Home Plate Umpires

[Ironman92]

Is it just me or have they been terribly inconsistent the past couple of months? They have been bad both ways but it's like they have been given an ultimatum to make the strike zone bigger....but with no clue where or how to expand.

To me they are starting to resemble the atrocious home plate umps doing the LL WS or fast pitch softball.

[Gunner44]

I agree. I think this years umpiring as whole has been the worst I have ever seen

[Ironman92]

There are always missed call and poor series....but it seems to be a constant behind the plate for a while.

[50YrRedsFan]

There are always missed call and poor series....but it seems to be a constant behind the plate for a while.

I grant you that. Balls and strikes calls this year have been very inconsistent.
Even the base umps seem to have missed many calls.
But remember the time when there wasn't a camera every in every aisle of the stadium. Maybe there was a lot of bad calls then, but we just didn't see them. Maybe the pitchers have so much movement on the ball these days, that the umpire is just as fooled as the hitter? Maybe the umps
are too out of shape and can't move to see the pitch or play correctly?

Just my 2 cents worth.

[Ironman92]

I grant you that. Balls and strikes calls this year have been very inconsistent.
Even the base umps seem to have missed many calls.
But remember the time when there wasn't a camera every in every aisle of the stadium. Maybe there was a lot of bad calls then, but we just didn't see them. Maybe the pitchers have so much movement on the ball these days, that the umpire is just as fooled as the hitter? Maybe the umps
are too out of shape and can't move to see the pitch or play correctly?

Just my 2 cents worth.

I'm really just speaking of the old fashion ball and strike calls.

[UPRedsFan]

Was it today or yesterday maybe, there was a Drew Stubbs called 3rd strike. Brantley said it was too close to take with 2 strikes. I disagree. In the big leagues you should be able to take that pitch and have it called what it is, a ball. It was a curve ball off the plate and below the knee. There was another call I think on Valdez that must have been 3 inches below his knee. Just terrible calls. Those are calls I'd expect to see in my son's 13 yr old Babe Ruth games. It seems far, far worse than I ever remember over the last 30 yrs. Wonder what the reason is for the lower quality umps?

[jhiller21]

I've seen a ton of inside pitches on lefty batters that were obvious strikes called inside. It seems the comeback fastball isn't convincing a lot of umps anymore.