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Instant Replay to be Expanded

"At last", would be my initial reaction, as Bud Selig announced today that instant replay would be expanded to cover just about everything outside balls and strikes. So, Angel Hernandez can continue to be the object of hatred and derision.

By Jim McLennan
Justin Edmonds

Here are the highlights of the system:

  • It's based on a system of challenges. Managers get one over the first six innings, and two the rest of the way.
  • If they challenge, and it's upheld, they get to keep the challenge.
  • Not all plays will be reviewable, but the decision on which are and aren't has yet to be finalized.
  • Replays will be reviewed by umpires operating out of MLB.com headquarters in New York.
  • Said Braves president, John Scherholz, part of the committee which came up with the plan, "The home-plate umpire or the crew chief will go to a communications center somewhere on the field… and pick up a phone that will have a direct secure line to Major League Baseball, and there will be umpires who have been monitoring the games with technicians who can cue up [replays] for them."
  • The aim is to get the process so it can be completed in 75 seconds, rather than the current time-frame of over three minutes per replay.
  • The plan will be in place for the start of the 2014 season, but it's freely admitted that it's a fluid entity, and will be subject to re-evaluation and review at the end of the season, to make any changes necessary.
  • We here may be the first to experience it, because it will be tested this off-season, in the Arizona Fall League.

Probably not normally worth an entire post - it's still apparently in the "working out the mechanics" stages. But it's an off-day, and so you're probably sitting around, staring at the SnakePit, and wishing there was a recap of another walk-off win about now. So, what do you reckon?

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