13 strikes called balls for the Halos today

[Docwaukee]

Glad we won, but that's just unacceptable.  

6 of those weren't even on the corner.  

The Rangers had 2.  

It almost cost the game.  

I have yet to see a site that tracks umpire accuracy.  That's a little suspicious to be honest.  We have catcher framing stats.  

How about a little transparency.

[arch stanton]

Yeah the more games I watch this year the more it seems like the umps are begging for a strike zone machine 

[DEVLBAT]

I agree. Umpires shouldn’t be able to control the game to that degree. 

[GrittyVeterans]

It's out of hand. They needed to go to the digital strike zone about 5 years ago. Why we are in 2018 and still getting calls wrong when we have the technology to easily make it 100% accurate is mind boggling to me

[Brandon]

It was especially bad today

[nando714]

That’s what I enjoy though 

the human element 

[Blarg]

Skaggs

Anderson

Johnson

[Troll Daddy]

Curious how many balls were called strikes 

[Blarg]

MLB claims its umpires call 97 percent of balls and strikes correctly. But according to Moscowitz and HBO, the study showed that only about 88 percent of the calls were accurate.

Roughly one of every eight pitches, in other words, were called incorrectly. As Frankel pointed out, that adds up to more than 30,000 bogus balls or strikes each season.

That figure includes the obvious calls where the pitches are right down the middle or way outside. When Moscowitz narrowed his analysis to pitches that were within two inches, either way, of the corners of the plate, the umpires got the call wrong 31.7 percent of the time – nearly one of every three pitches!

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/gil-lebreton/article105378146.html

[Pujols4MVP]

They related to the Refs that have been handing the Anaheim Ducks penaltys & not calling penaltys on opposing teams ?

[Ohtaniland]

Calling balls and strikes has to be one of the toughest jobs in professional sports. In Tennis you’re allowed to shatter your racket on live television with no penalty if the line judge gets the call wrong. 

[Slegnaac]

Once we can start betting on balls and strikes they will have to go to a mechanical strike zone, right?

[Troll Daddy]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

Skaggs

Anderson

Johnson

These charts are really not a accurate assessment imo. A umpire behind the plate view is different than a front view. A player size and stance will also effect the strike zone. Pitch framing can also throw off a umpires judgement. Does the zone start in front of the plate or were the pitch lands. 

Yes it’s frustrating for the players and fans at times but this how the game is played and why a baseball season is a 162 games. The human aspect is the beauty of the game. 

Btw I thought Anderson’s first walk was a check swing that crossed the plate and the second walk was strike a in the zone. 

[Troll Daddy]

8 minutes ago, OHTANILAND said:

Calling balls and strikes has to be one of the toughest jobs in professional sports. In Tennis you’re allowed to shatter your racket on live television with no penalty if the line judge gets the call wrong. 

You’re dead right about that ... I umpired little league games for awhile, Never again!

[arch stanton]

44 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

These charts are really not a accurate assessment imo. A umpire behind the plate view is different than a front view. A player size and stance will also effect the strike zone. Pitch framing can also throw off a umpires judgement. Does the zone start in front of the plate or were the pitch lands. 

Yes it’s frustrating for the players and fans at times but this how the game is played and why a baseball season is a 162 games. The human aspect is the beauty of the game. 

Btw I thought Anderson’s first walk was a check swing that crossed the plate and the second walk was strike in the zone. 

The inside and outside corners don’t change and it’s the outside corner that gets missed most often. It wouldn’t take much to get electronic verification of the inside or outside edges. You could also pretty easily establish a lower limit that could vary with each batter and that would leave the plate ump to concentrate on the top of the zone. 

[BackUpTheTruck]

I am far more upset about Saturday with the Simmons slide resulting in a double play. WTF

[Taylor]

5 hours ago, nando714 said:

That’s what I enjoy though 

the human element 

You enjoy the Angels getting screwed over? 

[Lhalo]

6 hours ago, Troll Daddy said:

These charts are really not a accurate assessment imo. A umpire behind the plate view is different than a front view. A player size and stance will also effect the strike zone. Pitch framing can also throw off a umpires judgement. Does the zone start in front of the plate or were the pitch lands. 

Yes it’s frustrating for the players and fans at times but this how the game is played and why a baseball season is a 162 games. The human aspect is the beauty of the game. 

Btw I thought Anderson’s first walk was a check swing that crossed the plate and the second walk was strike a in the zone. 

[floplag]

The problem is that Umps dont hold themselves accountable.  Things like this proves mistakes, and instead of owning it and trying to improve they simply hide behind bullshit.  
If guys are making too many mistakes they should be replaced, period.  Players get sent down, why not Umps?  

[eaterfan]

8 minutes ago, floplag said:

The problem is that Umps dont hold themselves accountable.  Things like this proves mistakes, and instead of owning it and trying to improve they simply hide behind bullshit.  
If guys are making too many mistakes they should be replaced, period.  Players get sent down, why not Umps?  

Disagree. The problem is that it's extremely hard. The best guys are going to have bad days. Mike Trout fails 50+% of the time. It doesn't mean he isn't the best at doing his job. Umpires fail way less. Holding umpires accountable only works if there are better guys out there not getting a shot. If you've watched college baseball you'd see how great MLB umpires are comparatively. I'm not going to say there aren't one or two umpires in the world better than those in MLB, but I don't think there are a ton of them out there just waiting to get their chance. Until we get robot umps there will be a lot of bad calls.

