Umpiring in the Toronto series

[TroutField]

It was as bad as we all thought. Pretty inexcusable at this point from MLB, get the robo umps in here ASAP. 

ive never seen an overall run favor over 2 in umpire scoreboards posts before. They added to the RISP trouble we endured and I’ll go out on a limb and say they stole game 1 from the Angels. 

[Angel Oracle]

Can we clone Phil Cuzzi?

[Swordsman78]

14 hours ago, TroutField said:

It was as bad as we all thought. Pretty inexcusable at this point from MLB, get the robo umps in here ASAP. 

ive never seen an overall run favor over 2 in umpire scoreboards posts before. They added to the RISP trouble we endured and I’ll go out on a limb and say they stole game 1 from the Angels. 

Very interesting.... and eye opening.  Great post.

Hopefully this will lead to a better system, maybe ability to appeal these calls 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Swordsman78

[Lazorko Saves]

9 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Can we clone Phil Cuzzi?

No no no!  You are mis-reading that table.  Cuzzi is net negative for us (obviously), but we scored enough runs to overcome it for 75% win rate at home in his games.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Lazorko Saves

[Deek]

Wow - it definitely felt like some terrible calls... but that's inexcusable...

[Angel Oracle]

28 minutes ago, Lazorko Saves said:

No no no!  You are mis-reading that table.  Cuzzi is net negative for us (obviously), but we scored enough runs to overcome it for 75% win rate at home in his games.

Just saw that second worst rating, never mind.

[TroutField]

76% called strike accuracy is awful to think about. 

[Tyler]

Thank you for this information and links to trackers. Will re-enter the sports betting world again.

[Erstad Grit]

Estevez got a strike 3 call on a ball yesterday.  Sometimes it's definitely reasonable to blame umpires but typically I find it to be more whining.  

[Slegnaac]

Thank goodness the Umps aren't doing something important, like Air Traffic Control.

[Lhalo]

Guy at my office comes up to me this morning and the first thing out of his mouth is "Did you see how shitty the umps were this weekend?!!"

[Duren, Duren]

The topic of ump accuracy is interesting and neglected. 

I'm not on any conspiracy kick, but think about it. The easiest way to influence outcomes by non players and managers is with umpire calls. Especially balls and strikes. Entire innings are affected by the count during any important at bat. 

If an ump was intentionally trying to affect the outcome, it would be the easiest thing to simply call pitches a preferred way. Not in a blatant way, but with even just a couple of pitches in a game. No one would be suspicious because the margin of human error is built in to umpiring. 

And it wouldn't necessarily even be conscious or intentional. It could be subconscious reaction to the crowd, the situation, the players and teams involved, grudge against the hitter or pitcher and so on. 

On the other hand, if one wants to really become paranoid think of all the money involved with betting. And maybe other less obvious motives. 

When the 1919 White Sox threw the series it wasn't obvious. There were some uncharacteristic bad plays, but it was explained as just human error. Players having bad days and making mistakes here and there. But because multiple players were involved talk leaked out and an investigation was started. 

An ump call wouldn't arouse suspicion unless it was part of a  pattern that could be quantified. And with so many variables it would be difficult to isolate. And even then, proving intentional motivation would be harder unless there was external  evidence from off the field. 

I don't think that it's like that. Paranoia would be evident with every close pitch.  But umps are human, and you can't be naive either. It would be incredibly easy to call a close pitch a preferred way and simply ascribe it to fallible judgment, which is part of the human equation. Maybe the robot ump would avoid these issues, but no doubt other things would become problematic. 

 

 

[johndw52]

While umpire bias or influence can be a factor of some egregious calls, asking a human being to make an instantaneous decision based on near 100 mph pitch with near whiffle ball snap movements against an imaginary 3d zone 200 + times a game is next to impossible. The technology is now demonstrating this. The time to use and perfect this tech has become a necessity . Lets help these guys from becoming a total embarrassment.