MLB: Video reviews more prevalent in 2016
MLB has seen an increase in the use of instant replay reviews in the 2016 season.
MLB instituted its replay review system at the start of the 2014 season to mixed reactions.
The side against instant replay cited tradition and wasted time as reason to oppose the modern system, but ultimately lost out to the winning side.
Those who thought replays would slow down games will not be happy this season, as the number of replays has gone up a great deal since last season.
Jayson Stark of ESPN wrote an article explaining how replays have gone up 35 percent compared to this point in the 2015 season.
"All told, through Sunday, MLB had used replay to review 180 calls this season — up from 133 through the corresponding date last year. If reviews continue at this rate, more than 1,650 calls would be decided by replay this season, up from 1,331 last season."
Stark goes into more details on the statistics, but the headline itself is enough to make some people go crazy.
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Those against instant replay will cite this as a way the already slow game of baseball is being slowed further. But shouldn’t accuracy be the goal, even if it takes longer?
There is nothing worse than watching a team lose a game because of a blown call. The players have to go on wondering what could have been, and the umpire has to live with the consequences of a terrible call.
Take Armando Galarraga, who was a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in 2010. He had a perfect game through 8 2/3 innings against the Cleveland Indians when Jason Donald hit a routine ground ball to Miguel Cabrera. Galaragga covered first and clearly reached the bag in time, but umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe, effectively ending the perfect game.
If instant replay was in use this horrible situation could have been avoided, and Joyce would not have to live with the fact he ruined a great moment in Galaragga’s otherwise average career.
This is an extreme example, but one that shows the benefits of using instant replay to make sure correct calls are made as often as possible.
And while replays may take a few minutes, Stark explains how the average replay time is not too long:
"The average time per review was 1 minute, 54 seconds through Sunday. It was 1 minute, 49 seconds at a similar stage of last season and 2:07 at the same juncture in 2014."
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An extra two minutes at a few points in a baseball game is nothing to get upset about, especially when it improves the game.