dumbdumb

some stats through the 17th--about 2 more plate jobs for most before season ends and could move the needle highest stats for 56 full time umpires working the plate for the season so far--28 umps needed for Wild Card (includes 4 in IR) and 28 needed for DS (includes 4 in IR) before moving on to LCS and WS. Visconiti 95.04, Ripperger 94.81, Moscoso ".54, Ceja ".51, Conroy .49, Morales .47, Tosi .40, MacKay .34, Tomlinson .31, Valentine .31, Hamari .25, Bacchus .21, Rehak .14, Tumpane .07, Gibson . 06, Libka .06, Wegner .02, Wolcott 93.97, Little .94, Merzel .90, DeJesus .85, Carapazza .81, Hanahan .78, Muchlinski .77, Additon .77, Hoye .67, Walsh .66, Reyburn .66, Tichnor .62, Barksdale .59, May .54, Beck .53, Lentz .51, Porter .50, Clemons .50, Livensparger .49, Rackley .45, Emil Jiminez .41, Wolfe .40, Guccione .39, Blaser .33, Bellino .33, Wills .29, Vondrak .29, Barry .25, Ramos .22, Whitson .21, Eddings .20, Baker .18, Miller .17, Marquez, .10, Hudson .07, Barrett .06, Miller .03, Blakney 92.92, Ortiz 92.90 courtesy of ump scorecards and yes there could be mistakes and misspellings etc. sorry if that happened. E on the stat copier.

but will it cause a ding (the call or the handling of the call this late in the season), and affect a possible post season assignment coming up. and of course could calls and situations all through this past season affect the upcoming 4 new crew chief selections for next year, and of the possible candidates for crew chief next year who/whom does not have a WS as part of their resume or a second one that would add to the resume.

after googling about umpires this is what some writer somewhere wants. what did the late jimmy buffett say??? umpiring from a different point of view https://triblive.com/sports/mark-madden-mlb-umpires-should-worry-more-about-crooked-eyesight-and-egos-than-caps/

Just asking Cincinnati down 17-0 asking for a pitch challenge in the 8th. is it being asked because u think HPU has had a lousy night when the team is still down 17-0 and you want to make him have to stay longer and send him a coded message without having to say a word, or is this a, i paid my dues in the minors, i will ask for a challenge whenever i want to. just like money ball and that 13-0 comeback that almost happened. could he not have just swung the bat at that pitch. maybe he would have got a hit since it was a strike, and he would not have had an o fer 4 night. kind of like little tommy and i paid my money, i will ask my questions. if the batter hits a ball to the moon and it bounces off the moon and lands in fair territory, is it a ground rule double or a home run or keep on playing as if it did did not hit the moon. but what if it hits a bird on the way to, or way back from the moon, or its hits the bird both on the way to and on the way back, what then. but i paid my dues, i will ask my questions.

and you had the call mentioned in this article below in the LCS in 2005 and then no playoffs again whatsoever until a one game wild card in left field in 2014 then until a DS in 2018. so lets be fair. where are all those videos and articles, especially videos of professional umpires of amateur players from college on down that are less than as umpires so we can compare and talk about them. https://www.ocregister.com/2005/10/13/eddings-blown-call-a-stinker/

my guess is that the comeuppance u might be seeking will be in the form of no playoff assignments whatsoever, which will end the streak of having a DS, or LCS, or WS every year since 2018. seems like that was the punishment for another pitcher incident in the past in May of 2022 which was a lot earlier in the year when that happen. I would imagine MLB does not want this situation and negative publicity, especially happening only a month before post season, to possibly be on the tip of every announcers tongue to mention and talk about, before the start of every game of a post season assignment if they were to be chosen for a playoff assignment. now an umpire/former sheriff tackling a streaker in April for running on the field, would be an entirely different situation for not wanting to possibly take the fans minds off the coming post season.

