New Replay Rules Explained Game Times Suffer

Look for Reds' manager Bryan Price on camera frequently this season.

Price went to a meeting, run by Joe Torre, executive vice president of baseball operations for Major League baseball.

Joe Torre

The subject was the new rules for instant replay reviews. Price explained the new rules and how it fits into the game strategically.

Each team will have two challenges before the seventh inning.  Umpires will allow each manager time to argue close plays, allowing the manager to get advice from a "replay coach".  There will be no red rosin bag, al-la the NFL.  Manager's will merely ask the umpire for a review.

http://www.wiedemannbeer.com/

There will be five spring games to practice the on-field logistics for review, however, there will not be any reviews actually performed.  The five games the Reds will be involved are: March 9 at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, March 17 versus Cleveland, March 24 versus Cleveland, March 26 at the White Sox and March 27 at Milwaukee.

"The thing that I appreciated most were the breakdown of most commonly missed plays," Price said.

According to MLB studies the most missed call is the force play.  Of the missed calls 46 percent are force plays.  Rounding out the top three are tag plays and stolen bases.

"The other part is the philosophy of when to use the first challenge, as well as what is a challengeable call or what isn't," Price said.  "The difference between a trap play in front of an infielder or behind an infielder is an example."

Price, like every manager, will need to learn the philosophy of when to use the first challenge. There will be a delay between the video room to make contact with the dugout on calls that are most likely to be overturned.

"It will be the grey area ones, that aren't definite.  You have to make the decision on when to take that risk," Price said.

Price sited an example.

"You have the eight hole hitter up, bang bang play at first. He's called safe. You say okay but the pitchers spot is up. They're not going to hit for him. The pitcher gets jammed and floats one over the firstbaseman's head, then the leadoff hitter comes up and hits a three-run homer," Price said. "The replay may be inconclusive, but if you'd have given it a shot, you could have avoided the situation. Yet, the situation itself seems so benign, runner at firstbase with two outs and the pitcher up. These situations are inevitably going to come up where you say, boy, I wished I would have used the challenge then.  Baseball people will understand that at times you are going to get burned by not using your challenge."

The result will be one more reason to second-guess the manager.

The MLB meeting revealed that there is a missed call one every six games on average. Once every 12 games there is going to be a call that goes against a particular team.  There are two missed calls in the same game, once every 90 games.

"My initial thought was if that's the case, and we have the technology, why make it a strategical decision," Price said.  "Why not correct the call there?  Especially if it could do that over the course of 15 to 20 seconds, when there is going to be some time before the next batter comes to the plate.  I don't know if it is part of the interaction between the manager and the umpire, if that's considered part of the entertainment they'd like to keep. There are so few missed calls.  Why not get the calls right?"

The rules state that both teams need to have the exact same setup.  The video feeds to both home and visitor clubhouse must be simultaneous.

The Reds are also debating how they will administer the video room internally.

"Any close play, if you have any disagreement you have the ability to discuss it," Price said.  "In that time, have your video people let me know what they think.  Now if you're proactive, you have to have someone you trust making a decision.  We are discussing our protocols now.  Everything is going to come to Jay (Bell) to me and the video room to Jay."

"The umpires are going to give us time to express our displeasure but at some point they are going to ask us if we want it reviewed or not. The point Joe Torre made was there are so few missed
calls. You really have to appreciate what a high leverage position looks like.  The problem is you don't know what that is.  It may be a third out call in the first inning that leads to a two-out rally."

Price expects changes along the way.

"I think it will be an evolutionary process.  When they see changes need to be made, they will make them," Price said.