LG offensive leadoff hitter Kim Hyun-soo expresses his dissatisfaction with the umpire's strike call at the end of the fifth inning of the baseball game between the LG Twins and the NC Dinos in the '2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League' at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sept. 22.
Changes are coming to the KBO starting next year. The ABS (Automatic Ball-Strike System) and the pitch clock system will be introduced to ensure fairness.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced on Monday that it has decided to introduce ABS and the pitch clock system from the 2024 season as a result of its fourth board meeting.
ABS is a system in which robot umpires call balls and strikes. It has been piloted in the Futures (second division) league since 2020 and will finally be introduced to the first division.
Pitchclock is a system that measures the interval between pitches. Pitchers are penalized if they don't throw within a set amount of time after receiving the ball.
The system, which was introduced in Major League Baseball (MLB) this season and has been praised for its role in reducing actual game time, will also be applied to the KBO.
A KBO official said, "We have been comprehensively analyzing the system, hardware, and the impact on the game when the league introduces it," adding, "We have also shared the contents with each club through the executive committee and made improvements."
"The ABS system has been upgraded in the second-tier league for four years since 2020, and has achieved results such as maintaining the sophistication and consistency of ball and strike judgments and reducing the time it takes for judgment results to be delivered to the umpire." "All pitchers and batters are subject to the same strike zone judgment, which enables fair play," he said.
"We analyzed the average pitching intervals of all KBO pitchers and analyzed detailed indicators such as the average number of blocking attempts and when the batter is ready to hit." "As a result of our analysis, we determined that a pitch clock rule suitable for the KBO is necessary," he added.
The KBO plans to continue its efforts by stabilizing and upgrading the system and holding briefings for clubs to ensure that ABS and the pitch clock are stable and operational from next year. 스포츠토토맨