The Baseball Playoffs are Here. Which Catchers Just Lost Their Secret Weapon?
For decades, the best catchers in baseball have been masters of the quiet art of “framing”: receiving a pitch just outside the strike zone and moving their gloves just a bit to make it look like a strike. Umpires got baffled. Strikes got stolen. Careers were built on it.
Beginning this year, there’s been a computer watching every single pitch. And it cannot be fooled.
That’s the reality every catcher walked into this season. Major League Baseball rolled out the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike) Challenge System in 2026, a network of cameras in every ballpark tracking whether…
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