If you've got a little extra scrilla (which is what cool people call $5), consider supporting my work via Patreon! You'll get access to hours and hours of bonus content, as well as see your name featured in the credits of one of these videos: www.patreon.com/foolishbaseball
The concept of giving WAR values to replay reviewers is the most insane but also amazing idea in the history of the world. I love it and this research needs to be continued until fans start complaining about how their big market team didn’t go out and win the bidding war for the replay reviewer with a 70% success rate.
the concept of WAR needs to be used on all coaching and management positions....the analytics behind it would show that some media darlings are duds and some media duds are pure gold, I'm sure.
The Royals absolutely took advantage of the replay review in their golden age. A reminder from the Royalball video that the Royals relied so much on BABIP luck, so Dupee in the basement was crazy valuable.
I mean, I don't think you as a team can rely on babip luck, 9 players a game for 162 games, that's gonna even out, you're more likely to get lucky with Alcides Escobar suddenly becoming really good than babiping the entire league.
Yo as a Royals fan I never would have expected a video on the man, the myth, the legend himself Bill Duplissea. Love to see him get some recognition, he truly is the GOAT.
How in the hell do you even find this stuff to review? Like seriously, I considered myself a pretty heavy baseball fan and I didn’t even know this guy existed. And you managed to make an entire 18 minute video about his presence of just overturning calls entertaining. Extremely well done as always Bailey, keep up the amazing work
One of my buddies did this for the Rays for a while. He was part of their advanced scouting department I think, but one day they were just like, "You're doing it, good luck." Kind of crazy they didn't vet him at all, especially an organization like the Rays, but he's great and did a really good job I think. He was still responsible for his normal job duties I believe. He said they don't get any HD or unique camera angles like we get after the fact, so it's much harder than you might think. Still, one day my friends and I went to a game and in the first inning he got a challenge right and we were all hype. Pretty cool stuff.
Foolish, I’ve always loved your sense of humor, but the “homeruns began in 2008” joke was the first time I genuinely laughed out loud at one. Great video as always
This video encapsulated all I love about baseball. Incredibly talented people adding quantifiable value to a team in seemingly odd and unique ways. “Literal guy in the chair” heist movie moments. The Monkey in Toy Story 3 movie. I can’t wait for this position to become a secondary profession for aspiring umpires leading to review room rookies.
You could have done this on the Mets replay review guy last year, his name is Harrison. They led the league in replay review success having like a 90% clip. He definitely helped them get a 100 win season. However this year he’s been much worse at success despite him looking to have made the right call which made me get my tin foil hat on
Yeah, Harrison Friedland. I think he had a harder time in 2023 simply because of the clock-he just doesn’t have nearly as much time to make a decision and relay it to the bench. But maybe he and the org can figure out how to streamline their process to improve their success rate. I hope it’s something they’ve been working on.
Thank you Bailey. I have no idea why ppl believe the manager is the one who halts play, fires up the replay from all available angles, scrutinizes the replay, and decides, "Yep we're going to challenge." All in 15 seconds
It's probably because managers are issued proprietary contact lenses that enable them to instantaneously switch from normal sight to 4k video replay from all angles available at said stadium. Admittedly there have been some issues with this tech. It relies on voice commands and a loud atmosphere can hamper the process. This all falls under the Freedom of Information act. Contact your local congressman and voice your displeasure.
Technically speaking, when it comes to calculating war for replay reviewers, less win probability should be subtracted for missed challenges if the challenge occurs later in the game. A missed challenge in the 6th inning is far less likely to hurt a team than a missed challenge in the 1st inning. Loved the video!
How are you not at 500k yet?! I have never played baseball and rarely watch MLB games, but whenever I see a Foolish Baseball upload I know I'm in for a treat.
Long time fan, first time commenter Bailey. Been following your videos all the way from Australia and I have to say this video is my new favourite. Genuinely funny, highly entertaining and adding something that I've never heard anyone else talk about. Keep up the great work mate!
Always good to get an affirmation of your thoughts on your team. We’re good at the exciting bits of baseball* (stealing, small ball, fielding, winning replays) and terrible at the bits of baseball that make it so you can win (hitting and pitching). *home runs are exciting and KC doesn’t do that so it doesn’t count here
Hearing about the value of a replay coordinator to a team was surprisingly engaging. Every discipline has its legends, and Bill Duplissea certainly is one given his stats.
