How do you feel about the ABS system after season one?

Having watched the evolution of the technology unfold in Low-A and Triple-A, there was less of an adjustment period for fans who do follow the minor leagues. Indeed, the real annoyance for prospect writers now is the dark mode at High-A and Double-A, where there is no public Statcast data, and players who broke into full season ball using the system are then left up to the widely varying skills of minor league umpires through two levels, before getting back to ABS ball in Triple-A. Evaluating hitters in particular through those changing rule sets is a bit trickier.

Overall, the league did a really good job developing and implementing the ABS system. It's quick enough not to impede the flow of the game much, and the two challenge allotment keeps it from being used excessively. We could argue about whether there should be one challenge allowed or three, or whether teams should automatically get an additional challenge in the eighth and ninth innings to help insure that in the highest leverage situations and most pressure packed moments, that the game isn't decided by the umpires, but overall I'd call it a pretty solid success.

As a somewhat older fan now, do I love every aspect of it? Not really. Catchers used to be able to expand the zone with their target, and if the pitcher hit the glove without much movement required, you could expand the edges of the strike zone, which rewarded pitchers with good command. On the other side of it, if that catcher set up inside and you missed your target by two feet, it was never a strike even if it techically caught the by the book strike zone. Those differences have really taken some getting used to over the past few years as the system was tested in the minors.