Thought we'd get this going a little bit. In my last few weeks of games in my franchise I've jotted down some very rough notes for the home plate umpires and how they've been calling taken pitches. I obviously want to clean this up at some point, and make sure that I get all of the umpires in here with every edge of the strike zone (I don't have much scouting at the top of the zone for any umpire), but for now this would be a good start.
I want everybody to contribute to this if possible, even if they are chicken scratch notes like I have. If you want to add-on/correct/confirm anything that I have, go ahead and report that as well. Eventually, we can get a nice spreadsheet for each umpire, and we can use it for our own games in the future.
The only real thing you have to make sure of is that umpires have different strike zones for both lefties and righties. Sometimes they are one the same (for instance, if an umpire squeezes both a lefty on the outside and a righty on the inside), but sometimes this just isn't the case. That said, when you notice something that's out of the ordinary, take note of whether a lefty or righty was batting.
Anyway, here we go...
Tom Reyburn
Patrick Johnson
Joe MacDonald
Kerwin Thompson
Freddie Ferguson
CB Hernandez
Mike Winters
Woody Keller
I want everybody to contribute to this if possible, even if they are chicken scratch notes like I have. If you want to add-on/correct/confirm anything that I have, go ahead and report that as well. Eventually, we can get a nice spreadsheet for each umpire, and we can use it for our own games in the future.
The only real thing you have to make sure of is that umpires have different strike zones for both lefties and righties. Sometimes they are one the same (for instance, if an umpire squeezes both a lefty on the outside and a righty on the inside), but sometimes this just isn't the case. That said, when you notice something that's out of the ordinary, take note of whether a lefty or righty was batting.
Anyway, here we go...
Tom Reyburn
- Extremely inconsistent on the outside of the strike zone to lefties
- Calls strikes on the outside to righties
- Calls high strikes to both lefties and righties
- Squeezes pitchers on the bottom of the zone
Patrick Johnson
- Doesn't call inside on righties
- Squeezes pitchers on the inside/outside against lefties
Joe MacDonald
- Inconsistent to low pitches on lefties (squeeze)
- Often inconsistent on the outside to lefties
- Squeezes high pitches to lefties
- Will give pitchers some inside pitches to lefties, but often tight
- Inconsistent on the outside part of the zone to righties
- Calls strikes low to righties
- Inconsistent inside to righties
Kerwin Thompson
- Calls inside strikes on lefties
- Gives strikes against righties on the outside
Freddie Ferguson
- Rarely calls strikes inside on righties
- Inconsistent outside against righties
- Inconsistent outside against lefties
- Calls balls on high pitches in the zone to righties
- Sometimes misses calling the low strike
CB Hernandez
- Tight on outside to lefties
- Gives strikes to outside on righties
- Often pressing on the low strike on lefties and righties
Mike Winters
- Squeezes lefties on the outside
- Inconsistently tight on the inside against lefties (normally correct calls)
- Gives inside strikes against righties
- Gives leeway to pitchers on the bottom of the strike zone to righties (never pinches)
- Reputation for calling balls on the outside against righties
Woody Keller
- Doesn't call strikes on outside to righties
- Won't extend the zone on the inside to lefties
- Can take away strikes on the outside against lefties
- Can squeeze the inside on righties
- Won't give the low ball much against righties
- Will call high strikes against righties
But then again, I did not track these trends or start a thread on it.
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