Tuesday night's exciting Major League Baseball All-Star Game gave fans a glimpse into the future with the use of "robot umpires." The Athletic senior editor Melissa Lockard joins "The Daily Report" to discuss the automated ball-strike system and how it performed.

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Major League Baseball showcased its automated ball-strike system, commonly referred to as "robot umpires," during the All-Star Game. The system uses high-tech cameras to assist with calling balls and strikes and allows players to challenge umpire decisions. 

The technology has been in use in minor league games since 2021 and was tested during spring training for major league players. Feedback from those with minor league experience has been generally positive, with players adapting to the challenge system and appreciating the increased accuracy. There is an expectation that the system could be integrated into regular season games in the near future.

MLB introduces "robot umpires" in All-Star Game

Well, last night's exciting Major League Baseball All-Star Game gave fans a glimpse into the future with the debut of the league's robot umpires, the automated ball strike system, which is essentially a group of high-tech cameras. It lets players challenge balls and strikes called by the home plate ump when they don't agree with a call. While they've been used in the minor leagues since 2021, these robot umps could become more common in the big leagues by next year, and Melissa Locker joins us now. She's a senior editor and writer for The Athletic. Melissa, thanks for being with us. So, it was a big night. How did the automated ball strike system do last night? I thought it did really well. You know, I think the players had a lot of fun with it, which was a really good debut, you know, for the system. About half of them, I think, had played with it before in the minor leagues, which really helped with the ease of kind of when to make those decisions to kind of challenge a call and when not to. But, you know, I think it is something that we're going to see in regular season games probably as soon as next year. They've done a lot of testing in the minor leagues. They tested it out in spring training this year for the big league guys as well. And I think it's something that's going to be, you know, fairly seamlessly integrated into the regular season games. I wonder if this makes those players challenge a call more or less because they know now that there's actual numbers behind it. What have players said about this system? You know, I think the ones who have played with it have found that it's fine. I think change is always difficult for anybody. But those that played with it in the minor leagues, I think, actually kind of got into it after a while. For hitters, it really makes them focus on what is the strike zone exactly and, you know, being able to tell balls and strikes as clearly as they can. There's also some strategy involved once you get into serious games that really count because you only get two challenges per team. And if you use them early and you get them wrong and you've lost them, you could kind of miss out on the opportunity for a really big overturn at the end of the game. So, you know, there's some game and chip involved. There's some fun with it. I think the older players that probably haven't used it yet are a little bit skeptical. But I think once they roll it out, they'll find it's pretty useful for them because you never want a really big game to be decided on a wrong call. Oh, absolutely. Is there a sense that this system could change the game itself? I think a little bit. You know, there's always been those famous moments in World Series games and things where a ball or strike has sort of determined something that, you know, fans will look back 20 years from now and say, if only that call had been done correctly. So we won't have that as much anymore. But, you know, I think technology has changed so much we might as well use it. Sounds good. Melissa Lockard, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for having me.

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