The way Major League Baseball games operate might be changing quicker than people expect, as robotic umpires and new ways to call pitches are being piloted in college and the minor leagues. 

According to a Fox News story published in January, robotic umpires will be used in at select Triple-A baseball parks for the 2022 season. The automated system will be used to call balls and strikes only. 

Plays at home plate will still be called by a real umpire. 

Robotic umpires can bring new challenges to baseball, but they also could offer improvements by avoiding the errors that human umpires can make.

Many people would enjoy that the sport could become more fair, because there would be less of a chance that players would get called out on strikes with a bad call. Robotic umpires also could ensure a more universal strike zone, reducing or eliminating the difficulties hitters face when a human umpire sets up a smaller zone. 

Triple-A is one level below the major leagues, so the future for home plate umpires could be ending more quickly than fans might expect.  

The next new possibility for baseball is a pitch-signaling device that Vanderbilt University baseball is testing.

All nine players on the field wear a wristband holding the device. A coach in the dugout can choose the pitch on the device, without the catcher even giving a sign to the pitcher. 

The goal for this new technology is essentially to speed up the play of the game and to eliminate sign stealing. That would sound very pleasing to the people who think baseball is slow and boring. 

The devices are one way, so only the coach can send information. 

One possible problem with this device is that the pitcher might not like his coach’s call. Will he be able to shake it off and get a new call?

That is still unknown, so as the season goes by maybe more information will be known from Vanderbilt. 

Overall, baseball is advancing by gaining new technology and new possibilities.