Pitch Counts On Umps

[NetShrine]

Umps and pitch counts? Maybe, if you did it by PITCHER - say, Ump A on Glavine v. Ump B on Glavine. But, just as a raw number? Stupid baseball.

Wednesday, July 18
Baseball strikes out with pitch counts
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Baseball umpires dropped their grievance Wednesday when the commissioner's office said it wouldn't use pitch counts to evaluate an umpire's performance.

"As far as we're concerned the matter is now closed and umpires can get back out of the press, where they prefer to be," umpires' union lawyer Larry Gibson said.

The grievance was filed last Saturday, with the umpires saying the commissioner's office violated their new labor contract by keeping track of the average number of pitches in games worked behind the plate by each umpire and ranking each umpire in that category.

The grievance demanded that baseball "abandon pitch counts as a measure of umpire performance."

A letter from Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, to the union said the commissioner's office would do just that. The umpires followed by dropping their grievance.

"It was settled with us getting exactly 100 percent of what we requested," Gibson said.

Umpires were happy with the development.

"I think I can speak for a lot of umpires and say I'm relieved," umpire Tim Tschida said from Los Angeles. "I don't know if pitch count is really a very accurate tool for an umpire to gauge his performance."

Baseball had said high pitch counts can be an indication umpires aren't applying the strike zone as defined in the rule book, but they are not a determining factor.

"I would characterize this as a misinterpretation on their part, which led to the filing of the grievance in absence of private dialogue," said Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office.

"I think it is important that it is behind us and we go forward," he said.

Baseball and its umpires have been at odds for more than two decades. This confrontation only increased the animosity between the two sides.

But Alderson said he doesn't expect this dispute to linger.

"This incident is over as far as I'm concerned," Alderson said. "I am not interested in prolonging or furthering it with any analysis."

Since spring training, Alderson and commissioner Bud Selig have pushed for umpires to enforce the strike zone as the rule book defines it, which results in more high strikes.

The rule-book definition of the strike zone hadn't been enforced in years, with umpires pulling the strike zone lower and making it wider through the 1980s and 1990s. Baseball wanted that changed, and emphasized that to umpires during the offseason.

This year, with more high strikes being called, many offensive statistics have decreased 5-10 percent.

"Major league umpires will continue to call balls and strikes with professionalism and absolute neutrality to each pitch," Gibson wrote in a letter to baseball officials notifying them that the grievance was dropped.

[NetShrine]

More:

Thursday, July 26
Report: E-mails illustrate pressure to umpires

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services


Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president of baseball operations, last week characterized a grievance brought by major-league umpires over pitch counts as "a misinterpretation."

But copies of e-mails sent by Alderson to three major-league umpires were obtained and published by The New York Times. The e-mails show how umpires could have inferred a different message from Major League Baseball.

The Times reported that the copies were provided to the newspaper by a baseball official.

In one e-mail message, Alderson wrote to Jim Joyce, a 14-year umpiring veteran: "Why so many pitches in this game? And why did it take so long? Hunt for strikes HIGH, LOW and IN."

Writing to Angel Hernandez, who is in his ninth season as a major-league umpire, Alderson said: "Just saw today that your game in Cincinnati was 300 pitches. You must have done a good job moving the game along, but you must get your pitch count down per game. In May and June you averaged 310 pitches per 9-inning game, which was the highest of all MLB umpires.

"The MLB average per 9-inning game is 283 and our average should be around 270- 275. In order to bring your pitch count down you must call more strikes HIGH, LOW and IN. Be aggressive, particularly, in your case, down. You'll be happy with the results!"

Alderson wrote to Fieldin Culbreth, a fifth-year umpire: "I continue to be concerned about your strike zone. During the months of May and June in 9-inning games you averaged 307 pitches per game, which is 20 pitches over the staff average, second highest among all umpires, and about 30 pitches per game higher than our MLB average should be."

Noting that Culbreth had more than 300 pitches in that day's Kansas City-Detroit game, Alderson wrote: "You simply are not calling enough strikes from game to game. There must be more pitches up, down and in that can be called strikes. Look for them and call them! Your plate job on Sunday will be televised by ESPN using their new `Kzone' tracking system. If you continue to call balls and strikes as you have, ESPN will be very critical of your performance and it will reflect poorly on the entire staff."

Alderson referred to the interleague game between the Mets and the Yankees, the last one before the All-Star break. Each team used four pitchers in a 4-1 game that lasted 2 hours and 58 minutes, but they threw a relatively low total of 265 pitches.

Alderson, one of several officials who communicated with umpires on the subject of calling strikes, sent e-mail to Joyce and others from his home in San Francisco on July 4. Ten days later. the umpires union filed a grievance against Major League Baseball, saying it was violating the labor contract by evaluating umpires on the number of pitches thrown in games.