I have to correct something here. In the '85 series, Orta was later thrown out at third on a failed sac bunt by Jim Sundberg. It was Onix Concepción who eventually scored the tying run.
"Umpires Hate Him! Click here to see how he robs the other team of any chance!" this got thinking abt those ads 😂😂😂 Love this channel and the work you put in. Making baseball better everyday man.
As a Cubs fan, the replay overturn rate for the team makes total sense, but the WAA being tied 2nd for replay is really surprising. Just speaking anecdotally, it feels like they challenge way too many close plays and lose their challenge early, instead of saving them for more definite challenges, but it seems that the volume of challenges really makes up for it.
Jorge Orta got picked of at 3rd later in that inning in the 85 WS so the Royals didn’t really benefit from the call as much as Cardinals fans say they did. Amazing video though, guys like that need more credit
Ah, the story of Bill Duplissea reminds me of Kelly Forbes, the video coach for the Dallas Stars who had become a fan favorite for his high rates of success at replay reviews. Forbes is leaving the Stars this coming season and his contributions will be missed. Hope that doesn't affect the team too much.
I've been saying for years that non-player/non-coach personnel in every major sport are incredibly undervalued. If good team doctors keep your players on the field/court for a few extra games a year, that's a huge difference to be made with the monetary equivalent of a minimum player contract. They don't count for the salary cap either, so it's a great way for wealthy owners to leverage that advantage in hard capped leagues. I'm glad to see other people have started to quantify this and bring it to light.
First off, love the video. Only big flaw is assuming -1% on all challenges lost. That is way too big. First, a challenge lost on win percentage is solely based on the inning it happened. If you are a reviewer in the 1st inning and a play happens where you think you could win 10% of the time, not worth the risk as much more baseball can be played. Take that same play in the bottom of the seventh 2 outs. You would be a fool not to challenge, as alll plays are reviewable in 8th and ninth. The only way to truly calculate it, is take all wrong calls that are replayable, figure out how often they occur per iinning. Then it would be a simple formula of: 1. what inning is it 2. esimated chance of winning the call The odds you miss out on a second replay after missing the first one within 7 inning is extremely low. But 1% is way too high
I don't watch baseball, I don't play baseball, I don't care about baseball, but I love FoolishBaseball videos. I'm a maths graduate who finds statistics fascinating and so the combination of the vast amount of data that's tracked in baseball, and Baileys ability to use that data to tell really interesting stories, makes this one of the best channels on youtube in my opinion. Keep up the good work :)
Important fact check: Orta did NOT score a run in the infamous 85 WS game mentioned. He was thrown out at third on a sac bunt attempt. Then a passed ball forced an IBB. Then Iorg singled in both the tying and winning runs. The Cards also dropped a very catchable foul popup during the inning. No matter how you slice it, he didn't score and the Cards can't claim he was 1 of 3 outs they would have recorded in the half inning. Their own self-inflicted collapse is rarely remembered while everyone pretends the questionable safe call was the reason for the Royals winning even though the Cards failed to record any outs that weren't purposefully sacrificed
The best part of this video is that the Giants are accurately represented when it comes to media coverage. “Here’s a stat that lists the Giants as a top tier team in terms of replay reviews, but the script doesn’t have a word for them”.
I think it's interesting to consider challenges this way, but I also think it's not necessarily the best strategy to only challenge when you can win. After all, replay decisions are humans having opinions, and even when you think you can win you don't get them all. There's an opportunity cost to challenging a call, so you have to be careful, but there are situations where you should challenge anyway, without even looking at the play yourself. That world series challenge is a good example of that. It's bottom of the ninth and you're behind. When there is a close call that could go either way, and there's a big swing in the direction of the game, just challenge it. You have nothing to lose and a huge amount to gain. Of course you'll be sad if another call does come up that you can't challenge, but you absolutely do NOT want to let the other team score.
I feel like Baseball is prone to calls being overturned by VAR more than a lot of other sports. Now, before I give the explanation for that, I have to stress that I don't know much about Baseball, so I am happy to be corrected. However, I have been a ref at both association and gridiron football (although not in leagues high enough to experience being overturned by a VAR myself) and so I know that sometimes a call is made, at least partially, on sound instead iof direct visual evidence. For example, if the question is weather the ball was only touched once, meaning the red player just punted it out of bounds or weather it was touched twice in rapid succession, meaning the red player punted it directly into the blue player from where it went put of bounds, or weather the ball was touched three times or even more than that... - the visual can be very hard because it happens in split seconds and the angle isn't always a definitive indicator if the players come together an odd way. But if you hear two clear impacts of the ball, you jusge that it was one impact for each player. The VAR, however, can (and does in higher leagues) show that the two impacts were on torso and lower leg of the same player, for example. Because of all the split second "tag" that happens in baseball, I feel like traditionally refs probably relied a lot on sound - and the VAR might prove that this isn't as reliable as we assume.