just use full ABS like the umpires wanted for ball strike. use the new check swing technology for check swing or not. use the infrared technology to help with HBP or ball off the foot. there will be a plethora of other work at the plate. keeping the count. timing infractions or not, balks or not, catchers interference or not, fair foul or not, pitcher trapping ball hit back to them or not, runners lane violation or not, safe out at the plate or not, placement of runners, etc. When ABS goes down with a tech problem, then the umpires can call the rest of the game ball/strike like they do now. and did the SEC use the ball strike technology that we know they have, and we know they have it, to pick the best umpires ball/strike wise to call the SEC tournament. other than just go by the misses, even if un-challeged, you could tighten up the zone on who/whom you pick for the tournament by taking the distance missed on each miss ball or strike, and divide it by the total number of pitches called to get the best umpires that have the least amount of distanced missed by (DMB) and chose them to work the tournament and be the leader in this area.

would it not help in a scouting/supervisor situation. all the umpires at a level come to the supervisor, rather than the supervisor chasing the crews. you could see 45 guys in low A work the plate, 45 in high A work the plate, and 45 in AA work the plate, much like the MLB area observers seeing most all of the crews as they come to their area. added below also a thought at the AAA leagues (not saying it is true, just a thought) comes to mind with the veteran call ups in the IL or PCL. if they are veterans in there home league so to speak for years, it looks like they had been shifting some of them to the opposite league after 4 years anyway, since they hardly got argued with, compared to new guys, by that home league they were in. when they had to switch leagues, the new league managers, might, be more inclined to argue with them a little more (a la aaron boone) than their old home league would have, having not seen them. and that would create more, how do you handle situations instances, than you would get if you had stayed in your same old home league forever. so the supervisors and observers evaluating in the new league got to see more of your, handling situations abilities, and other abilities since you were new. now that everyone moves through all leagues they are all seen on both coasts it sounds like, AAA on down.

where's all the venom that was spewed at bucknor for, missing, 6 out of 8 ABS challenges. cc miller missed every single one, 8 out of 8, on the same amount of 8 challenges or 100% misses yesterday. let's not play favorites and pick on some (like boone picking on the young guys, (call ups), to argue with) while giving others (with the possibility of receiving an upcoming 6th WS) a free pass. game has been over since 4 to 5pm. why no post here yet. https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/umpire-bill-miller-goes-0-8-abs-challenges-reds-10-8-win-cubs-wrigley-field?msockid=0709b428f05f632c31e0a3ecf10a6237 added 9/12 - and in his first HP assignment 9/8 back from a vacation or a replay week, Mr. Miller missed the first 3 pitch challenges in a row, to make that 11 straight misses/overturns over a two game span before getting the other 2 challenges in that last game confirmed. it can happen to anyone, from a low rated umpire in the league to a high rated umpire with 5 world series under their belt and it could happen to all of us.

so? zone is from middle of plate and not the front as to where it starts like MLB? and are they using ELC (Electronic Line Calling) ie Hawkeye 3D tracking like in tennis or trackman radar tracking. Hawkeye was the choice for SEC tournament last year.

so are they taking off that extra basically .22 to .24 on each side 1.43-1.47 radius at the middle and saying that the known error rate of .10 to .50 on trackman or any other company, will just knock the above out and just call it even at 1 inch extra on each side on the above out. it will be great when we get to see in print the same scores like in MLB ump scorecards and i would expect them to be pretty much the same. but, it gives a chance to use the numbers for post season picks if they so choose or not. and the 3 challenges is great (like 3 strikes and your out). that means if you go 50/50 starting with team getting the first third and 5th challenge overturned you will get at least 6 challenges and the other team does the same at least 6 to 12(if you are getting them all correct) missed pitches would get covered.

apparently crews in AA are switching leagues during the season. what is this all about. letting them see all the MLB organizations, rather than just the ones in one league all year. when were the rest of us going to be let in on this new development or did we miss the memo. so what's the scoop. just AA doing this or is A ball doing this. is anything else going on? just found it in AA looking through some box scores.

save it for the big leagues if you ever make it that far. and if you don't make it that far blame the scouts. they obviously don't know what they are doing if they missed an obvious phenom like you. why are the adults teaching this. what type of role modeling from the adults is this. is this how it is in real life, work, business and everything else in life. just teaching cheating everywhere or you are a "loser" in life. if you are not cheating you are not trying. blame it on the role model adults in the room, just look in the mirror. well, come on, just admit it. that's really all it is or it wouldn't happen at all. https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/little-league-world-series-sign-stealing-controversy-erupts-second-straight-year?msockid=12ce38a553216a1d006e2f1d52906bf1

and he is working towards tying that more modern day (80's on) record of 6 WS's in a career with Montague, Davis, and West. And the record shows WS in 2017, 2020, 2023 so an upcoming 2026 selection to tie the record could definitely be in the works.

