the Cleveland Guardians this season, from the emergence of top prospects Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana to the performance of starting pitchers Gavin Williams and Parker Messick to the recent dominance of closer Cade Smith. However, there is one area where the Guardians are failing, especially when compared to the rest of MLB.
Cleveland has not quite gotten the hang of the new ABS challenge system, which was expected to be an advantage for them heading into the season. The Guardians seem to have no real plan for it, which allows a batter, pitcher, or catcher to challenge a ball-strike call by the home plate umpire.
Most of the time, a challenge would have an almost unnoticeable impact. However, in their most recent loss, it could be argued that the way the Guardians chose to use their challenges cost them the game against the Boston Red Sox.
Insider Joe Noga of Cleveland.com didn’t mince words about the Guardians’ ABS challenges, saying “they’ve been terrible” this season.
“The Guardians have been terrible. Let’s just be plain and simple about it. They’ve been terrible when it comes to the ABS challenge system. They’re among the worst in the league,” Noga said.
According to Baseball Savant, the Guardians are tied for the worst challenge rate by a pitcher or catcher, at 52 percent, equal to the Toronto Blue Jays. By comparison, the top-ranked team, the Detroit Tigers, has won 72 percent of those challenges.
Among batters, despite the third-highest challenge rate, the Guardians are successful 37 percent of the time, which is next to last, ahead of only the Atlanta Braves at 35 percent. The Houston Astros lead the majors at 61 percent.
On Sunday, the Guardians had already reached their limit of two unsuccessful challenges when relief pitcher Tim Herrin threw a close pitch on a full count with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning. Though it may have been a strike, it was called a ball, which forced in the go-ahead run, and the Guardians had no recourse. Boston went on to score five more times on the way to a 9-4 victory.
According to fellow insider Paul Hoynes, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has no rules regarding when a player can ask for an ABS challenge, other than to be aggressive. So, Cleveland can wind up using them in unimportant situations and has none available when it really matters.
Perhaps things will eventually even out, and the Guardians will get better results from the ABS challenge system going forward.
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