If you've got a little extra scrilla (which is what cool people call $5), consider supporting my work via Patreon! You'll get access to hours and hours of bonus content, as well as see your name featured in the credits of one of these videos: www.patreon.com/foolishbaseball
i tried adding a super thanks but i don't see the button on this video :(
Like your shit. Consider taking the high pitch out of your voice
Bill just went 3-3 on challenges today vs the Mariners
In my twisted mind I read the middle part of your comment as "... You'll get hours and hours of BOGUS content ..."
😅
The concept of giving WAR values to replay reviewers is the most insane but also amazing idea in the history of the world. I love it and this research needs to be continued until fans start complaining about how their big market team didn’t go out and win the bidding war for the replay reviewer with a 70% success rate.
They can win you games!
@@FoolishBaseballbut can he get on base?
@@SenorTortasHe's got an ugly girlfriend
@@SenorTortas he can get your guys on base
the concept of WAR needs to be used on all coaching and management positions....the analytics behind it would show that some media darlings are duds and some media duds are pure gold, I'm sure.
If this is Foolish Baseball, imagine what serious baseball would look like😳
Umpires Love Him!
The graphics would be the most serious graphics you’ve ever seen.
Just go back to the time of the “Unwritten Rules”. You’ll see all sorts of people taking it way too seriously!
can’t believe this sport doesn’t even exist… wrong channel nvm
Too bad baseball doesn’t exist
As a Royals fan I remember our challenges were always elite, and Duplissea was always loved, but never seen
Going back and watching so many of his reviews, the Royals broadcast shouts him out a lot.
Yes! If you tune in to the KC broadcast, he gets a lot of appreciation by the crew. But I don't think nationally enough people know of his importance.
@@zealdrivethey will after this video!
He's still with the team. Were? Was loved? I had to look him up. Lol
He really put his whole Duplissea into this one
come on
Yes
@@FoolishBaseball *in
@@FoolishBaseball smacking on ur nuts
I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking it
The Royals absolutely took advantage of the replay review in their golden age. A reminder from the Royalball video that the Royals relied so much on BABIP luck, so Dupee in the basement was crazy valuable.
Wish I'd known about him during the Royalball video. That said, glad I could give him his own thing.
You’ve never played baseball if you think Babip is all luck
I mean, I don't think you as a team can rely on babip luck, 9 players a game for 162 games, that's gonna even out, you're more likely to get lucky with Alcides Escobar suddenly becoming really good than babiping the entire league.
Yo as a Royals fan I never would have expected a video on the man, the myth, the legend himself Bill Duplissea. Love to see him get some recognition, he truly is the GOAT.
You find the most obscurely intriguing video ideas about baseball and I will always get so invested in them
Being a depraved baseball sicko helps
You consistently put up some of the best baseball content on this website. We all appreciate that very much. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the kind words!
Unreal stuff Bailey. Truly revolutionary baseball hits here
I believe in Duper supremacy
How in the hell do you even find this stuff to review? Like seriously, I considered myself a pretty heavy baseball fan and I didn’t even know this guy existed. And you managed to make an entire 18 minute video about his presence of just overturning calls entertaining. Extremely well done as always Bailey, keep up the amazing work
Royals TV broadcasts always giving him love, so all Royals fans know him lol
One of my buddies did this for the Rays for a while. He was part of their advanced scouting department I think, but one day they were just like, "You're doing it, good luck." Kind of crazy they didn't vet him at all, especially an organization like the Rays, but he's great and did a really good job I think. He was still responsible for his normal job duties I believe. He said they don't get any HD or unique camera angles like we get after the fact, so it's much harder than you might think. Still, one day my friends and I went to a game and in the first inning he got a challenge right and we were all hype. Pretty cool stuff.
