Wednesday catch-all thread (6/17/26)
Please use this thread all week to discuss any Mets-specific topic you wish.
While watching Tuesday night’s game, I was not a fan of the calls of the home plate umpire. Live, it seemed like he was calling strikes for the Reds that he wasn’t calling for the Mets. So, I went back thru the Statcast strike zones for each batter and recording ones that were (seemingly) called wrong. Here’s what I got for the Mets:
Kodai Senga - called two strikes as balls and one ball as a strike
Cionel Perez - called one ball a strike
Austin Warren - called one ball a strike
Huascar Brazoban - called one ball a strike
Luke Weaver - no wrong calls
So, that’s not as bad as I thought. Missed two strike calls and four ball calls. Now let’s do the same thing with the Reds’ pitchers:
Brady Singer - called one strike a ball and four balls as strikes
Sam Moll - called five balls as strikes
Brock Burke - no wrong calls
Tejay Antone - called one strike a ball
Tony Santillan - no wrong calls
And here’s where it went off the rails. Ump called two pitches balls that were strikes and nine that were balls were called strikes.
Overall, there were 322 pitches and 17 were missed according to me and Statcast. That’s 94.7% right, which sounds solid. But we have to consider how many of the 305 pitches that were called correctly were gimmes. It’s pretty hard to miss on foul balls, swinging strikes, balls put in play, balls that bounce in the dirt, balls that hit batters, pitches a foot outside and ones that are middle-middle.
Calling balls and strikes is not remotely easy over 322 pitches. It’s a job much better done by machines than by humans. Umpires today do a better job calling balls and strikes than they’ve ever done in the last 50 years. Yet we have to ask ourselves: Is it good enough?
We need someone to go back and determine how many calls were tough ones. And not just for one game but for an entire season If, picking a number out of thin air, there were 50 tough calls in this game, is missing 17 an acceptable number? Maybe it is for human umpires - I don’t pretend to know the answer.
Yet it seems to me that this is something both MLB and the MLBPA should be interested in knowing. The umpires are more than happy touting a correct call rate of 94.7% - that’s the number that paints them in the most favorable light.
But the rest of us should be ignoring results like foul balls, hit batters and all of the other ones enumerated earlier that require no skill whatsoever to get right. And once we know which ones were tough, we need to know what the average blown-call rate is. And once we know that, we can start removing some umpires from calling balls and strikes.
If the average blown-call rate on tough pitches is 15% and some umps are missing 33% - that’s not good. Of course, those numbers are just examples. The actual numbers might be wildly different. Yet the same principle applies.
The bill of goods that we were all sold was that there was going to be an automated system set up to call balls and strikes at home plate. What we have is a limited challenge system that often results in an overturned call. Except of course, when you run out of your two challenges, and then you are at the mercy of how the umpire is doing that day.
It is my understanding that there were player reservations in the minor leagues about having all the balls and strikes called by a computer which is why they created this system. It should go one way or the other.
Either we leave the balls and strikes to the discretion of the umpire, who for the most part gets it right, or we dive into automation. In my opinion, they should measure every single major league baseball player, enter the data into a computer and that becomes that players strike zone. Clearly, Aaron Judge and Jose Altuve do not have the same strike zone. The first key of course is getting the ball over the plate.
Growing up the strike zone was from the knees to the letters. So our wonderful and intrusive friend AI, should create a customized box, like we see on TV, as the strike zone for each individual player. Seems pretty simple and takes a lot of pressure off the home plate umpire who goes from having the hardest job of the crew to the easiest, as generally there is the least amount of traffic coming into home plate then there are going to the other bases.
Can anyone explain to me why this is approach would not make more sense than what we have now?
And for God sake, will someone coach the Mets players on how to use the challenge? I think Stinky Semien challenged a call in the second inning with basically nothing to gain and of course, lost the challenge because his eye at the plate sucks. If he had a good eye at the plate, he’d actually be hitting something more than .217.
And how do they compete with a lineup that includes Semien, Vientos, who’s hitting .218 and Melendez and his robust .198 batting average! Or throwing Senga and his 9.00 ERA to be followed by Perez and his 5.18 ERA or Peterson and his 5.91 ERA. And while the team has hit 77 home runs, the pitching has given up 72.
Thanks Brian for the open Wednesday ability to piss and moan not only about baseball but how poorly the Mets are playing. They are now nine games under 500 and making several of their under 500 opponents look like playoff contenders.
The Phillies fired their manager, then went on a big run and eventually turned the season around from nine wins and 19 losses to currently being seven games over 500, and hold the second wildcard spot. The Red Sox were not as efficient as they fired their manager after a 10 and 17 start, and the interim manager has gone 19 and 23 since that time and find themselves in the basement of the AL Eastern division.
I guess Steve Cohen is being frugal with the prorated balance of Mendoza $1.5 million contract so he doesn’t have to pay another individual not to be on the roster.
Well, I feel better after getting all this crap off my chest. Let’s have a lively Wednesday open conversation and hope we can earn one win against the Reds with McLean on the mound.
Hate the challenge system and don’t understand why they didn’t implement full automation from the get go. After all, the strike zone is what it is and any system that gets all the calls correct should be embraced. Who wants to see someone other than the players factoring heavily in the outcome of the game?
I think we’ll eventually get there but it will take a few years. MLB seems very proud of themselves for coming up with this system and won’t be quick to abandon it. So the Mets need to get used to it and make better use of it. If I’m Mendoza, any player who is consistently wrong on challenges (let’s be generous and say < 50%) loses the privilege.