series opener in Atlanta<\/a>, Kelly was 18-for-20 in ABS challenges, a 90% success rate that tops all catchers (minimum 10 challenges). He has gained eight strikeouts with successful challenges, tied with the Athletics\u2019 Shea Langeliers for second in the majors. Kelly also has eliminated three walks, good for fifth.<\/p>\n\u201cA lot of it\u2019s situation dependent,\u201d Kelly said over the weekend in Texas. \u201cIt\u2019s knowing when to use them and how sure you are of it being a strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one (against the Rangers), I set it up away and there\u2019s a ball up and in that ended up clipping that was a strike. But I wasn\u2019t 100% sure, or 90% sure, that I thought it was a strike. There\u2019s a certainty level of trusting your eyes and just understanding the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Craig Counsell credits Kelly\u2019s understanding of game situations in deploying the team\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how you practice being good at that,\u201d Counsell said last week at Wrigley Field. \u201cCarson was very conservative in spring training. But to his credit, he was just feeling the system out as much as anything. We get feedback every single day, obviously, so you know the ones he\u2019s missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just done a good job of taking in all the feedback that you get on a daily basis when you catch and having a good feel for it. It\u2019s still, for me, too early to tell you if we can assign skill to this. But Carson\u2019s off to a \u2018hot start.’\u201d<\/p>\n
As a team, Cubs catchers have combined for a 71% success rate on challenges, behind only the Detroit Tigers (83%).<\/p>\n
Sometimes impactful challenges might not go in the Cubs\u2019 favor or are unnoticed. Taillon pointed to two challenges by Miguel Amaya during his May 5 start against the Cincinnati Reds that he felt played a key role in his strong outing. He threw the Reds\u2019 Tyler Stephenson a full-count, back-door two-seamer that resulted in a walk. Amaya challenged the call, but it was confirmed to be a ball by about 0.2 inches.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I just thought that was such a good pitch to challenge because I had been struggling a little bit that inning, and if he gets us a strike there \u2026\u201d Taillon said. \u201cSo I remember thinking that was unsuccessful but thought that was a really smart, good challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amaya also challenged a 3-0 pitch to TJ Friedl that reversed a walk; Taillon retired Friedl on the next pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like a insignificant challenge, but then it got me a leadoff out \u2014 that\u2019s a huge deal,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cBoth of them are really good. (Kelly is) just so measured with it. It\u2019s really nice to know that he\u2019s in charge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s any initial takeaway from ABS in the majors, Taillon and Kelly both praised how great MLB umpires are at calling the strike zone. Kelly put it simply: \u201cWe\u2019re talking quarter of an inch at 100 miles an hour. They\u2019re really good at their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the first six-plus weeks of the season, 53% of all challenges, from both catchers\/pitchers and hitters, have resulted in overturned calls.<\/p>\n
\u201cUmpires are really freaking good at their jobs, to be completely honest,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cIf you had put ABS in the game 20 years ago, I think you would be like, umpires are bad, but umpires in recent years, I\u2019ve just noticed the zone getting tighter and more consistent. \u2026 The ones that are 0.1 inches, crazy. Honestly, it\u2019s impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan reported from Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 The evolution of catcher framing metrics has changed how certain attributes are evaluated behind the plate.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":792256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[323409,323408,132213,17625,960,1271,1816,5386,1818,5439,85485],"class_list":["post-792255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-abs-challenges","tag-abs-system","tag-automated-ball-strike-system","tag-carson-kelly","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jameson-taillon","tag-miguel-amaya"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116564507229940733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}