Umpire Scorecard Thread

[SteveA]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I don’t think it’s meaningless.  It just doesn’t measure what you’d like to measure.  

Thank you!   That was what I was trying to say and you said it in about 1/10 as many words and clearer than I did.

[Morgan423]

I think that ShoelesJoe does have some right to be frustrated, as Ump Scorecard's stat is measuring expected live run expectancy impact, BUT it's doing that in a report that comes from the future, long after the game is long over.  

I agree that it's not as useful in showing the actual real impact of blown calls... just the general trends of how these calls tend to positively or negative impact our chance of winning the game as they occur.

And to the other folk's point, it is indeed very difficult to quantify EVERY impact that blown calls actually have, because they don't always happen in an absolutely measurable format that has an definite immediate outcome.  But I do agree that knowing something closer to actual impact would be useful.

I've always thought that you could do an "umpire error" stat for the times when an umpire blowing a call has an absolutely measurable impact.  Like ShoelesJoe's example from earlier where an 0-2, two out should-be strike call is blown, and then the batter homers on the next pitch.  That's 100% on the umpire (and no, don't tell me that the pitcher should have stepped it up and done better subsequently, and that he had an opportunity to mitigate the damage... the point of this is that he should have been sitting on the bench with the inning over, and shouldn't have had to mitigate anything).

Call those "umpire errors" when they lead to the offense scoring a run they didn't earn, in the same way that a fielder's error could have.  This could also extend to demonstrably blown calls at bases and in the field that aren't challenged and have scoring impacts.  You could even do a reconstruction of the inning using the rules for fielding errors / unearned runs based on the result that should have occurred without the blown call, if you wished. "Unearned Ump Runs."

In the end, you have an incomplete stat if you do this, because there are so many calls and situations that don't have an absolutely measurable impact, but rather an influence that make things easier or harder situationally for the players in the game.

But I don't think that tracking these absolute umpire errors would be valueless either... you can get at least some idea of how hard blown calls are hitting, and track the most egregious umpires by how many absolute errors and unearned ump runs they caused.

Sorry about the book, just something I've had on my mind while reading this thread. 

[ShoelesJoe]

 

 

[RavensNOsGuy]

Marvin Hudson is another one of the 90s umpires that needs to go. Always a terrible strike zone then can’t take some comments and throws guys out immediately. He once threw Bryce Harper out for not getting in the box before there was any rule about it.

That crew this series was awful. And the one guy that didn’t get the plate was Hunter Wendelstet who is just as awful.

Edited August 21 by RavensNOsGuy

[Sports Guy]

 

[Can_of_corn]

It looks to me as if he had a really large zone for both teams but had additional trouble when the running game was a factor in the play.

To be honest that looked like a normal travel day strike zone from the 80's. 

Best be swinging boys, I got a plane to catch energy.

[Frobby]

I was surprised to see the ump did that badly.  I thought it was just the average level of bad.  Which is bad enough.  

[ShoelesJoe]

According to Umpire Scorecards Marvin Hudson's abysmal performance yesterday helped the Orioles. Who was it who said there's lies, damned lies, and statistics? Twain? 

 

 

[e16bball]

6 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

According to Umpire Scorecards Marvin Hudson's abysmal performance yesterday helped the Orioles. Who was it who said there's lies, damned lies, and statistics? Twain? 

 

 

I think it’s pretty hard to argue that it didn’t favor us yesterday. 

The play where Urias should have struck out and Cowser should have been caught stealing is one of the biggest run expectancy swings an umpire could ever cause. Men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out versus bases empty and two outs comes out to something like a 1.3 run swing in our direction. We could have been on the wrong end of 90% of the other wrong calls and we still would have gotten a huge boost from Marvin overall.

I’d assume the Umpire Scorecard folks aren’t even taking the caught stealing into account, which means they’re actually (substantially) undervaluing the advantage we got from that terrible missed call.

[now]

7 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

It looks to me as if he had a really large zone for both teams but had additional trouble when the running game was a factor in the play.

To be honest that looked like a normal travel day strike zone from the 80's. 

Best be swinging boys, I got a plane to catch energy.

Sounds about right. It's so irksome to see 90% of the blown calls favoring the pitcher. You hardly ever see a true strike called a ball, whereas the strike called 1-4 inches outside the box is practically automatic these days.

[ShoelesJoe]

The missed Cowser strike 3 was huge. Also, pretty sure the erroneous strike at the bottom of the zone (lowest red dot) was on Henderson. Gunnar seems to be getting screwed a lot lately on pitches below the knees being called strikes. Given that those mistakes are easily seen in the dugout I really wish Hyde (or maybe a designated screamer coach) would start to give umpires hell when they miss those calls. 
 

 

[Can_of_corn]

I saw someone from Dodger land complaining about last night so I figured I'd take a look.

Not that bad but I can see where that #2 call would make me salty as a fan.

[SteveA]

12 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I saw someone from Dodger land complaining about last night so I figured I'd take a look.

Not that bad but I can see where that #2 call would make me salty as a fan.

I definitely felt during teh game that we were getting the benefit of missed calls more than LAD.

It's an odd feeling that I have rarely had this year, it has far more often been the other way.   But last night we were definitely helped.

[ShoelesJoe]

I think Wendelstedt was actually worse than how this is scored. He was clearly mailing it in because the White Sox are so bad. 

 

 

[ShoelesJoe]

This is the Rangers' walk off last night. I watched from the 5th inning on, and Wegner was obviously giving Yankee pitchers an extra two inches on either side of the plate that Rangers pitchers were not getting. I'm convinced beyond reasonable doubt that home plate umps are (subconsciously?) giving NY the benefit of any and all doubts wrt balls and strikes because they know if they miss even one call that goes against the Yankees Boone will go nuclear. They've had seven years of his abuse and would rather not have to deal with it. That's the innocent explanation for why the Yankees get so many bad calls in their favor. There's a not so innocent explanation that we are all thinking from time to time. 

 

 

Edited September 4 by ShoelesJoe