Umpires News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/umpires/ Minnesota sports, but different Sat, 03 May 2025 03:45:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg Umpires News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/umpires/ 32 32 Umpire Cusses Himself Out on Hot Mic After MN Twins’ Successful Challenge https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/umpire-mad-overturned-call-red-sox-ryan-jeffers-play-at-plate/ Sat, 03 May 2025 03:44:29 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=62912 The Minnesota Twins lost again on Friday, this a 6-1 all-systems failure in Boston vs the Red Sox. It marked the Twins’ fourth-straight loss, pulling their season record down to 13-20. Last weekend, it finally looked like this lineup was starting to heat up, but it didn’t take long for those embers to flame out.

On the bright side, Byron Buxton went 2-for-4 and raised his batting average to .256 (.761). The Twins’ only run on Friday came on a Ryan Jeffers solo homer in the third inning. Alongside Buxton, Jeffers has been one of the few bright spots on offense recently, now carrying a .267 batting average and .758 OPS.

But it wasn’t just offensively that Buxton and Jeffers combined to make some lemonade out of an otherwise lemon of an evening for the Minnesota Twins on Friday. The two also hooked up on defense for an extremely close out at home plate.

The play was so close, in fact, that Red Sox base runner Jarren Duran was originally called safe on the play. When the call was reversed, the best part wasn’t the run it saved. At that point (8th inning) the game already felt like it was over.

Umpire Bill Miller upset at himself for making the wrong call furing Minnesota Twins vs Boston Red Sox

If you were dedicated enough to stick with this game until the 8th inning, what you did get was a show from home plate umpire Bill Miller, who was not happy with himself for getting the call at home plate wrong. And he left his microphone on so we could hear all about his self-reflection.

“F*CK.”

“I F*cking saw that too, goddamnit!”

Home plate umpire Bill Miller on hot mic during Twins vs Red Sox

Honestly, he sounds just like me after I make an error on Tuesday night at beer-league softball or when I give up a touchdown in Madden. In other words, Miller is no different than the rest of us. He wants to get calls right and he’s upset when he doesn’t.

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Of course, Ryan Jeffers wishes he would get more calls right too. Earlier in today’s game, Jeffers was rung up on strikes by Miller, and neither of the called strikes in the at-bat were in the zone. Jeffers was not happy, which likely made the above reversal even more satisfying for Jefferson.

]]> Fri, 02 May 2025 22:45:13 +0000 Minnesota Twins It’s Beyond Time for Robot Umpires to Call Balls and Strikes in the MLB https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/its-beyond-time-for-robot-umpires-to-call-balls-and-strikes-in-the-mlb/ Wed, 04 Oct 2023 14:38:53 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=44210 Major League Baseball took a giant step in the right direction before the 2023 season, when they outlawed the infield shift and, even moreso, when they implemented the pitch clock. But there’s one more major change that needs to be made sooner rather than later. Robot umpires behind the plate.

Well, not a physical robot placed behind the catcher, where human umps currently squat. That would be a bit ridiculous and unnecessary. MLB stadiums are already equipped with technology that tracks every single movement that takes place on the field.

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MLB needs robot umpires ASAP

Statcast, among other technologies, can tell us anything we want to know. Launch angles, exit velocity, pitch speed, pitch movement, run speed, etc etc etc. If a vandal breaks in and spray-paints, “FUCK THE POHLADS” in the outfield, the data team would know in real time how fast the paint leaves the nozzle. And we’re still allowing this to be called a strike?

Thanks to the imaginary little strike box and ball tracker that displays on TV broadcasts during Major League Baseball games — among other real-time pitch tracker technology on a variety of different websites like Baseball Savant and Major League Baseball’s own MLB.com (and MLB app) — every single person watching a big league baseball game in 2023 knows immediately whether or not a pitch should be called a ball or strike…

… EXCEPT for the umpire behind the plate. If a squirrel runs through the outfield in the middle of the 4th inning, the TV broadcast can relay the exact track it’s bushy tail took and its top speed by the end of the next commercial break. Yet, we’re still letting umpires decide professional baseball games, each of which has millions of dollars on the line.

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Baseball should do whatever it takes to get balls and strikes called accurately

When umpires were first placed behind the plate of baseball games, it was in an effort to do everything possible for the most accurate strike zone. Our baseball ancestors decided that the physical well-being of umpires was less important than getting balls and strike calls right.

But it’s 2023 and we have technology available that is 100% more accurate than putting a human life in danger just so they can negatively impact the game. Umpires should only be used to call balls and strikes when their view behind the plate is the most accurate view of the strike zone.

But in Major League Baseball games, the one person tasked with officially judging balls and strikes is the one person in the stadium or watching elsewhere who doesn’t actually know for sure what’s a ball and what’s a strike. Make that make sense.