Calculating WAR for a replay specialist and turning that into a monetary value. This is the nerdiest Baseball video ever and I love it
Get out of my head
Foolish, I’ve always loved your sense of humor, but the “homeruns began in 2008” joke was the first time I genuinely laughed out loud at one. Great video as always
This video encapsulated all I love about baseball. Incredibly talented people adding quantifiable value to a team in seemingly odd and unique ways.
“Literal guy in the chair” heist movie moments. The Monkey in Toy Story 3 movie.
I can’t wait for this position to become a secondary profession for aspiring umpires leading to review room rookies.
As a royals fan it’s nice to see other fan bases know we still exist in our pain and suffering.
You could have done this on the Mets replay review guy last year, his name is Harrison. They led the league in replay review success having like a 90% clip. He definitely helped them get a 100 win season. However this year he’s been much worse at success despite him looking to have made the right call which made me get my tin foil hat on
Yeah he had a really good year. Duper's been at it for a decade though
@@FoolishBaseball this is true plus he used to work at the MLB replay review office which gives him a leg up on someone like Duper
Yeah, Harrison Friedland. I think he had a harder time in 2023 simply because of the clock-he just doesn’t have nearly as much time to make a decision and relay it to the bench. But maybe he and the org can figure out how to streamline their process to improve their success rate. I hope it’s something they’ve been working on.
Thank you Bailey. I have no idea why ppl believe the manager is the one who halts play, fires up the replay from all available angles, scrutinizes the replay, and decides, "Yep we're going to challenge." All in 15 seconds
It's probably because managers are issued proprietary contact lenses that enable them to instantaneously switch from normal sight to 4k video replay from all angles available at said stadium. Admittedly there have been some issues with this tech. It relies on voice commands and a loud atmosphere can hamper the process. This all falls under the Freedom of Information act. Contact your local congressman and voice your displeasure.
Man you’re constantly sharing new ways to think about baseball that I hadn’t considered or known before. Absolutely great stuff as always FB
“Ah there it is. They’re playing baseball.”
Glad the folks at the replay center figured it out
6:41 Damn, he was so good he got 2 calls reversed in the NLCS!
Babe wake up, new baseball bits
babe. babe. it's about replay review
@@FoolishBaseballhow will this affect David Wright’s legacy?
Bailey has convinced me, Bill Duplissea is the Steph Curry of video reviews
I bet Bill Duplissea could drain a 3 before Steph Curry got a play overturned
Technically speaking, when it comes to calculating war for replay reviewers, less win probability should be subtracted for missed challenges if the challenge occurs later in the game. A missed challenge in the 6th inning is far less likely to hurt a team than a missed challenge in the 1st inning. Loved the video!
How are you not at 500k yet?! I have never played baseball and rarely watch MLB games, but whenever I see a Foolish Baseball upload I know I'm in for a treat.
Duplissea sounds like an imaginary final evolutionary stage of Chansey from Pokemon lol
It's just two Blisseys
Hey look! A new Baseball Bits from Foolish Baseball! The sole reason I started watching baseball again after 20+ years. Thanks Foolish!
Long time fan, first time commenter Bailey. Been following your videos all the way from Australia and I have to say this video is my new favourite. Genuinely funny, highly entertaining and adding something that I've never heard anyone else talk about. Keep up the great work mate!
Without question one of the most innovative videos on your channel, and those Wheel of Fortune jokes are among your best
Seeing Bill get his due after hearing about how good he has been so consistently on Royals TV over the years is awesome
Always good to get an affirmation of your thoughts on your team. We’re good at the exciting bits of baseball* (stealing, small ball, fielding, winning replays) and terrible at the bits of baseball that make it so you can win (hitting and pitching).
*home runs are exciting and KC doesn’t do that so it doesn’t count here
Wow man, as a Royals fan bravo for bringing up Bill Duplissea! The goat of replays
Put this in the S tier baseball bits category immediately. REVISE!
god the mid 2010s royals are one of the coolest team to learn about
Hearing about the value of a replay coordinator to a team was surprisingly engaging. Every discipline has its legends, and Bill Duplissea certainly is one given his stats.
I have to correct something here. In the '85 series, Orta was later thrown out at third on a failed sac bunt by Jim Sundberg. It was Onix Concepción who eventually scored the tying run.
Onix Concepcion, Top 5 2nd basemen of 1986 legend
"Umpires Hate Him! Click here to see how he robs the other team of any chance!" this got thinking abt those ads 😂😂😂 Love this channel and the work you put in. Making baseball better everyday man.
Thanks!
