Overall, instant replay has been good for baseball.

Replay filled a void that was needed in baseball and the fact that entering play Saturday 51.97 percent of challenges have been overturned, according to data compiled from baseballreference.com, illustrates that.

However, whenever a manager comes out to challenge a call there is one glaring flaw to the system and Saturday night Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was ejected from his team’s 4-0 loss to the Angels for arguing it.

Once the umpire makes his initial call it often takes managers far too long to initiate the challenge.

In the third inning of Saturday night’s game, Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker picked Tigers baserunner Eugenio Suarez off of first base. First base umpire Jim Joyce initially called Suarez safe and about 20-25 seconds passed before Angels manager Mike Scioscia came out of the dugout to talk with Joyce.

Another 15 or so seconds passed while Scioscia discussed the play with Joyce. And approximately 40 seconds after Joyce’s initial call, the replay process officially began.

Ausmus tried to argue the play shouldn’t be reviewable because the next play was ready to begin and Scioscia had taken too long.

According to Section D, Rule 1 of the replay review rules:

“The next ‘play’ shall commence when the pitcher is on the rubber preparing to start his delivery and the batter has entered the batter’s box (unless the defensive team initiates an appeal play, in which case any call made during the play prior to the appeal still may be subject to Replay Review).”

The rules also state it is up to the umpire’s discretion whether to grant the request for review.

So under the rules Scioscia and Joyce were fine.

However, for the speed and fluidity of the game, Ausmus is 100 percent correct.

The call was ultimately overturned meaning the umpires got it right and the system worked, but there is no reason to process should take 40ish seconds to start.

Saturday night’s controversy was a bit unique because Scioscia took so long to come out of the dugout, but when all is said and done it is no different than every other replay scenario.

The typical scenario starts when the manager comes out of the dugout and talks to the umpire about who knows what while awaiting a signal from the dugout. From there the manager either gets a thumbs-up and challenges the call or gets a thumbs down and trots back to the dugout.

If a manager is going to come out of the dugout he should be forced to either make a mound visit or challenge the call. Having the opportunity to discuss gardening, attractive blondes in section 108 or make dinner plans while waiting on a signal from the dugout just wastes time.

Managers may say sometimes they just go out to get clarification – and occasionally that is true – but how many times have you seen a manager go talk to an umpire only to look back into the dugout, get a thumbs down from one of his coaches and then retreat back to the dugout?

If the manager really wanted clarification on something he wouldn’t be staring into the dugout while getting the “clarification” from the umpire.

This stalling practice has quickly become common ground on a lot close plays and seems to be a part of the replay culture in MLB, but it needs to be changed.

Replay has been really good for baseball and as the system evolves and everyone gets more comfortable with the process it should only get better.

It’s important to remember this is baseball’s first season with expanded instant replay so there are kinks that need to be – and will be – ironed out in the offseason.

Hopefully stalling is just one of those kinks.