MLB instant replay system needs to be reviewed

Managers across Major League Baseball loved the addition of instant replay in 2014. The point, baseball said, was to get the calls right. There were mistakes but MLB was quick to correct them. And along with the addition came a marked clarity regarding what plays were worth challenging. Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus would like to know where that clarity went this season.

“I’d like someone to explain to me what sufficient and insufficient evidence is, because last year we had a pretty good idea what that was, and I can’t tell you what it is this year. I really can’t,” he said after a 5-2 loss to the Reds on June 16.

He’s not alone. There have been several instances where a call was worth a challenge, with enough evidence to overturn. And on several occasions MLB dropped the ball -- including making a determination when the MLB Replay Command Center was down. Among the teams who have had to deal with several clearly blown calls this season are the Angels, Tigers, Red Sox, Royals and the Dodgers, just to name a few.

During nationally broadcasted games there are as many as a dozen feeds to make a determination, and even local games typically have at least three angles. Yet calls that are blatantly wrong and should be overturned, aren’t, which begs the question: What in the world is the replay center watching?

The MLB Replay Command Center is composed of a rotating crew of umpires. When a review is sent to the command center the umpire reviewing the call sees the entire play, including the call on the field. And managers consider that a problem, as they say it leads to biased calls -- they don’t want to stand up a fellow umpire. And even when a challenged call is ruled in favor of one team or another, being the beneficiary of a blown call hasn’t sat too well with managers.

Among others, managers like the Angels’ Mike Scioscia and the Dodgers’ Don Mattingly are of the belief that those manning the replay center should make more succinct rulings, such as a “safe” or “out” call as it relates to the play at hand, instead of “upheld” or “overturned.” Furthermore, those at the replay center shouldn’t know what the call on the field is to prevent biased calls. Lastly, the replay staff should be manned by a separate, dedicated contingent of umpires, whose only job is to get the calls right in the command center.

Reviews aren’t just being blown, they’re taking an extremely long time to get to the wrong conclusion. During cases such as the recent Tigers-Reds game, a Nationals-Braves game in mid-April or the June 15 Angels-Diamondbacks game, the time of review was 3:38, 4 minutes and 3:42, respectively. Later in that June 15 game the replay center took 4:50 to review a second call. In all cases the calls were upheld, despite clear evidence to anyone other than the replay center that the calls should have been overturned. See a trend?

The replay center hasn’t just missed calls. It’s how they’ve missed them, the time it’s taking, and the supposed lack of angles or “conclusive evidence” needed to overturn a call. Here’s the thing, though. If it were obvious, managers wouldn’t be challenging the call. Teams make challenges because, by definition, it’s a close call. That’s the whole point, and with the help of technology, so many obvious calls on replay shouldn’t be missed -- especially when quick screenshots are able to make that determination in less time.

Obviously, not all calls can be overturned. Some really are too close to change a call. That’s not in question. What is, though, are the calls that even MLB is admitting they messed up on, and happening far too often. So much so that managers don’t even know where the boundaries lie. An example of this was on June 16, during the Tigers-Reds interleague game.

There were two plays that prompted a review: one from the Tigers in the fifth inning, the other from the Reds in the ninth. The call in the ninth -- a pickoff of Reds’ Billy Hamilton by Joba Chamberlain at second -- got left by the wayside as the Reds went on to win, but between the two, that call was the easier one to determine that the wrong call had been made. But had the Tigers fought back in the ninth enough to tie the game or win, it could have been a crucial moment for the Reds. And MLB got it wrong.

There were two arguments to be made on the play in the fifth. One, that the Reds catcher Brayan Pena could have been blocking the plate before MLB rules permitted; and two, that Anthony Gose slid between the catcher’s legs and touched home before getting tagged. There were several angles of the play, and the Tigers felt that, even with the call being close, it was more than enough to overturn. The crowd, fans at home and the media agreed there was enough evidence.

The call was upheld and after the game Ausmus had more than a few words to say about it. And what he said was representative of manager frustrations throughout the league.

”In my mind, instant replay has regressed this year. It’s gone backwards. And I know I’m not the only one across baseball who feels that way. Very quickly in 2014, you kind of had an understanding of where that line was between sufficient and insufficient evidence. That line is blurry now. There’s been a number of calls this year that I think a year ago would have been overturned. I’m not sure I have a solution for it, but I think it’s moving backwards.

”And I’ll say this: I was a big fan of instant replay last year. I thought it was a good thing. I thought for the most part, they changed calls in order to get the play right, and they did that on a regular basis. I’m not seeing that this year.

”I thought you could make the argument that he might have blocked the plate as well. That’s a much more amorphous rule, and even harder to get overturned on a challenge, so we went with the play that we thought had a better chance of being overturned, which was the actual tagging of Gose as he slid into home.

”We don’t know. There’s been so many that we thought were clear that there’s been no change, where we thought there should’ve been a change. That’s what I’m saying. We don’t know where the line is. We do not understand when they’re going to overturn a play unless it is absolutely blatant. And that’s a problem. So sometimes we’re just throwing a Hail Mary. We think it’s conclusive and we’re throwing a Hail Mary, and they come back and they say they can’t confirm, or it’s unconfirmed.

“I just don’t know what the line is. Last year, we knew what the line was. We had a pretty good idea when we were challenging, whether we had a shot or not, and sometimes we took risks when we weren’t sure if we had a shot. But generally speaking, when we challenged and we knew it was going to be overturned, it was overturned. I think the system needs to be fixed.”

This isn’t an isolated case anymore. There have consistently been instances where MLB has egregiously blown calls, often leading to a shift in the momentum of games. Rallies have been cut off, tying runs have been erased and teams no longer trust that MLB desires to get the calls right. And that’s a big problem. Reporters reached out to MLB following the Tigers-Reds incident on Tuesday to get an answer as to why the call wasn’t overturned, as Ausmus stated he didn’t expect to hear anything.

“After viewing all relevant angles, the replay official felt that he could not definitively determine that the runner touched home prior to being tagged,” MLB spokesperson Michael Teevan replied in an email.

That, along with apologies from MLB after the fact, have become the common answer to blown or questionable calls. But they do no good for the teams affected, and you can’t exactly just rewind to that point in the game and start over. And for a problem that has become so prevalent, waiting until after the conclusion of the season isn’t a viable option.

What’s done is done. Past calls can’t be reversed and MLB is changing the course of games in a troubling way. Imagine if these calls were made during the playoffs or the World Series. In April the calls seemed to be a fluke. In May it was a concern. Now, as July approaches, it’s a glaring problem. And MLB needs to do something about it before the situation gets any worse.