Discussion and Live Blog of the 2016 World Series

[Lindsay]

Umpire discussion for the 2016 World Series (Cubs-Indians) is now open. Notes include home plate umpire performance according to pitch f/x and UEFL Rules 6-2-b-a (horizontal bound, "Kulpa Rule") and 6-2-b-b (vertical strike zone, "Miller Rule"). Plays include significant plays and instant...

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[Thunderheads]

Vanover has a bigger strike zone than most, ...not that that is bad, but ...with Kluber being "ON" .... Cubs are going to STRUGGLE!

And ... what's up w/ Guccione's out call at first???   Lifts leg, twists ... what the .....

[LittleBlue]

31 minutes ago, Thunderheads said:

Vanover has a bigger strike zone than most, ...not that that is bad, but ...with Kluber being "ON" .... Cubs are going to STRUGGLE!

And ... what's up w/ Guccione's out call at first???   Lifts leg, twists ... what the .....

I don't know if Guccione always does that but it comes off to me as he's trying too hard.

[Thunderheads]

I've noticed it before and I think it's ridiculous but that's me

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[tpatience]

- 10/25, CHC@CLE Gm 1: Larry Vanover: pfx (107/110 Balls + 65/67 Strikes = 172/177 = 97.2%) +1 CHC

[dumbdumb]

come on Gil. Since it was only 5 pitches that were missed, circle the ones that missed by either px or pz. looks on the square can be deceiving.

which were the 2 strikes missed and which were the 3 balls missed?

 

[Lindsay]

Hope that's helpful... Blue = Missed Calls. Pink = Correct due to batter zone height. Orange = Borderline range (cannot be proven incorrect).

[umpstu]

Kept reading comments from Cubs fans about Lester not getting the calls Kluber was.  He wasn't hitting his spots, Kluber was.  Kluber was on last night. Wow!

[udbrky]

Just now, umpstu said:

Kept reading comments from Cubs fans about Lester not getting the calls Kluber was.  He wasn't hitting his spots, Kluber was.  Kluber was on last night. Wow!

Ugh, so sick of the "the umps are against us" view Cubs fans have now. I block people that talk about that 90% of the time. Even from a non-ump perspective, it's just boring to read the same thing every time.

[LittleBlue]

15 hours ago, tpatience said:

- 10/25, CHC@CLE Gm 1: Larry Vanover: pfx (107/110 Balls + 65/67 Strikes = 172/177 = 97.2%) +1 CHC

Good to know these are the actually numbers for Vanover because I was listening to Mike and Mike on the radio this morning and they were talking about how Vanover had a 93% accuracy or something like that. Of course that spurred a conversation about how umpires have to be replaced by computers because we can't be having an umpire call his strike zone in a big game like last night. I was happy to hear Mike Golic argue heavily for the human factor to remain in the game. Seems like a lot of the people who want a computerized strike zone are those who have never played the game (especially at the major league level).

[dumbdumb]

7 hours ago, Gil said:

Hope that's helpful... Blue = Missed Calls. Pink = Correct due to batter zone height. Orange = Borderline range (cannot be proven incorrect).

Love it Gil

Would you be willing to continue for the WS?, or is this a one and done.

[dumbdumb]

CG-game #2

[Lindsay]

Guccione.

[conbo61]

Just to be clear, pitches between the dashed and solid lines that are called strikes are considered "missed"?

[Lindsay]

1 minute ago, conbo61 said:

Just to be clear, pitches between the dashed and solid lines that are called strikes are considered "missed"?

Yes. The dashed line is the so-called "Fast Map" that is supposed to portray a league-average called strike zone. The solid black line is generally representative of the farthest a pitch can be horizontally located in order to be properly ruled a strike. When it comes to Pitch f/x numbers, the only consideration is where the pitch's measured location (px, pz) is in relation to the edge of home plate (for px) or batter's individual top/bottom of zone (sz_top/sz_bot for pz).

For example, px .803 is the equivalent to 9.64 inches from center (.803*12=9.64). Since home plate is 17 inches wide, it is 8.5 inches to either side. Thus 9.64 - 8.5 = 1.14 (the pitch is centered 1.14 inches off the edge of home plate). Taking into account the radius of a baseball (~1.50 inches), we see that the ball is centered 1.14 inches off the edge of home plate, meaning that part of it actually passes over home plate: 0.36 inches to be exact (|1.14-1.50|=.36). Thus, all else equal, passes through the strike zone, and this pitch would generally show in the borderline range (if called a ball), or as a correct call (if called a strike). Borderline range also applies to Margin of Error-related confidence interval pitches that have a good shot at being both correct and incorrect at the same time. As you can imagine, expanding the recorded value of px to its MOE limits, which creates a confidence interval of potential px values, creates a situation that allows a pitch to be considered both correct and incorrect: when that happens, those pitches are deemed "not incorrect."

The red pitches (called strikes) circled in blue did not have any part of the ball passing over home plate; the red pitch circled in orange did have a slim portion of the ball at or so close to touching the planar edge of home plate that the pitch quite literally could have been called either way.

[dumbdumb]

4 hours ago, Gil said:

Yes. The dashed line is the so-called "Fast Map" that is supposed to portray a league-average called strike zone. The solid black line is generally representative of the farthest a pitch can be horizontally located in order to be properly ruled a strike. When it comes to Pitch f/x numbers, the only consideration is where the pitch's measured location (px, pz) is in relation to the edge of home plate (for px) or batter's individual top/bottom of zone (sz_top/sz_bot for pz).

For example, px .803 is the equivalent to 9.64 inches from center (.803*12=9.64). Since home plate is 17 inches wide, it is 8.5 inches to either side. Thus 9.64 - 8.5 = 1.14 (the pitch is centered 1.14 inches off the edge of home plate). Taking into account the radius of a baseball (~1.50 inches), we see that the ball is centered 1.14 inches off the edge of home plate, meaning that part of it actually passes over home plate: 0.36 inches to be exact (|1.14-1.50|=.36). Thus, all else equal, passes through the strike zone, and this pitch would generally show in the borderline range (if called a ball), or as a correct call (if called a strike). Borderline range also applies to Margin of Error-related confidence interval pitches that have a good shot at being both correct and incorrect at the same time. As you can imagine, expanding the recorded value of px to its MOE limits, which creates a confidence interval of potential px values, creates a situation that allows a pitch to be considered both correct and incorrect: when that happens, those pitches are deemed "not incorrect."

The red pitches (called strikes) circled in blue did not have any part of the ball passing over home plate; the red pitch circled in orange did have a slim portion of the ball at or so close to touching the planar edge of home plate that the pitch quite literally could have been called either way.

Gil

The above graphs give a visual and the 3 categories are much needed help, especially for the high/low. I certainly hope you do not find this beneath you so to speak, for those of us who are number/statistical analytically challenged and out in the woods like me. I truly appreciate carrying this to the next level and hope you get some very positive feedback on this visual, with the circles as well as the explanations. I would have argued/voted for this all along from the beginning, but I am glad for this right now as things evolve over time just like IR evolves.

[Lindsay]

I agree it's very useful to have a visual reference. It's just time consuming, that's all.

There's no way we could do this during the regular season, absent someone handing me a very large stipend to work on it full time.