JonnyCat Posted February 23 Report Posted February 23 That's awesome for Brian Walsh. I went to pro school with him in 2015. Great guy, was by far in the top 3 of the class, maybe even #1. He was friends with one of the guys in my crew, Ben Phillips. I believe Ben is still in AAA, but I can't confirm that. Quote
dumbdumb Posted February 23 Report Posted February 23 4 hours ago, JonnyCat said: That's awesome for Brian Walsh. I went to pro school with him in 2015. Great guy, was by far in the top 3 of the class, maybe even #1. He was friends with one of the guys in my crew, Ben Phillips. I believe Ben is still in AAA, but I can't confirm that. all right JC, since you asked a question, you made me dig deep for this one. Your buddy Ben Phillips moved up to AAA in 2022. so he just completed his 4th year at that level. i went back to 2022 for AFL assignments in October/November for each of the last 4 years and i did not see his name. i believe you only have 3 to 4 years at the AAA level (no, i am not on the inside, just observe through league stats for those working) to get an AFL assignment and then move to a MLB Spring Training invitation and then on to call up status. i do not know what happens if you get injured a couple times at a level, do they let you kind of make up games until you have a full season for them to scout (x amount of times per year or you get to come back) you, or what before they might release you. there could be variables, whatever they are. so, since last year was his 4th full complete year (he was there early in 2022) time may have run out. i did catch him working a D1 level this past weekend just like Riggs and Arrieta did, but i am not sure whether that means you have been released in this more recent time period. as i have mentioned, in past times, early D1 games did not necessarily mean a release, but now days i do not know. he was definitely in AAA in 2025 even in August so he did not leave or something at the 1/2 way point, and is on the Stevetheump list for 2025. 2026 rosters not out yet. Quote
JonnyCat Posted February 23 Report Posted February 23 1 hour ago, dumbdumb said: he was definitely in AAA in 2025 even in August so he did not leave or something at the 1/2 way point, and is on the Stevetheump list for 2025. 2026 rosters not out yet. Thanks for the info. I did see him working games at AAA last year via box scores I looked at. Never saw him on the AFL list, either. It could be the end of the road for him.☹️ Quote
dumbdumb Posted March 2 Report Posted March 2 On 12/26/2025 at 8:24 PM, MLB umpire observer said: My understanding is Riggs and David Arrieta have been released. Any one else heard about any changes? just saw Arrieta in box score for Cubs, White Sox game yesterday. is there another Arrieta in MiLB or is that a misprint. that would.go against the above understanding Quote
dumbdumb Posted March 2 Report Posted March 2 8 hours ago, GerryB said: Someone inherit his number? well i did want to know what super sonic flight he took from florida atlantic university to make it to arizona to start the game. 1 Quote
Marcus6 Posted March 3 Report Posted March 3 Randy Rosenberg was spotted in an ACC box score this weekend Quote
dumbdumb Posted March 8 Report Posted March 8 On 3/2/2026 at 10:07 AM, GerryB said: Someone inherit his number? aah, yes he is working the Baseball Classic though. looks like in houston Quote
dumbdumb Posted March 8 Report Posted March 8 37 minutes ago, tpatience said: Arrieta was released after the 2025 season correct, but he was accidentally written into an early spring training box score since someone else now has his number and the scorer was looking at an old roster. but, apparently he was chosen to work in the World Baseball Classic in Houston today for the Great Britain - Italy game as the Home Plate Umpire. But yes he was released after the 2025 season and has been working some D1 games too. Quote
dumbdumb Posted Saturday at 04:00 PM Report Posted Saturday at 04:00 PM 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. 1 Quote
Marcus6 Posted yesterday at 04:01 AM Report Posted yesterday at 04:01 AM 12 hours ago, dumbdumb said: 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. I predict Krupa, Wilson, and Traynor they are high on and leapfrog some with more games. Don’t think Krupa and Wilson get hired this offseason but I think Traynor does. Quote
dumbdumb Posted 22 hours ago Report Posted 22 hours ago 11 hours ago, Marcus6 said: I predict Krupa, Wilson, and Traynor they are high on and leapfrog some with more games. Don’t think Krupa and Wilson get hired this offseason but I think Traynor does. 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. 1 Quote
Marcus6 Posted 20 hours ago Report Posted 20 hours ago Interesting fact as a follow up. I remember this quite well as Guccione and Drake were up at the MLB level almost every day for years before being hired. Part of it was no openings and the agreement that gave Hallion, Hickox, and Davidson their jobs back. Guccione worked over 1,200 games as a call up and I believe when he was hired he only got 3 years of service time or something like that. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/chris-guccione/ Quote
BigBlue4u Posted 18 hours ago Report Posted 18 hours ago 1 hour ago, Marcus6 said: Guccione worked over 1,200 games as a call up and I believe when he was hired he only got 3 years of service time or something like that. To the credit of MLB, umpires are now getting the benefit of working call-up games before becoming a full-time MLU. I'm sure many of you remember the days when a newly hired MLU would go straight from AAA to the ML. Quote
MadMax Posted 14 hours ago Report Posted 14 hours ago On 12/29/2025 at 2:00 PM, The Ripper said: Mark Carlson has retired, fill in slot has not been named yet Whoever inherits #6 better be a good one, goldammit. Quote
dumbdumb Posted 11 hours ago Report Posted 11 hours ago 16 hours ago, Marcus6 said: Interesting fact as a follow up. I remember this quite well as Guccione and Drake were up at the MLB level almost every day for years before being hired. Part of it was no openings and the agreement that gave Hallion, Hickox, and Davidson their jobs back. Guccione worked over 1,200 games as a call up and I believe when he was hired he only got 3 years of service time or something like that. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/chris-guccione/ 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. Quote
dumbdumb Posted 11 hours ago Report Posted 11 hours ago 6 hours ago, BigBlue4u said: To the credit of MLB, umpires are now getting the benefit of working call-up games before becoming a full-time MLU. I'm sure many of you remember the days when a newly hired MLU would go straight from AAA to the ML. 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. 1 Quote
Marcus6 Posted 10 hours ago Report Posted 10 hours ago 1 hour ago, dumbdumb said: 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 31 year veteran and Drake a 30 year and Hoye a 25, using each 100 call up game increments as a season. 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. This is the group I remember from the mid 2000s. Adrian Johnson was up for a while but not as long as those guys. He developed (it seemed) a reputation but don’t forget Angel Campos worked for a long time and then got released. Seemed to correspond to a change in the supervisors when Richie Garcia was let go - had always heard Garcia liked the confrontational cowboy type approach. Quote
dumbdumb Posted 3 hours ago Report Posted 3 hours ago 7 hours ago, Marcus6 said: This is the group I remember from the mid 2000s. Adrian Johnson was up for a while but not as long as those guys. He developed (it seemed) a reputation but don’t forget Angel Campos worked for a long time and then got released. Seemed to correspond to a change in the supervisors when Richie Garcia was let go - had always heard Garcia liked the confrontational cowboy type approach. 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. Quote
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