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Too much on the line to rely on human error

These moments are too big and there’s too much on the line for these strike zones to be so inconsistent. Yesterday, Eddie Julien came to the plate for the Minnesota Twins in the bottom of the 2nd inning. The count was full, runners were on 1st and 2nd and there were 2 outs in the inning when umpire, Andy Fletcher, called this a strike.

it is beyond time for the MLB to stop relying on human being to call balls and strikes. Implement the automated ball/strike calling system that you’ve already been experimenting with in the minor leagues and let’s move on from this nonsense.

Because what’s even more absurd than the thought of Rosey from the Jetson’s calling balls and strikes behind the plate of major league baseball games? Putting humans in harm’s way to do jobs that they suck at. in the first game of a playoff series, Andy Fletcher tried to give the Blue Jays 1.46 runs. That’s crazy…

And in the postseason, these missed calls are under a microscope because every ball/strike call is a big deal. There’s just no reason to deal with human error, when there are other options. The Minnesota Twins fell victim to human umpire error in a couple of high leverage situations, on Tuesday night, in their first postseason victory in 18 years, vs the Toronto Blue Jays.

But they are far from the only victims, here. In 2023, MLB umpires missed 23,000 ball/strike calls. It was the most accurate they’ve ever been. I mean, the more you think about it, the more ridiculous behind-the-plate umpires really are.

Before we see robot umpires, we’re more likely to see a strike/ball challenge system, which minor league teams have been experimenting with for a couple of years now. It allows a batter or pitcher to challenge a ball/strike call, which triggers a quick replay in the booth, in which the call gets a second look. The process takes about 5 seconds.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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]]> Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:49:10 +0000 Minnesota Twins The Time for Robot Umpires is Right Now https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/the-time-for-robot-umpires-is-right-now/ https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-twins/the-time-for-robot-umpires-is-right-now/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2019 15:12:29 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=17607 I’ve called for the MLB to change a few things in my time here on the internet. But, there is a new top priority. This change isn’t about “saving the game of baseball” like some of my (pitch clock) recommendations from the past. No. Now that I think about it, leaving the humans to call balls and strikes probably keeps the MLB in the news and relevant more often than the nearly perfect robots would… at least once the novelty of them wore off…

Instead, this is me pleading for the MLB to change to robot umpires IMMEDIATELY before it fucks the Twins in a dire situation yet this year. Robot umpires are coming. They are coming because the human ones suck at calling balls and strikes. I’m not blaming them. They are human and human eyes CANNOT be trusted. Go read up a little bit on “witness testimony” studies and find that out yourself.

Or, just search “umpire” on Twitter:

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Yes, I am only pulling out bad calls. Yes, obviously nobody is paying attention all of the times they make correct calls. But, that’s my point. Why deal with having any bad calls, if we don’t have to? Everyone likes the “human element” until your guy is in the box with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd, in the World Series; and he gets rung up on a call like any of your choice from above… then, you aren’t going to like the “human element” so much.

I am also proposing that we DO NOT WAIT and we make the change NOW. The robots will be in place within 2 years and we should just avoid the major missed call that forces the league to make the change. That’s almost always what it takes. The latest high-profile example was the missed Pass Interference call in last years NFC Championship game. Now, we can review pass interference calls, which many thought WOULD NEVER HAPPEN before last season started.

The Twins are heading for the playoffs (hopefully) and Minnesota teams have a weird attraction to being the champion of change in professional sports rules and this major change in MLB umpiring is lining up far too well for us to be made examples of yet again…

“Oh Eric, now you’re just talking crazy…”

Am I? Let’s take a quick peek backwards in time:

A.) The Saints’ paid assault on Brett Favre, that cost the Vikings a Super Bowl appearance, changed everything that now protects the QB in today’s NFL.

B.) The Joe Mauer blind man’s “foul ball” from the 2009 ALDS forced the MLB to expand instant replay the next season.

C.) It used to be illegal in the NFL to force a Wide Receiver out of bounds before he could get his feet down to make a catch. That changed before the 2008 season BUT a major example used to force the change was in 2003 when McCown threw to Poole for a game-ending TD that cost the Vikings a trip to the playoffs that season.

D.) The Gophers’ 1997 Final Four appearance that doesn’t exist was vacated to set an example that’s been used against schools ever since even though it was happening LONG before.

These are just off the top of my head. I’m probably missing some.

Here is my point though. Everyone is watching the ball and strike calls right now. That’s when it happens. Something will happen in these upcoming 2019 playoffs that will help spark (if not fully change the rule immediately) the change in umpiring behind the plate. If 8 MLB teams make the playoffs (10 technically) and a missed call in a playoff game is going to be what forces a change in the home plate umpire… then the odds are already stacking against us.

MLB, please just change the rule now so Minnesota doesn’t have to change it for you again.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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