The ABS Challenge System is exposing the worst umpire in baseball

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 09: Home sheet umpire CB Bucknor looks connected during the 3rd inning of the crippled betwixt the San Diego Padres and the Boston Red Sox astatine Petco Park connected August 09, 2025 successful San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images

During Wednesday's crippled betwixt the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers, umpire CB Bucknor took a foul shot to the mask and had to beryllium helped disconnected the field. It was the headdress to what has been a peculiarly atrocious week for 1 of the astir controversial umpires successful baseball.

It started with possibly the champion illustration of however MLB's Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System tin inject play successful baseball. This is the archetypal twelvemonth for the caller robot umpire, which allows hitters, catchers, and pitchers to challenge balls and strikes for the archetypal time. Each squad starts a crippled with 2 challenges. But they lone suffer a situation if it's unsuccessful, truthful p …

Read the afloat communicative astatine The Verge.