Former Seattle Mariners' Star Discusses the Problem with MLB Umpires
Speaking with longtime MLB personality Chris Rose of Jomboy Media, former Seattle Mariners' closer Paul Sewald had some interesting comments on the state of major league umpiring.
"I probably get more strikes I did when I came into the league. I think more than anything, we just need some sort of accountability. These guys are not held accountable for their actions is kind of the problem, right? There's no relegation system. I'm speaking for 5-10 percent, right? I don't think this is an issue across the league. There's some that are awful and then there's some that are fantastic. And we're trying to figure out how can we get the fantastic ones behind the plate more often...."
Paul Sewald says there needs to be a system for holding umpires accountable pic.twitter.com/gW7bwiucFm
— Chris Rose Sports (@ChrisRoseSports) June 20, 2024
The timing of these comments are interesting considering that the M's just fell victim to some questionable umpiring on Wednesday when J.P. Crawford was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Furthermore, ESPN just reported that Triple-A is going to implement the challenge system for balls and strikes, which will ultimately make its way to the big leagues.
In the challenge system, challenges to calls on balls and strikes are made by the hitter or catcher in real time with the umpire receiving an answer to the challenge via an earpiece. In full ABS, every call is made for the umpire.
For the first half of this season at Triple-A, full ABS was used for Tuesday-Thursday games while the challenge system was used for weekend contests. Now, all games will have the challenge system.
As for Sewald, he's got seven saves and a 0.77 ERA in 13 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks this year. He spent parts of three seasons in Seattle (2021-2023), saving 52 games and helping the M's get to the playoffs in 2022.
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