Well, it's moments like these that make you ask, how can you not be pedantic about baseball?

If baseball were different, how different would it be?

On the case with light ripping, all analytically, cross-check and compile, find a new understanding

not effectively while there can you not be pedantic?

Yes, when it comes to baseball, how can you not be pedantic?

Hello and welcome to episode 2306 of Effectively Wild, a Fangraphs baseball podcast brought

to you by our Patreon supporters. I'm Meg Rowley of Fangraphs and I am joined by Ben Lindberg of the ringer, a FanGraphs baseball podcast brought to you by our Patreon supporters.

I'm Meg Rowley of Fangraphs, and I am joined by Ben Lindberg of the Ringer, Ben.

How are you?

Doing okay.

And I learned that you have a new enemy or an old enemy that's been newly revealed in your campaign to promote the challenge system over full ABS.

Turns out that the umpires are against you.

They want full ABS.

I bet they do.

This came to light in a Q&A that Commissioner Rob Manfred did with the New York Times.

And here's the question, how do umpires feel?

What did they tell you? Because there was an earlier question about robot umps being tried during spring training. And Manfred said, oh, it went

great. And we'll do it in 2026, or we probably will. He said they might go to the MLBPA. And the

MLBPA might say, because it's a bargaining year, let's deal with

this in bargaining, let's wait. So maybe they'll kick the can down the road for another season.

We'll see. But he was happy with how it went. And then the follow-up was, how do the umpires feel?

Manfred says, we obviously had to make an agreement with them to use it and we made the agreement.

...