maybe this started it, or they are going back to the red coat days when AL used it a lot. https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/umpire-joe-west-hit-throw-stolen-base/468407

it happens to the best that have a lot of post season assignments. don't want to be picking on others that don't get them and not show the special events guys when a conundrum occurs or a claustramess for them crops up. what would happen if umpire had been in the infield grass. is that illegal in this situation or is there a choice. and hasn't somebody mentioned, what we permit we promote in the insuing aftermath from the pitcher to the umpire. should it be handled this way at all levels of play. what would or would not be expected for the umpire to do when the pitcher did what he did and not when the umpire had his back turned nor did the pitcher at other levels of play, MiLB on down to little league. https://www.totalprosports.com/mlb/reds-caleb-ferguson-umpire-bill-miller-confrontation-viral-video/

retrosheet dot org--- click at the top on people, then click on umpires----other site is stevetheump but i believe the site is down now. that site had minor league umpires and their leagues going back to 1999 and the MLBU crews, playoff MLBU crews and other info, umpire media guides etc. and if you click on an umpire in retrosheet, and sporting news umpires category shows up, they have some history on umpires minor league careers (but it looks like they stopped those cards about the time O'Nora started in the 80's. hope this helps. there are probably others with tons of resources.

well Garcia was a former Marine combat engineer. Johnson went up in 2010 after 371 call up games after starting as call up in 2006. i think?? some other person was up a long time (Ron Barnes) but did not make it. system is not set up for for all call ups to make it, just like not all AAA are set up to be a call up. you are in until you are out from the get go as far as making it as a MLBU.

basically this has allowed a try out situation in Major League Regular Season games for supervisors to scout, rather than just scouting umpires in a AAA MiLB situation/environment and a more relaxed Spring Training situation/environment due to the 1979 contract that started letting umpires have 1 then 2 and now 4 weeks of vacation time. Layne was the last to go FT right from MiLB, the same year, 1989, that Hohn went but Hohn had worked call up in 1987 and 1988. Of course 2 weeks and sometimes 3 weeks in a season in the replay booth has now allowed the on field games to drop to 114 or 121 games, so at most 30 plate jobs a year for FT versus 40 prior to 1979.

don't forget Hoye was in this mix right behind Drake who first went up in 1999 for a cup of coffee of 3 games, and then Guccione in 2000, followed by Hoye in 2003. Guccione made full time in 2009 with 1255 games already under his belt, and Drake followed with 1218 in 2010 and Hoye 734 in 2010. All 3 received only 2 years of credit, although Drake and Guccione had both worked over 1200 games as call ups. Thats why you might as well say Guccione is a 26 year veteran and Drake a 27 year and Hoye a 23 year. Seems like Knight starting in 2001 and working 676 call up games FT 2011 and Fairchild starting in 2004 and 561 call up games, FT 2010 also worked lots of call up games before getting FT status with only 2 years credit.

the big thing, just to help him out. if he can get to the total games worked as a call up, break point, whatever the CBA says that is, and he gets hired full time next year, and has accumulated enough total games worked to get 2 years of call up credit added as full time credit, that would mean he would start as a 3rd year full timer next year for career purposes, which would basically mean he made full time MLBU in his career path at the start of his 7th year, or basically after 6 years as a full time MiLB umpire. just like getting a Masters degree with 4 years of undergrad work and then 2 years of going to school for at least a Master's degree added on for 6 total years of school, before going into the work force full time. He probably needs to work all of August and September to maybe make that break point what ever it is. He has 19 plate assignments so far this year, so don't know if 135 total games by chance this year and 66 last year will get him there. Visconti was MiLB for 10 years from 2010 to 2019 before being hired in 2020, and with his 250 games at the MiLB call up level in 2018, 2019, that got him 2 years of MLB credit or like making the big leagues at the start his 9th year (ie 2018). Dan Bellino on the other hand went full time in 2011 with 144 games of call up credit which only got him 1 year of MLB credit since he now has 16 years of credit at the start the 2026 season. and there may be cases of giving 1/2 year of credit somewhere in there. see what happens next year. Morales and another umpire went call up in their 6th year after 5 years of MiLB, but had to work 3 years as call ups before Full Time Status and the maximum credit is 2 years of full time credit, even after you reach and surpass the total games needed for that 2 years. and this may or may not have been changed with the new CBA reached in Dec. 2024 and probably signed in early 2025 for the start of the 2025 season.

