Comments on: Photo of the Day: Cody Ross strikes out. Sorta.

By: bigleagues

bigleagues — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:32:36 +0000

Wow, there's one Fernando Rodney fan around here? Mrs. Rodney?!

By: professorperry

professorperry — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:14:56 +0000

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/did-jose-molina-frame-the-red-sox/

Everyone needs to read this.

By: cleverbob

cleverbob — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:47:56 +0000

Was he basing his calls on the plate or where the catcher set up?

By: Ray Charbonneau

Ray Charbonneau — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:00:08 +0000

It was hot. Some umps want to get the game over with when it’s uncomfortable out.

By: lefty47

lefty47 — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:29:44 +0000

Sun Sports tv commentators are the worst homers on the air. Most of their commentary is whining about the calls that go against the Rays. It is hard to listen to, so most of the time during the Red Sox series I turned off the audio.

By: comanchepilot

comanchepilot — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:08:30 +0000

Umps should have scores – like any other profession- when there is a called strike or ball – they should rated if it is correct- at least everyone then knows if they are accurate or not from absolute stats – being exposed for ball and strike calls under 95% correct should be a shame for umps – they should not get to the majors if they are calling less than 99% accurately.

There could be 9th inning separate stats too to see if they are just trying to wrap the game up – I don’t care if MLB sanctions it or not -

By: petey1999

petey1999 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:03:03 +0000

Me too. I was waiting for Ross or Valentine to go crazy but can you get thrown out of a game that’s already over?

By: marinersnate

marinersnate — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:50:31 +0000

“If this was a Mariners-Indians game, NO ONE WOULD CARE!”

Umm, I would care.

By: nflfollower

nflfollower — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:32:31 +0000

Pitchers with reputations definitely get preferential calls from some of the umps. That’s not unique to baseball though, it happens in every major sport, whether it’s football, soccer, hockey, or the worst of all, basketball. Just comes with the territory, and while I don’t agree with it, I’m tired of complaining about it.

By: dapperdan50

dapperdan50 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:49:35 +0000

Jeez, if you really love to have variation in the strike zone, you could program random daily variations into the robot umpires.

It’s obvious that Vanover just wanted to get the game over. Maybe he had a date after the game or maybe the heat was just getting to him.

By: Jeremy Fox

Jeremy Fox — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:41:25 +0000

Um, lots of people have been talking for years now about how poorly some umps call games, how unaccountable the umps are, and how maybe it’s time to start calling balls and strikes with a computer system.

Plus, are you sure that Mariners and Indians fans don’t care about bad umpiring during Mariners-Indians games? Because I bet they do.

By: stairwayto7

stairwayto7 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 21:25:21 +0000

If this was a Mariners-Indians game, NO ONE WOULD CARE! However its the Redsox so now everyone needs to make a big deal out of it.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:13:53 +0000

dowhatifeellike – Apr 16, 2012 at 2:51 PM
That actually looks pretty good compared to any of the scatters for the yankees/orioles series.

One of the worst called series I have ever seen. Not only with just balls and strikes- also with calls on check swings. I don’t think they got a single one right. Any ump involved in that series should hand their head in shame. Caught the Orioles broadcasts for the game- I thought Jim Palmer was going to head down to the field and knock one of them out.

By: nategearhart

nategearhart — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:05:28 +0000

Whoa, dude. You think baseball is boring unless it’s being umpired poorly? Then you are not a baseball fan.

By: ranoversquarells

ranoversquarells — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:57:28 +0000

Umpires = Useless

By: easports82

easports82 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:54:18 +0000

Livan Hernandez endorses this strike zone.

By: Jack Marshall

Jack Marshall — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:50:16 +0000

No, he wasn’t. And that’s no excuse anyway.

By: shawndc04

shawndc04 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:43:11 +0000

Vanover stinks. He was horrible in the Nationals-Mets series, both behind the plate and in the field. He’s about the quality of Laz Diaz and Angel Hernandez.

By: dowhatifeellike

dowhatifeellike — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:39:57 +0000

We don’t need robots, we just need umpires to be held accountable. Send them back to school until they get it right or outright remove them. I don’t expect perfection but I think we can all agree that they can do better. I’ve seen strikes called on the chalk of the batter’s boxes already this year.

It seems to me that it’d be impossible to become a top-level umpire with strike zones like that. I have to assume that these umpires relax once they make the Bigs, and the game suffers for it.

By: Jeremy Fox

Jeremy Fox — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:35:05 +0000

Um, given the actual *data* linked to in a previous comment showing that Vanover was *not* consistently calling strikes on the pitches on which Ross struck out, exactly how was Ross supposed to “know what calls [he was going to] get and plan accordingly”? Or were you just mindlessly spouting old-school cliches?

Plus, hitters have to decide in literally the blink of an eye whether to swing or not. It’s impossible to set aside a lifetime of training yourself not to swing at pitches that aren’t even close and suddenly force yourself to swing at pitches almost a *foot* outside (look at the horizontal scale in the graph in the post).

And as for the previous commenter who thinks baseball would be “extremely boring” if all calls were made by robots: Are you seriously saying that the only things that you find exciting about baseball are blown calls and the subsequent arguments? Are you seriously saying that Ross’ whole at-bat with 2 outs in bottom of the 9th in a one-run game with the winning run on base would’ve been boring if, say, he’d struck out on pitches that actually caught the corner?

By: spudchukar

spudchukar — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:11:29 +0000

The first and last pitches were close and often times get called strikes. The other two, no excuse for. Were I a Sox fan, Vanover’s ears would be burning. The Rays pitch track indicated they were closer,(one of the problems with Pitch Tracks) but even then only 2 were questionable.

As bad as these calls were, a 3-1 swing? call against Sean Rodriguez was even worse. But he walked on the next pitch, so this time it had little impact.

I have mixed feelings about the Robot thing, but if the MLB umpiring continues to more resemble a game of Blind Man’s Bluff, then they are inviting new technology to replace their sorry abilities.

By: lardin

lardin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:10:26 +0000

Agreed, Every single umpire has a slight variation to the strike zone. The great pitchers AND great hitters, know what calls they get from what umpire and plan accordingly.

By: cur68

cur68 — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:05:35 +0000

juuuuust a little outside…right?

By: phukyouk

phukyouk — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:00:49 +0000

shhh if you listen very closely you can hear Gator typing

By: baseballisboring

baseballisboring — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:00:45 +0000

Usually, though, when pitchers get borderline calls, it’s because they’ve proven to be strike throwers. Rodney has been proving the exact opposite for many years now. So I just don’t even understand it. As a Red Sox fan watching the game, yeah, I was pretty pissed.

By: Jason Collette

Jason Collette — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:52:45 +0000

Comment was in jest but agree with others on piss-poor job by Vanover there. I know the season is early but the zones have been all over the place even within games. Consistency is all we ask for as fans – even if you’re bad, be consistently bad.

By: dowhatifeellike

dowhatifeellike — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:52:41 +0000

It’s presented from the umpire’s point of view.

By: ss

ss — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:52:04 +0000

If by “calling that pitch a strike all day” you mean “started calling that pitch a strike around the fifth inning”, then I agree with you 100%.

By: dowhatifeellike

dowhatifeellike — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:51:02 +0000

That actually looks pretty good compared to any of the scatters for the yankees/orioles series.

By: schlom

schlom — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:46:45 +0000

Are the pitch plots always oriented backwards like that? If you look at the plot wouldn’t you think those pitches were missing inside, not outside?