Yes We Need to Say More

I'm a big-time long-time lurker on this blog, but as a five-year former umpire at the high school varsity baseball level, I'm already sick and tired of the bashing Brian Walsh is taking. I had no idea I could publish a post on this blog, but I'm going to take advantage of it until someone stops me or edits me or censors me or takes my lollipop away.

Let's start here:

This is for context, which Mr. DougK failed to offer. Brian Walsh is a pretty good umpire. Not the best, not the worst. That's for the 2025 season. 94% accuracy, 94% consistency, only 0.6 runs in favor for the season. That's context.

And before I even get to defending Mr. Walsh and umpires in general, ask yourself this one simple question - in an at-bat of so great a consequences, what is Jazz Chisolm doing taking a pitch that close? Let's look at the graphic Mr. Seely posted in his morning post again:

That's a pitch Chisolm should be attempting to foul off in that situation and try to get a pitch he can do something with. But maybe he doesn't have the bat skills for that? It's not how he approaches an at-bat? Who knows?

I don't know how many of you keyboard whiners out there have ever stood behind home plate and tried to call balls and strikes. If you have, then you know how difficult that is. If you haven't, then you don't have any inkling whatsoever about how hard it is to do and how much skill and concentration it takes. To begin with, the strike zone is not painted out there in mid-air for you to see. Nobody comes over and chalks in the strike zone. The plate is only 17" wide, a small target. The height of the zone changes based on the height of the batter and their typical stance, and you have to take that into account in the same way that you take into account a particular pitcher's natural delivery to be able to call balks. So you're literally trying to see a ball come through an imaginary box in the air and call either a ball or a strike.

Also, it doesn't seem to be common knowledge that if any part of the ball falls in the strike zone, it's a strike. The 3-D strike zone graphic (ESPN?) shows that much better. Looking at the graphic from Mr. Seely's post, I can't tell if the inside portion of the baseball is touching the outside part of the plate. It is damn close, to be sure.

And the ball moves - god, how it moves! Even high school pitchers can throw in the low 90s, so imagine a ball coming in at 95+ MPH. As much time as a batter has to decide to swing, that's how much time an umpire has to judge a pitch. It ain't much. Apart from sheer velocity, modern pitchers now can make the ball spin and move and break in ungodly ways, and the umpire has to track that movement into the zone and, again, make the call. When you see those Jomboy tunneling overlays that show what a hitter has to track pitch to pitch, the umpire has to track exactly the same thing.

Lastly, umpires simply do not have an ideal, perfect position behind the plate to call every pitch because there's a catcher in the way of their vision. Most umpires choose to set up on the inside part of the plate, as close to the center as possible, which leaves them most vulnerable to missing calls in the outside part of the plate, because their angle of vision is not ideal. Again, take a look at where that Statcast graphic has the pitch, and realize that that's the hardest pitch possible for Mr. Walsh to call correctly if he's set up on the inside, especially when he's seen the previous 5 pitches come in middle-in. It can go either way, and unfortunately it went Houston's way.

Let's also understand why robo umps are needed. It's not because umpires are incompetent. Statistically, they are unbelievably excellent at their job. Robo umps are needed because the quality and style of pitching in modern baseball has simply surpassed a human's ability to call balls and strikes as accurately as everyone - especially fans - demands. Humans are, unfortunately for us all, fallible; but we live in a culture that, despite the fact that we are - all of us - fallible, cannot tolerate the fallibility of others. And it seems that the more trivial the pursuit - such as sports - the more intolerant we are of others' fallibility. Make incredibly huge mistakes in business, the economy, or government and you'll suffer no consequences. Get a call "wrong" in a baseball game, and you're called garbage, and the clickbait internet culture (who profit off your clicks) screams for accountability and investigations. And the Red Sox fan angle is so childish and click-baity it's not even worth discussing here.

Look - if anything, Brian Walsh had a bad day at the wrong time in the wrong game, and now all of a sudden he's some kind of pariah. I am pretty sick of hearing everyone admit that, yes, the bullpen imploded and Boone made some questionable bullpen decisions, but WALSH MISSED THAT LAST CALL IT WAS A BALL! Ridiculous. Brian Walsh is statistically a very good umpire, and ranks 3.96 on the pitcher-/hitter-friendly scale, which is .01 above the highest "neutral" ranking of 3.98, which makes him ever so slightly pitcher-friendly (EV Analytics). The heat he's catching comes from fans who really take this game of baseball - a child's game - far, far too seriously.

Umpires take an awful lot of abuse because the average fan is, well, a fan. The abuse they take from ballplayers and managers has its source in the fierce competition and the high level at which these people play the game (and if you think the average MLB player can be abusive, you haven't umpired in front of parents and grandparents). Feel free to pile on the abuse of Mr. Walsh if you must, but hopefully you'll realize that your reaction is childish and emotionally stunted. I was unhappy with the outcome of last night's game as well, but the loss is squarely on the Yankee players, whose bullpen imploded, whose "fucking elite" SS fanned three times, who went 1-7 with RISP, whose roster construction is fundamentally flawed, and who probably have the worst in-game manager in the game today. If a hitter who has a .300 average (3-10) is a "star player," than surely an ump with even an 85% called strike accuracy (8 wrong out of 52) is pretty damn good.

Play better baseball, NYY. Just play better.

Before I let another 5 years or so go by without commenting, let me apologize for hijacking the blog and inserting myself into this comfortable clique. I enjoy Mr. Seely's writing, and I am a great admirer of Mr. Kevin Baker, whose latest book I devoured and thoroughly enjoyed. It keeps me lurking.