As a Cubs fan, the replay overturn rate for the team makes total sense, but the WAA being tied 2nd for replay is really surprising. Just speaking anecdotally, it feels like they challenge way too many close plays and lose their challenge early, instead of saving them for more definite challenges, but it seems that the volume of challenges really makes up for it.
They still convert at a rate just a smidge higher than average despite the volume.
This was a fascinating subject to cover. THIS is why I am excited for every Foolish Baseball video.
Jorge Orta got picked of at 3rd later in that inning in the 85 WS so the Royals didn’t really benefit from the call as much as Cardinals fans say they did. Amazing video though, guys like that need more credit
Foolish Baseball on the Royals are my favorite videos on this website. Bless you Bailey.
You pick the weirdest subjects, but make them so interesting! Love to see it FB
Weirdish baseball
Thank you!
BAILEY THANK YOU FOR UPLOADING , WE LOVE YOU
I KNOW
2:13 that catcher flipping them off is hilarious
@7:54 “scored from home” gotcha!
15:20 Don't underestimate Bud Black arguing and getting ejected. It's some of the only excitement is Rockies fans have right now
7:54 “As a result, Alcides Escobar scored from home.”
Why didn’t Alcides Escobar use this power more often?
skill issue
This genuinely made ma cackle. 1:21
Fun fact the Natural’s (the double a affiliate for the Royal’s) has a bat boy who is the son of Rusty Kuntz
I love these dissertations. Keep up the great work.
I’ve been watching you for a while Baley. And ice got to say, for a non American, your videostyle is the best to get me into baseball
This might be my favorite video in a while. Truly awesome stuff.
My wife is a major baseball fan and stat junkie. I can't begin to tell you how much your videos help my marriage! ❤😂
Ah, the story of Bill Duplissea reminds me of Kelly Forbes, the video coach for the Dallas Stars who had become a fan favorite for his high rates of success at replay reviews. Forbes is leaving the Stars this coming season and his contributions will be missed. Hope that doesn't affect the team too much.
I've been saying for years that non-player/non-coach personnel in every major sport are incredibly undervalued. If good team doctors keep your players on the field/court for a few extra games a year, that's a huge difference to be made with the monetary equivalent of a minimum player contract. They don't count for the salary cap either, so it's a great way for wealthy owners to leverage that advantage in hard capped leagues. I'm glad to see other people have started to quantify this and bring it to light.
Could you imagine being Billy on a Saturday morning and having his phone blown up about being featured in a Foolish Baseball video?
Always a great day when Bailey posts. Really livens up what would otherwise be a boring slog through the endless midseason muck.
Wake up new foolish dropped
Kinda feel like Duplissea needs to pull this out next time they're negotiating a contract :D
Anytime Mr. Bailey posts a video I rejoice and savor every second bc I know it’ll take a month to get another. Quality over quantity.
First off, love the video. Only big flaw is assuming -1% on all challenges lost. That is way too big.
First, a challenge lost on win percentage is solely based on the inning it happened.
If you are a reviewer in the 1st inning and a play happens where you think you could win 10% of the time, not worth the risk as much more baseball can be played. Take that same play in the bottom of the seventh 2 outs. You would be a fool not to challenge, as alll plays are reviewable in 8th and ninth.
The only way to truly calculate it, is take all wrong calls that are replayable, figure out how often they occur per iinning.
Then it would be a simple formula of:
1. what inning is it
2. esimated chance of winning the call
The odds you miss out on a second replay after missing the first one within 7 inning is extremely low. But 1% is way too high
I don't watch baseball, I don't play baseball, I don't care about baseball, but I love FoolishBaseball videos.
I'm a maths graduate who finds statistics fascinating and so the combination of the vast amount of data that's tracked in baseball, and Baileys ability to use that data to tell really interesting stories, makes this one of the best channels on youtube in my opinion.
Keep up the good work :)
This is probably the best YT video I've seen in recent memory
"Don't Laugh" just absolutely got me! Well done
Important fact check: Orta did NOT score a run in the infamous 85 WS game mentioned. He was thrown out at third on a sac bunt attempt. Then a passed ball forced an IBB. Then Iorg singled in both the tying and winning runs. The Cards also dropped a very catchable foul popup during the inning. No matter how you slice it, he didn't score and the Cards can't claim he was 1 of 3 outs they would have recorded in the half inning. Their own self-inflicted collapse is rarely remembered while everyone pretends the questionable safe call was the reason for the Royals winning even though the Cards failed to record any outs that weren't purposefully sacrificed
Imagine if Yoenis Cespedes was this dedicated to challenging the flyball in game 1
1:17 it's the man, the myth, the legend! RUSTY KUNTZ
I can’t believe the same person who penned the lyrics to the Bally Sports theme karaoke is also the same person behind Foolish Baseball.
every video is more creative than the last. keep killing it foolish!
