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This idea could make MLB's replay reviews a lot more interesting

During the Colorado Rockies' game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night, a replay challenge in the second inning grinded the action to a halt for nearly five minutes. The Rockies thought Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison had violated the new slide rule (which he hadn't). While umpires tried to sort things out, an article came to mind that ESPN's Jayson Stark had recently written about replay challenges during the 2016 season.

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In the story, Stark reported that replay challenges are up 35 percent from this time a year ago, with a big jump in reviews of force-outs and tag plays. As he often does, Stark jumped on Twitter to discuss this with interested fans, and that produced a very interesting idea.

It’s a fascinating suggestion. On its surface, it seems like this idea is about cutting down the time it takes for managers to decide whether they’re going to challenge a play. This comes to mind during every replay challenge, because it takes a varying amount of time for the manager to decide if he’s going to throw the metaphorical flag.

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While there are stats kept on the time it takes for the umpires to review a play (and Stark reports that the average time in 2016 isn’t significantly different than 2015’s average time), there aren't any on how long it takes for a manager to officially challenge a play. The process often goes like this:

  • Play happens

  • Player argues, points, or makes some other gesture toward the dugout, implying that he didn't think the umpire's ruling was correct.

  • After considering the play and/or discussing it with his coaches, the manager or one of the coaches goes to the phone to ask the team's own video people to review the play.

  • The manager or coach waits on the phone while the play is reviewed.

  • The team's video people give the yea or nay, and the manager either strolls out of the dugout to challenge, or he stays there.

If this sounds inexact, that's because it is, and it was designed that way. This is from MLB's own instant replay review FAQ published when the replay procedures were put in place:

What's to prevent a manager from arguing to buy time for somebody to watch a replay in the clubhouse and then signal the dugout whether or not he should appeal?

Nothing. In fact, it's encouraged. Each stadium has been outfitted so that both the home and visiting teams have equal access to replays and every team practiced its system for relaying that information to the manager during Spring Training.

This answer is a little too casual. While there aren’t strict time limits on challenging most plays (the rules say that the challenge must occur before the next play or pitch begins), there are time limits set for challenging a play when it results in the third out of an inning.

In that case, the manager has to be on the field within ten seconds of the umpire’s third-out call, and once he’s on the field he has 30 seconds to indicate that he’s challenging. That sounds very similar to the idea that Stark and Troy (@TheRaterpillar) were discussing on Twitter. So why not just apply the rule for third out challenges to all challenges?

Great idea! It challenges the manager's split second decision-making ability in a way that's rarely seen in baseball. How closely was he paying attention to the play? Does he believe the player? Does that particular player often insist he beat out a tag? How much does the manager know about the typical outcomes on these plays? How often are calls of that kind overturned or confirmed, and how often do they let the call stand?

The manager has time to put his lineup together every day, and decide who's playing where. He has time to discuss pitching changes and pinch-hit opportunities with his coaches and players. But this requires a whole different skill set. He has to decide right then and there if he thinks that the possible reversal of the call is worth using his challenge at all.

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As far as objections, the argument that review is “about getting the play right” doesn’t really apply here. Unless MLB is going to have an umpire watching every game and making decisions on everything that’s even moderately contested, this doesn’t significantly change anything. The fate of the play in question is still in the umpire’s hands. The manager just has to decide whether or not to question the play.

And for anyone who thinks that replay itself is ruining the game, this puts a very important decision back into the hands of someone who doesn’t have the benefit of cameras or replay. And TV broadcasts could take advantage. They could install a manager cam in the dugout that would approximate where a manager would sit, and during contested plays they could show the footage of the play from that angle so we could see what he’s seeing.

There’s nothing to indicate that MLB wants to change the current replay system. And if a change like this were introduced, it probably wouldn't go over well. But it’s fascinating to think about what would happen if managers were forced to make split-second decisions, just as their players do all the time.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher