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ATLANTA – Minor league baseball players have had the opportunity to get familiar with the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) system. Major league players were introduced to it in spring training, but once the regular season began, human umpires ruled whether a pitch fell within the strike zone.
The challenge system, which has sparked some controversy in the baseball world, made its primetime debut Tuesday night in Atlanta at the 2025 MLB All-Star Game.
It didn’t take long for the ABS system to affect the Midsummer Classic.
In the bottom of the first inning, American League pitcher Tarik Skubal’s pitch to Padres infielder Manny Machado was called a ball. The ruling resulted in a 1-2 count instead of a strikeout. But an appeal was made to the ABS challenge system, which sent Machado to the dugout with a strikeout.
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“That’s why baseball is the way it is now. That’s why you get crazy Instagram messages, Twitter messages now. ABS just seems to make things a little more complicated (because) if you can bet on if that pitcher (is) going to throw a strike or not. … that’s pretty wild to me.”
Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton during the 2025 Home Run Derby at Truist Park in Atlanta July 14, 2025. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)
Buxton says Pete Rose’s baseball career should be respected
In May, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other deceased players were removed from the league’s “permanently ineligible list.”
Buxton hit a key double in the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s All-Star game at Truist Park. The National League won the first swing-off in All-Star game history to secure its second All-Star victory in three years.