just some stats from the Feb. 20, 2026 MLB umpire press release the below were the 29 umpires selected to work 2026 Major League Spring Training alphabetically those with numbers and no numbers(although that may have changed) sleeve No./total prior yrs. as call up/total games after 2025 no#-maybe now# John Bacon 70/7/426 Evin Johnson Brock Ballou 41/4/254 Louie Krupa Steven Jaschinski 65/1/20 Felix Neon James Jean 61/2/124 Austin Snow Edwin Jime(slash on e)nez 75/3/288 Sean Sparling Austin Jones 77/2/157 Pete Talkington Tyler Jones 39/1/24 Mitch Trzeciak Dexter Kelly 56/1/15 Bryan Van Vranken Jacob Metz 94/3/195 Charlie Welling Jonathan Parra 30/2/125 Dillon Wilson Jen Pawol 95/1/20 Derek Thomas 53/3/314 Willie Traynor 45/1/66 so the 7 with most games after 2025 were Bacon, Thomas, Jimenez, Ballou, Metz, A. Jones, Parra/Jean 125 to 124. Most call ups have at least 3 years as a call up before full time, but a couple may have gone up after only 2 years as a call up. 3 umps are in their 3rd year right now. will check on most recent hires for a possible 2 year call up to full time later. for new ones going up this year, you can keep up with them courtesy of umpscorecards and well as games done by the veteran call ups this year. mistakes were probably accidentally made above added later today???? on brand new call ups guessing on number of games for the umpires working for the first time that are in 2026 umpscorecards records. i am giving a series of 3 games for half of the plate jobs and a series of 4 games for the other half of the plate jobs, so accuracy on 8 plate games with all being a 4 game series could be off by 4 games total. sorry. and of course if they just did a game at first and a game at third due to a double header it could be less. Visconti only 2 years 2018, 2019 with 250 games, FT 2020 Krupa 28 games so far, Neon 14 games, Wilson 21 games.

how quickly we forget former Navy veteran Emmett Ashford at 51 years of age in his rookie debut, after starting in the Southwest International League in 1951, then to the Arizona Texas League and then to the AAA Pacific Coast League where he toiled for 12 years, working with Cece Carlucci as his crew chief for 922 games. in 1963 Ashford was named PCL umpire in Chief until his MLB debut in 1966 per wikipedia and per sporting news umpire cards. Worked in commissioners Kuhn's office upon retirement. and dutch rennert was 43 which is a lot older than Voltaggio going full time, terry cooney 42, nick colosi 43, bill kinnamon 41, shag crawford 39, frank pulli 37, durwood merrill 38, jerry dale 38. think one of the more current staff of when they made it full time at 40 was Drake, but will have to check. Voltaggio did not have to ever work as a fill in. Believe Layne was the last to never have to work as a fill in (right to full time), other than some of the guys who might have come up full time in 99, maybe Fletcher and Marquez?? with no call up fill in service time.

and if the exact same situation of 7 openings had happened in the past, i would think a lot of people would bet the farm that Gerry Crawford would be one of the seven hired, Brian Gorman would be one of the seven hired, Paul Runge would be one of the 7 hired, Brian Runge would be one of the 7 hired, Hunter Wendelstedt, Jr. would be one of the 7 hired, Mark Hirschbeck would be one of the 7 hired, and Bill Welke would be one of the 7 hired.

goodness gracious, double bounce effect, sprains/strains/sore joints, you are getting decrepit/aged/elderly/ancient/etc now. u didn't worry about that stuff at a certain phase in life. pretty soon comes the dinosaur or the i'm not as good as i "once" was, but "once", i'm as good as i ever was, phase. what about that old Vann's pair i have heard mentioned before.