Thank you very much!
Probably your best video of the year
As a Cubs fan, David Ross and his coaches challenge a lot. I’m glad they do though
Thank you Bailey, us royals fans needed a win.
Between this and Jordan Lyles y'all have been eating
This is my favorite video you've made.
Any royals baseball bits makes me warm and fuzzy in my tum tum
This is an all-timer, Bailey. Just beautiful
Maybe one of your most inspired vids yet, the jeopardy bit was classic
Other baseball media: Discussion about the NL MVP race
Bailey: Bill Duplissea go 💻👀
Ik this is referring to a different video, but Kyle Gibson has to be the number 1 Chad innings eater this season
Harrison Friedland's 2022 season running the replay booth with the Mets was legendary.
Calling it now: within 10 years teams will develop custom AI specifically for watching replays and determining if a challenge should occur
I think what happens is that *players* are given the power to review and the bench can’t give suggestions (see: Cricket)
This is absolutely amazing content.
Never heard of Billy before now, but he's my favorite baseball guy now!
This is an amazing piece of research and a killer video!
The best part of this video is that the Giants are accurately represented when it comes to media coverage. “Here’s a stat that lists the Giants as a top tier team in terms of replay reviews, but the script doesn’t have a word for them”.
I love how duper did so well in the ALDS that the royals became an NL team for the CS
You are the greatest UA-camr of all time
No person shall laugh at my boy Rusty Kuntz.
Absolutely nothing funny about that name
Finally, someone who agrees with me about the fair pole!
The absolute flap dopamine hit I receive when I see Foolish posted. God speed
Albert Pujols’ chase for 700 home runs deserves a baseball bits!!
Foolish at it again telling me about a new part of baseball I'm now gonna tell my friends about and be seen as a stathead. Love the video
I think it's interesting to consider challenges this way, but I also think it's not necessarily the best strategy to only challenge when you can win. After all, replay decisions are humans having opinions, and even when you think you can win you don't get them all. There's an opportunity cost to challenging a call, so you have to be careful, but there are situations where you should challenge anyway, without even looking at the play yourself.
That world series challenge is a good example of that. It's bottom of the ninth and you're behind. When there is a close call that could go either way, and there's a big swing in the direction of the game, just challenge it. You have nothing to lose and a huge amount to gain. Of course you'll be sad if another call does come up that you can't challenge, but you absolutely do NOT want to let the other team score.
If I was Bill I would take this video straight to my bosses, hit play and demand more scrilla
bros boutta get Bill payeddd 💀
I hope Bill Duplissea brings this into his next performance review. Man probably deserves a raise lol
People seem to forget that the Cardinals were the benefit of some bad calls earlier in that game 6
1:32 this is like summoning salt music but for baseball
1:00 Wow that was a really cool play btw
This is just an incredible video. I hope the Dupe sees this.
This is an interesting look for the behind the scenes magic that happens
I feel like Baseball is prone to calls being overturned by VAR more than a lot of other sports.
Now, before I give the explanation for that, I have to stress that I don't know much about Baseball, so I am happy to be corrected. However, I have been a ref at both association and gridiron football (although not in leagues high enough to experience being overturned by a VAR myself) and so I know that sometimes a call is made, at least partially, on sound instead iof direct visual evidence. For example, if the question is weather the ball was only touched once, meaning the red player just punted it out of bounds or weather it was touched twice in rapid succession, meaning the red player punted it directly into the blue player from where it went put of bounds, or weather the ball was touched three times or even more than that... - the visual can be very hard because it happens in split seconds and the angle isn't always a definitive indicator if the players come together an odd way. But if you hear two clear impacts of the ball, you jusge that it was one impact for each player. The VAR, however, can (and does in higher leagues) show that the two impacts were on torso and lower leg of the same player, for example. Because of all the split second "tag" that happens in baseball, I feel like traditionally refs probably relied a lot on sound - and the VAR might prove that this isn't as reliable as we assume.