Comments on: The Umpire Effect

By: Allan Goldstein

Allan Goldstein — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:39:38 +0000

The stat I’d really like to see is each umpire’s percentage of called strikes/balls over a season, seasons, or entire career. Does anyone know if that has been compiled anywhere? It shouldn’t be hard to do, and with the large sample size for all but rookie umps it would be an accurate measure of their strike zones.
I see BaseWinner has beat me to this, as have several others, no doubt. But it bears repeating. Is there anywhere, this site or other, where those stats are available?

By: BaseWinner

BaseWinner — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:01:41 +0000

This is a great example of high one the umpire can change the outcome of the day and how they need to figure out a way to get consistency. I was against Price on vs. TOR because of his control issues. Cool stat on fangraphs would be to have % of strikes called balls and and % of balls called strikes for each guy – would be fun.

By: razor

razor — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:35:18 +0000

Excellent article, and one that is very true. That man behind the dish can be the x-factor for a pitcher. Pitch counts come into play as well as the percentage of hitters counts at 2-0 and/or 3-1.

You can check umpire stats over at BP or at http://www.covers.com…I‘m not the gambling type myself but in fantasy terms one of the first things I look at is the umpire rotation in a series, or at least who is behind the dish that night. You do not want Adrian Johnson calling balls and strikes with one of your pitchers out there, I can tell you that. There are several other “hitters” umpires as well. Just like with players, the larger the sample size for umpire data, the better conclusions you can reach…

By: bigyaz

bigyaz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:16:41 +0000

The players know that umpires are not robots and thus have differing views of the strike zone. The good ones adjust accordingly. The others do a lot of whining.

By: Mike I

Mike I — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:59:42 +0000

I think a lot of people, myself included, find the inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of the umpire make the game a little more interesting and fun. If it were football, yeah, some sort of automated officiating system (if it were even feasible) might be better. It just doesn’t bother me that not every strike-ball call is perfect. Sometimes tradition does have a place in the game, IMO.

By: Mike I

Mike I — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:53:10 +0000

I think he’s trying to say we should be evaluating them by W-L record.

By: W

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:48:45 +0000

Is there any data available setting out career runs/game stats for various umpires? I’d imagine there might be significant discrepancies (even a quarter run per game would be significant when you consider the huge sample sizes for umps).

Vegas Oddsmakers must be all over/under this stuff!

By: hazel

hazel — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:37:28 +0000

You’re sure he pitched better in his most recent start, but I’m not sure you’re even looking at particularly dissimilar performances. If the margin is strikes +/-25 these are basically the same starts.

By: EDUB

EDUB — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:36:14 +0000

^^^Which*

By: EDUB

EDUB — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:34:33 +0000

Witch data points represent swing-and-miss strikes?