How iPads have changed the way managers argue balls and strikes

ANAHEIM, Calif. — “That’s all you need, is an iPad!” home plate umpire Erich Bacchus yelled at Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery after ejecting him from the game in late July.

Montgomery was irate because Luis Rengifo struck out looking while not seeing a single pitch in the strike zone in a critical spot in the game. Rengifo represented the tying run in the eighth inning, and New York Mets closer Edwin Díaz got the call on three back-door sliders that were all in the same spot, a few inches off the plate.

Bacchus had a point. It’s much easier to see where pitches end up after the fact, as opposed to in real time, with how fast and how much pitches move these days. But it wasn’t always this way.

Late in the 2015 season, MLB allowed iPads into the dugouts for advanced scouting reports and video analysis. But it also allowed everyone in the dugout to see balls and strikes, which has given managers more ammunition to argue with umpires.

“The first part is that you understand the human element to the whole transaction,” Montgomery said. 

It’s easier said than done to call balls and strikes perfectly. That’s why, for the most part, managers just hope for consistency. 

“I think that consistency is what we ask for from an umpire,” Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “You don't want them to miss any… Whenever they can be as consistent as possible, that's the best route. They're going to hear a lot less from guys.”

Consistency comes with a caveat, though. 

In Rengifo’s case, Bacchus was consistent. But he was consistent in calling strikes that were well off the plate. If it’s borderline pitches being called wrong, but consistently, then managers may show some grace.

“We tell our guys too, ‘hey, if a guy is consistently calling a pitch that's, say, on the outer half versus the inner half and you keep taking the outer half one, that's kind of on us,’” Montgomery said. “We have to make the adjustment because he's proven to us throughout the course of 150 pitches throughout the game what his zone is. That doesn't make that any better in the moment, but it does at least give you a plan of attack and sort of like, ‘hey, let's not let him end at bats if we can avoid him.’”

Every manager is different. Some managers are more privy to the iPads in the dugout and some aren’t. 

Managers on analytically inclined teams like Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash, may feel differently about the use of iPads than managers who take on a more old-school approach. 

How much of a difference have the iPads made in arguing balls and strikes to him?

“A lot,” Cash said. “I think we're probably arguing more after the fact now. Some years, MLB has taken the box off the iPad, some years they put it back on. Ideally, I'd rather just get to an ABS system where the computer calls it.”

The Automated Ball Strike System (ABS) is coming to regular-season games soon. It’s been in use in the minor leagues and was rolled out this season in certain spring training facilities and the All-Star Game. 

But even then, Cash has the same complaints for the iPads as human umpires: consistency. 

“The problem is, it's not easy for us in the moment to know exactly whether it's a mistake or not,” Cash said. “Because those boxes are manually put in by somebody in the broadcast booth, and that is not the actual strike zone of Major League Baseball or the ABS system.”

The official definition of the strike zone as stated in the rule book states: “The official strike zone is the area over home plate from the midpoint between a batter's shoulders and the top of the uniform pants — when the batter is in his stance and prepared to swing at a pitched ball — and a point just below the kneecap. In order to get a strike call, part of the ball must cross over part of home plate while in the aforementioned area.”

As for the ABS system, the strike zone will be the width of home plate (17 inches) and between 53.5% and 27% of the batter’s height, and the ball must cross the halfway point of the home plate’s depth. 

Needless to say, the different strike zones can cause confusion. 

But for other managers, the technology in the dugout hasn’t changed anything.

“It hasn’t changed how I look at it,” Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “After the fact, I may hear that was a bad pitch or there are a number of them. That’s where it comes into play, where you go “wait a minute, he’s off tonight and he’s one-sided,’ but I don’t look at iPads.”

Then there are those in the middle, like Wislon.

“I don't know that it's changed all that much, to be honest with you,” Wilson said. “In the moment is when that emotion comes out; it's a way to verify whether you were right or wrong. Sometimes it can be difficult to see from (the dugout). I think, in a lot of ways, umpires get more calls right than you think they do. Which maybe makes the ones that they missed all that much harder to swallow.”

Wilson brings up an overlooked part of the equation. Similar to the human element of it all, umpires are better than the average fan thinks. 

In February 2024, Frangraphs’ Davy Andrews did a study and found that umpires’ overall ball-and-strike accuracy has improved every single year in the pitch tracking era (since 2008). In 2023, 92.8% of takes were called correctly by umpires. 

Managers recognize this, too. It’s not always about voicing managers’ displeasure and creating a heated argument that leads to ejections. 

“These guys are really good for the most part,” Montgomery said. “A lot of the time, it’s trying to make sure they understand that, ‘hey, that might have been one or two that you missed,’ but over the course of the game, they're so good that it goes by the boards.”

When it comes to checking the iPad for missed calls, for the most part, it’s for confirming what the managers feel was a wrong call. It’s a luxury for those in the dugout, and a pain in the neck for umpires. 

“I think that kind of sucks for them,” Montgomery said. “And they review it, they go back, and they see it. Even in the game, they'll talk about some of the calls they may have missed or whatever. But it does put them in a tough spot because we actually have the answer key now, versus maybe before it was opinion.”