DUNEDIN, Fla. — Veteran starter Max Scherzer made his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, but it was also his first appearance on the mound in Major League Baseball's automated ball-strike system era.
He's not a fan of it.
In fact, in a two-inning appearance in which Scherzer looked quite sharp against the St. Louis Cardinals, he came up on the short end of two robot challenges that turned strikes into balls.
«I'm a little skeptical on this,» Scherzer told The Athletic after a performance in which he struck out four Cardinals in two innings. «I get what we're trying to do here, but I think major league umpires are really good. They're really good. So what are we actually changing here? We know there are going to be strikes that are changed to balls, and balls that are changed to strikes.… So we're going to basically be even. So are we actually going to improve the game? Are the umpires really that bad? I don't think so.»
The ABS system is being tested during major league spring training after years of experiments in the minors. It has been the topic of several postgame news conferences, and Tuesday was no different.
«Can we just play baseball?» Scherzer said. «We're humans. Can we just be judged by humans? Do we really need to disrupt the game? I think humans are defined by humans.»
A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer, 40, has never been shy about expressing his opinion. And as he expressed some emotion on the mound as the calls were reversed, the tone of his news conference wasn't much of a surprise.
«I'm skeptical of it,» Scherzer reiterated. «I get what we're trying to do, but I'm skeptical of what the results will actually be.»
As far as his overall effort, the former ace was pleased. He finished
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