In the world of ABS baseball, umpiring errors are easy to spot. Introduced amid much skepticism, games like Wednesday night’s Philadelphia Phillies vs. Athletics prove just why the ABS Challenge System was needed. As the Phillies rallied to win 6-3 in a game marred by umpiring blunders, fans were quick to criticize the inefficiency.

“Umpire Lance Barrett called the worst game of the day and the 4th worst game of the season. He missed 18 calls for a correct call rate of only 85.94% and had 7 calls overturned,” observed X handle Umpire Auditor.

Umpire Lance Barrett is facing heavy fire from fans after a rough performance on Wednesday night.

Fans jumped on social media to complain, with many comparing the pros to Little League umpires. One person wrote, “Amazing how many Little League umpires defend this poor performance.” The general feeling was that unpaid volunteers are often more consistent than highly paid professionals.

Another fan simply added, “Ruined baseball.”

It started as early as the bottom of the first inning, when Phillies’ hitter Adolis Garcia faced Jeffrey Springs on a 1-1 count with two outs. Following Garcia’s challenge, ABS overturned the called strike into a ball. However, according to Baseball Savant, the edge distance was only 0.6″.

Throughout the game, the Phillies challenged six calls, successfully overturning five. JT Realmuto alone went 3-for-3; he has a 75% success rate overall. This lifted the team’s success rate to 52.2% this season.

The Athletics got two out of their three challenges overturned, including one in the bottom of the seventh. Catcher Jonah Heim challenged a 2-2 count ball with Bryson Stott at the plate. With the challenge overturned, Stott was called out to register the second out of the inning as the Athletics led 3-2.

Some of Barrett’s errors were extremely close, missing by just 0.1 inches. However, other calls were nowhere near the plate. During a 1-1 count to Carlos Cortes, Barrett called an 80 mph Zack Wheeler sweeper a ball. The challenge system overturned the call to a strike, showing the pitch was actually three full inches inside the zone.

Barrett’s accuracy rate on Wednesday was only 85.94%. That is a sharp drop from his 96.59% accuracy during his last game on May 2. However, this is not the first time Barrett has made such blunders.

Last season, on April 27, Barrett called one of the worst games. It had a season-high of umpiring errors, recording 25 missed calls.

Such errors can become game-altering, and fans are not shying from calling them out.

Umpiring blunders spark online criticism

“At this point, why not just let the machine/computer call the plays instead of these damaged/unreliable umpires!!!” wrote one fan. As more umpiring errors get exposed with the new system, frustrated fans want automation to take over at this point.

Recently, Dan Merzel drew criticism during the Cubs vs. Padres game. On April 27, Matt Shaw hit a grounder that bounced between home plate and third base before rolling foul. Ty France picked it up once it stopped thinking it was a foul ball, but Merzel gave Shaw a single.

What looked like a fair ball from the home plate was actually a foul ball when examined from different camera angles. Such incidents of human error highlight the importance of having automation in baseball.

Another fan remarked, “You know that’s like an A-. I mean, all things considered, it qualifies as ‘good.’ But the POINT is, we have the ability to get them all correct now, and we really need to stop having umps calling balls and strikes.” On May 2, the Umpire Auditor reported that umpires missed 4678 calls in April, out of which ABS overturned only 875. Most MLB umpires average over 92% accuracy. When an umpire drops below 90%, they become a major problem for the league.

With all these numbers coming forward, fans think MLB can relieve umpires from their duties of calling balls and strikes. The ABS can make those calls without players ever having to challenge, and increase umpiring accuracy.

A fan pointed out, “So, the abs people are in constant contact with these guys, and this is still happening?! Make it make sense.”

Jeff Passan recently revealed that the ABS System includes a two-way microphone, giving umpires real-time feedback on the strike zone. If Barrett was indeed using it during the game, fans can definitely expect a little more accuracy from him.