Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi finds ABS system "unrealistic": "If I’m being honest, no one really likes it"

Robot umpires are coming at some point or another, but New York Mets pitcher Joey Lucchesi is not a fan of them.

Not all pitchers like them, and not all batters like them, either, but the MLB is trying to find ways to be more accurate with balls and strikes, and they've been testing robot umps for a while.

Lucchesi said:

"If I’m being honest, no one really likes it. They just changed it for the second time. I don’t think it’s very realistic (compared) to up here. I like this type of baseball, but that type of baseball is a little different, the zone."

The introduction of robot umpires would change baseball completely. Hitters and pitchers would have to make huge adjustments, and catchers would have very different jobs. Some of them are very good at framing, but that would effectively go away.

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Joey Lucchesi cautions use of robo umps

Joey Lucchesi doesn't like robotic umpires

According to Mets star Joey Lucchesi, the Major League Baseball is having trouble fine-tuning the new system. He said that they've changed it twice now.

From his perspective, it makes for an entirely different game. With the robotic umpire, it won't be the same game.

Pitchers would no longer be able to rely on getting friendly calls on the outside corner by a pitcher-friendly umpire. Catchers could no longer frame the ball so well that the ump has no choice but to award a strike.

They would also not have any more frustration at umpires for missing a clear strike. That would, unfortunately, be replaced with new frustration over the above issue of having robot umpires.

It's not going to be perfect in the eyes of any player. Hitters won't like it because they would never get away with taking a questionable strike. Pitchers won't like it because they would never get a favorable call.

It would, however, be perfect in the sense that every strike would be called a strike, and every ball would be called a ball. It would be pitching perfection, but it won't be ideal for players in many ways, and that's something Joey Lucchesi is concerned about.