We're Already Seeing The Flaws In Baseball's New Replay System

Fox Sports

The Major League Baseball season just began and we are learning very quickly that the new replay system is filled with flaws that are going to annoy fans.

The biggest change we are seeing so far is how managers stall games while waiting to decide if a call should be challenged.

Several times on opening day, we saw managers slowly walk out towards the umpire.

The purpose was to give his own video people a chance to look at the replay.

Once there, managers will turn towards the dugout and wait until somebody in the dugout talks to somebody else who has seen the review. That coach will then signal to the manager to either challenge or not.

While the replay reviews are quick, the process that leads up to the review is painfully slow.

We are also likely to see a lot of meaningless challenges in the fifth and sixth innings of games.

Each manager is given one challenge in the first six innings of each game. After the sixth inning, replays will be initiated by the umpires.

If a manager has yet to use his challenge in the first 4-5 innings, they are more likely to use it in the fifth or sixth inning knowing they are about to lose it anyway.

All of this means more delays beyond just the actual review of a replay and a new game of baseball that fans will have to learn to put up with.