New replay rules challenge managers

JUPITER, Fla. – Garrett Jones likes having the power to do something about close plays. But the Marlins first baseman is not sure how much he’ll be able to take advantage of the new instant replay rules.
“It’s so bang-bang. Sometimes the ball hits the glove and the foot hits, it’s hard to tell the difference,” said Jones, who previously played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. “But when you get the one where you catch it and get that boom after and he still calls him safe, I’ll be ready make sure we get those reversed.”
Instant replay is coming to baseball. Unlike the NFL, there will be no red hankies, umpires will not disappear under a hood and reappear two minutes later. But there will be a crew of umpires sitting in New York City every night watching every game and relaying their findings back to a technician at the ballpark as quickly as possible.
While the league continues to refine the rules, baseball executives Joe Torre and Tony La Russa are touring camps to explain what they know.
The league will select certain spring training games as a test run. The concept already was used in the Arizona Fall League.
Instant replay implemented in August 2008 was used only for boundary home runs.
“It’s not going to be a perfect system right out of the chute,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. “It’ll probably be a work in progress. I think the guts of it will be good. It’s going to be interesting to see how it works.
“I’m sure there will be some things that come up we weren’t prepared for.”
Every play will be watched and then reviewed from a command center in New York. The idea is to have a review in process before the crew chief is handed the headsets from the in-park technician to keep the flow of the game moving.
Redmond and Marlins president of baseball operations Mike Hill said the pace of the game has been a major topic during the early discussions.
“Everybody who’s been a part of this knows that baseball is a game of rhythm and needs a flow,” Hill said. “The last thing anyone wants to do is affect that.”
Each team gets one challenge and is allowed to keep it if it wins its first. Starting in the seventh inning the crew chief may choose to invoke instant replay on any reviewable call.
Replays of close calls are not allowed to be shown on stadium video screens until managers have asked for a review.
The Marlins plan to have video coordinator Cullen McRae, or a member of his staff, watching from the clubhouse and in communication with Redmond. Hill, general manager Dan Jennings, Redmond and the coaching staff plan to meet this spring to devise a strategy.
At question: Will it be wise to use your challenge early in the game or should it be saved for the latter innings? Will the situation dictate which play to challenge, such as do you challenge a call at first base with two outs and nobody on?
“There definitely will be a strategy to it,” Redmond said. “For us, if you feel like you could be right and it gets you a runner on first or an out, I’m going to take it whether that’s early in the game or late in the game.”
But, he added, “You got to make sure that you can win because you don’t want to lose a challenge.”
Situations that now are allowed to be reviewed:
• Home runs;
• Ground-rule doubles;
• Fan interference;
• Boundary calls;
• Most force plays;
• Tag plays;
• Fair or foul calls in the outfield;
• Outfielders trapping the ball;
• Hit by pitch;
•Timing play (whether a runner scores before a third out);
• Touching a base;
• Passing runners;
• Record keeping (count on a batter, outs, score, substitutions).
Situations that cannot be reviewed:
• Balls and strikes;
• The neighborhood play at second base;
• Judgment calls such as interference.