UmpScorecards

[stringer bell]

I hadn't checked Umpire Scorecards this year until after I watched two veteran umpires have tough days at the plate against the Twins (Bill Miller last week-Ron Kulpa yesterday). I wanted to confirm that 1) they were pretty bad and 2) that both guys are usually pretty good behind the plate. Miller is a good HP ump and had his worst game of the year so far in Cleveland (vs, the Twins), Kulpa is averageish and was below average last night. 

I found that UmpScorecards has added more data and they have season totals for teams. The three most favored (according to their numbers) are Cleveland, Arizona and Seattle and the worst were Colorada, Miami and the Twins. The Twins as of today are -4.74 runs over their 36 games. 

Why? Is it catcher framing? Conditions? Bad teams don't get borderline calls? I don't know. I think umpire inconsistency is the least of the Twins problems, but I think umpire quality is an issue for MLB. 

[bean5302]

I can't agree with that. I hate watching robotic, spreadsheet games. Hate them with a passion because the games are boring. Also the accuracy rate for MLB umpires is about 94% with the majority of the "missed" calls being missed by a fraction of an inch.

The run value differential represents the situation when the "missed call" was made, and the pitcher's reputation and movement of that pitcher's repertoire has as much to do with "catcher framing" as the catcher themselves.

Right now, 28 teams in MLB are at a +/- 0.1 runs per game. Complaining about umpiring to me is like when the Vikings lose a game 9-0 and fans complain about a blown holding penalty in the 2nd quarter when the Vikings were at their own 36 yard line. If your team doesn't play well enough to overcome a 0.1 run disadvantage, they didn't play well enough to win; they just left it up to a coin flip.

[Linus]

I think they are interesting to look at mainly to confirm or deny what my impression was of the game. I don’t blame them for outcomes. 

[big dog]

Saturday night's game featured Adrian Johnson, befuddled by pitches that moved a little. He got 83.1% correct according to Umpire Auditor. 17 bad calls into the 6th inning, 13 of them going against the Twins. That's not complaining about the umpire, that's objectively measuring (though probably not perfectly) an umpire who had a really terrible night.

If they routinely got over 95% correct, only missed pitches that were really close, and were at least as good or better in really important spots, I could live with that. They aren't there.

[Parfigliano]

Hopefully it's ABS next year and this is a dead issue.

[tony&rodney]

Rather the umpires call all pitches than the challenge system. If there must be tech involved in calling balls and strikes just make it 100% ABS. We saw in Spring Training and we see in minor league games that umpires can, on the odd occasion, get irritated when a number of their calls are overturned and retribution is a possibility when a team runs out of challenges. This is why I am opposed to the challenge system. The vast majority of the time I don't have an issue with umpires.

[lecroy24fan]

I miss Pat Hoiberg.

[jctwins]

I think I've said this elsewhere, but considering the umpires could have a buzzer installed in their back pocket that could almost immediately call the strike for them, it seems like a no brainer to avoid the need to overturn calls, but let the umpire remain at home plate and part of the game.