We're Already Seeing The Flaws In Baseball's New Replay System

The Major League Baseball season just began and we are learning
very quickly that the new replay system is filled with flaws that
are going to annoy fans.

The biggest change we are seeing so far is how managers stall
games while waiting to decide if a call should be challenged.

Several times on opening day, we saw managers slowly walk out
towards the umpire.

The
purpose was to give his own video people a chance to look at the
replay.

Once there, managers will turn towards the dugout and wait until
somebody in the dugout talks to somebody else who has seen the
review. That coach will then signal to the manager to either
challenge or not.

While the replay reviews are quick, the process that leads up to
the review is painfully slow.

We
are also likely to see a lot of meaningless challenges in the
fifth and sixth innings of games.

Each manager is given one challenge in the first six innings of
each game. After the sixth inning, replays will be initiated by
the umpires.

If a manager has yet to use his challenge in the first 4-5
innings, they are more likely to use it in the fifth or sixth
inning knowing they are about to lose it anyway.

All of this means more delays beyond just the actual review of a
replay and a new game of baseball that fans will have to learn to
put up with.