Struggling SF Giants slugger needs to have ABS challenge privileges revoked

SF Giants slugger Jerar Encarnacion has a very precarious spot on the team and he is not doing himself any favors after making a pretty terrible ABS challenge on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

It is a new system and every hitter is adjusting as they try to fully familiarize themselves with the automated strike zone, but Encarnacion's challenge was a pretty flagrant mistake.

Encarnacion may be off the team fairly soon at this rate

That's not even close to being a ball. That pitch may have been closer to being right down the middle than it was off the plate. After that challenge the Giants only had one remaining so he really forced the Giants to have to be super selective when it comes to challenging a call the rest of the game.

It was not even Encarnacion's first time making a bad challenge this season. He is now one-for-three on challenges this season and the other one he lost was pretty obviously a strike as well.

Manager Tony Vitello said he wanted to give players largely free rein to challenge early in the season so they could figure out who was good at challenging and who was not. It seems pretty clear that Encarnacion is not a guy who should be challenging balls and strikes.

To try to cut him a little slack, he gets so little playing time and so few at-bats that his understanding of the strike zone is unsurprisingly a bit fuzzier than more regular players. All the more reason to tell him he shouldn't challenge calls.

As of this writing he is hitting just .176/.200/.206 with no home runs and no runs driven in with one walk and eight strikeouts in 34 at-bats. He has scored just one run.

It really is fair to wonder at this point why Encarnacion is still on the team. He had a hot spring training and it's unquestionable that when he makes contact with the ball he usually hits is pretty hard. But at this point he really isn't providing much to the team.

He's not doing damage against lefties and he's something of a defensive liability. Literally the most notable things he's done this year are lose his glove and be late getting out to right field, forget how many outs there were, and now make one of the worst challenges of the early season.

The Giants wanted to give him a lot of chances since he's out of minor league options but it would not be a surprise to anyone if they cut him loose pretty soon.

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