Umpire Strikezone Scores for 25 games

The Umpire Strikezone Scores for the first 25 games of 2013 show that umpires are keeping a pattern of calling a higher percentages of pitches inside the strikezone correct than in the past. However, the percentage of correct calls outside the strikezone has not improved.

In the just concluded four game series between Boston and Houston, the best and worst were on display.

Tim McClelland had the highest overall USS score of the year, when he only missed two pitches outside the strikezone and six inside. His score was .923.

On the other side of the spectrum, Jerry Meals, Marvin Hudson, and Jordan Baker missed a total of 51 pitches that should have been balls, but those three arbitrators saw them as strikes. On pitches inside the strikezone, those three only missed 11 that they called a ball.

This has continued the pattern of more called strikes, that should really be balls this year.

In 25 Red Sox games this year, there were 30 times that an umpire only missed one or zero pitches inside the strikezone, using LHH/RHH splits. This number shows significant improvement over previous years. The number of times that an umpire missed one or zero pitches outside the zone was only three.

In those 25 games, umpires have missed 286 pitches that were outside the strikezone that they called a strike, and they missed 78 pitches inside the strikezone that they called a ball.

Hunter Wendelstedt and John Hirschbeck each scored a perfect 100% of all calls inside the strikezone.

At the other end of the spectrum, Jerry Meals missed 21 pitches where he gave the pitcher a strike when it should have been a ball. Meals had a USS score of .760 for the game. Doug Eddings missed 19 pitches that he called strikes, even though they were outside the strikezone.

If 2013 is going to be known as the year of the strikeouts, maybe we should give an assist to those that make the strike call, especially Jerry Meals and Doug
Eddings. If two umpires miss 40 calls on pitches that are outside the strikezone, we have a big problem in the game.

The answer is simple. Put these images on the jumbo screen in every ballpark, and soon those umpires will call those pitches correctly, not based on how they perceive the strikezone to be, but how it is defined in the rule book. Home plate is 17 inches across, anything outside those dimensions is not a strike.