[floplag]

5 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

Disagree. The problem is that it's extremely hard. The best guys are going to have bad days. Mike Trout fails 50+% of the time. It doesn't mean he isn't the best at doing his job. Umpires fail way less. Holding umpires accountable only works if there are better guys out there not getting a shot. If you've watched college baseball you'd see how great MLB umpires are comparatively. I'm not going to say there aren't one or two umpires in the world better than those in MLB, but I don't think there are a ton of them out there just waiting to get their chance. Until we get robot umps there will be a lot of bad calls.

You miss my point.  If we can pull up charts like in this thread, so can they.  They should know whos doing it consistently right better than we do.  

Yes, of course bad days happen, but a bad day isnt 13-2 slanted.  if it was 8-7, well you know one of the first things i was taught as a hitter is you have to adjust what the ump is calling, if hes consistently calling low, you have to account for that, but when its one sided.... what can you do?  Either way, bad days, fine, but when guys have many of them something has to be done.

If there are no better then bring on the robots and take the judgement out of it, something i vehemently oppose.  

My problem is that I see no accountability on the part of umpires, none... they seem irritated when you ask for a review and take getting overturned personally.  and dont get me started on the on field stuff... Oh you dont show up an ump... but they can cost a team games?  sod that!   

[eaterfan]

4 minutes ago, floplag said:

You miss my point.  If we can pull up charts like in this thread, so can they.  They should know whos doing it consistently right better than we do.  

Yes, of course bad days happen, but a bad day isnt 13-2 slanted.  if it was 8-7, well you know one of the first things i was taught as a hitter is you have to adjust what the ump is calling, if hes consistently calling low, you have to account for that, but when its one sided.... what can you do?  Either way, bad days, fine, but when guys have many of them something has to be done.

If there are no better then bring on the robots and take the judgement out of it, something i vehemently oppose.  

My problem is that I see no accountability on the part of umpires, none... they seem irritated when you ask for a review and take getting overturned personally.  and dont get me started on the on field stuff... Oh you dont show up an ump... but they can cost a team games?  sod that!   

But what will accountability accomplish? The umpires already get graded by MLB.

It's like those final 2 minute reports in the NBA... Do they actually do anything except let fans know the refs messed up? The game still counts and they seem to still be messing calls up because I hear about them every week and I don't follow the NBA that closely.

[floplag]

3 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

But what will accountability accomplish? The umpires already get graded by MLB.

It's like those final 2 minute reports in the NBA... Do they actually do anything except let fans know the refs messed up? The game still counts and they seem to still be messing calls up because I hear about them every week and I don't follow the NBA that closely.

Are you not accountable at work?  Do you not get held to a certain standard?   Even if thats all that comes out of it, is an admission that they goofed, isnt that better than what they do now?  
too many mistakes call up someone else, there has to be a level of competency.  
I like that they arent robots, i like batters having to adjust to the umps and the situation... but man when its blatant, it cant just be shrugged off. 

[eaterfan]

6 minutes ago, floplag said:

Are you not accountable at work?  Do you not get held to a certain standard?   Even if thats all that comes out of it, is an admission that they goofed, isnt that better than what they do now?  
too many mistakes call up someone else, there has to be a level of competency.  
I like that they arent robots, i like batters having to adjust to the umps and the situation... but man when its blatant, it cant just be shrugged off. 

I am... But until they find someone better they aren't going to replace me. You keep assuming these aren't the most competent that umpires can be. My argument is that this is as good as humans can be at umpiring. You also argue that they aren't held accountable at all. Every single umpire is reviewed by MLB after every game. That's pretty damn accountable.

Tracking pitches going 98 MPM to within an inch or two is really really really hard. It's why guys who are paid millions of dollars a year to do it still fail nearly 70% of the time. Hitting that pitch is harder than identifying a ball or strike, but umpires succeed at doing it a lot more than hitters.

[floplag]

3 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

I am... But until they find someone better they aren't going to replace me. You keep assuming these aren't the most competent that umpires can be. My argument is that this is as good as humans can be at umpiring. You also argue that they aren't held accountable at all. Every single umpire is reviewed by MLB after every game. That's pretty damn accountable.

Tracking pitches going 98 MPM to within an inch or two is really really really hard. It's why guys who are paid millions of dollars a year to do it still fail nearly 70% of the time. Hitting that pitch is harder than identifying a ball or strike, but umpires succeed at doing it a lot more than hitters.

I make no such assumption at all, i assume them to be the best to even be there, but just cause they get there isnt a lifetime thing if they show themselves to consistently below average.  Review isnt accountability, action on the review is.  We all know there are guys in this league that are long past being worth being there, and yet there they are.
Is it hard, sure it is, i can forgive some borderline calls as long as its consistent.  Like i said before as players we all know diff umps have diff zones to a certain degree, its part of the game, im fine with that.  But when you see something like this game, and its disparity, that isnt typical. I never cared what the zoe was in reference to the definition, as long as it was called fairly and consistently.   13-2, by definition, is not that.