The umpires dropped their grievance last week when the commissioner's office said it wouldn't use pitch counts to evaluate an umpire's performance.

Joyce told The Times in reference to the e-mails: "Originally I was surprised. I really didn't know what to think at that time.

"I was a little bit upset at the time, but part of me said I know what's going on," Joyce said. "Maybe they're just trying to light a fire, give us a heads up. They want us to call more high strikes, low strikes and inside strikes.

"My second thought was I thought I did that anyway. After that I thought, I'm not really responsible for pitch counts. It's the pitcher's count, not my count. They call it a pitch count for a reason. They don't call it an ump's count."

"I would characterize this as a misinterpretation on their part, which led to the filing of the grievance in absence of private dialogue," Alderson said last week after the grievance was dropped.

"I think it is important that it is behind us and we go forward," he said.

Since spring training, Alderson and commissioner Bud Selig have pushed for umpires to enforce the strike zone as the rule book defines it, which results in more high strikes.

[nyy26wc]

Baseball Prospectus had a good article about the effects of reducing pitch counts. It's at http://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/20010719aim.html

[NetShrine]

Thanks for the lead on that one Lee.

This still bothers me - - aiming to lower pitch counts via the umps is like having a quota on speeding tickets. Want shorter games? Take out the extra 30 minutes of commericals that baseball added a few years ago. Big difference between a 2.5 and 3.0 hour game.

The always say "in the old days, games were quicker" - yeah, there were no commericals!

[nyy26wc]

Just to make the commissioner's office look stupid, I would love to see something like this happen--

Bases loaded, bottom of the 9th, 1 run game, 3-2 count on the batter, pitch is in the dirt, ball 4. Ball game tied.

No, it's strike 3. Game over. Visitors win.

Huh? What's happened.

We have the home plate umpire here for a postgame interview.

Q--So, when is your next eye doctor appointment?

A--I don't know what you mean. I had perfect vision on that last pitch. I saw the ball leave the pitcher's hand. I saw it land in the dirt.

So, I threw out my right arm and screamed strike 3 at the top of my lungs.

Q--Why?

A--To tell you the truth, ending the game there would have put me 1 pitch below the maximum we are supposed to have in a game.

If I called it ball 4 and extended the game, then the best thing that could have happened was the next guy gets a game winning hit, so I come in exactly at the mandated number. I just couldn't take that chance.

Look, I have to think of my job here. The last time I had the plate, I had a Hideo Nomo-C.C. Sabathia matchup. They walk a lot of guys. Lots of pitches. I was way over the limit on that game.

Do you know what an extra inning game would have done to my job security.

Look, reporter, if it absolutely meant the difference between getting a paycheck and an unemployment check, you would "forget" to put all of the words in some sentences, to come in below a quota. So, don't you get on my back for "forgetting" to call some pitches balls.

[NetShrine]

Don't laugh - this is what happens when you have quotas...............it could happen!

[Duque]

This is worse than that whole "we're only going to give relievers 10 warmup pitches" - or whatever that was.

God forbid they cut down on commercial times to shorten games. But affecting the players on the field - no big deal.

[NetShrine]

I'm jumping on the bandwagon that there are too many "conferences" on the mound with the pitcher and catcher. I was at the Yankees Old Timer's Game recently - and, I swear, the Blue Jays catcher went to the mound a thousand times - - even in the most obscure situations - like 0-2 count, 2 outs, runner on 1st. As much as I think Tim McCarver has lost it (for one, he can't manage to stop calling Shannon Stewart "Sammy Stewart") I agree with him - catchers have fingers to flash signs, use 'em and stop going to the mound to BS.

Perhaps they should treat catchers like coaches/MGRs - two trips and the pitcher has to come out. Less trips to the mound could cut 10-15 minutes off a game.

[satchel]

Shortening games is a misguided attempt by MLB to solve a problem where none exists. The average game is already under three hours in length. Some parks start night games earlier than they used to so that they are usually over by 10. Attendance in most markets is at record levels. TV revenues are at record levels.

And that last point, there's the rub. The only way that media companies can make a profit when they pay enormous fees to MLB and teams for the right to cover the games is to sell advertising, and lots of it. If there is a real need to shorten the games, do it by cutting 1-2 commercials per break. That could save as much as 15-20 minutes. But, of course, you'd have to cut the licensing take.

No wonder MLB looks elsewhere for a "solution."

[NetShrine]

They may have to just face the fact that the game has changed - with the LaRussa parade of pitching changes v. the way they played the game in the old days - now, perhaps a normal game time will just be 3 hours - - and we should think of the 2 hour game in the same way we do leaving gloves on the field - - it's just the way it used to be.