Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ejection 165: Bill Miller (3)

HP Umpire Bill Miller ejected Astros pitcher Lucas Harrell for arguing a ball call in the top of the 6th inning of the Phillies-Astros game. With two out and two on, Phillies batter Juan Pierre took a 3-2 fastball from Harrell for a called fourth ball. Replays indicate the pitch was located thigh high and off the inner edge of home plate while the ball three pitch was located belt high and in borderline territory (px = .882), the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Phillies were leading, 4-3. The Astros ultimately won the contest, 6-4.

This is Bill Miller (14)'s third ejection of 2012.
Bill Miller now has 0 points in the UEFL (-4 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 0).
Crew Chief Dale Scott now has 9 points in the UEFL's Crew Division (8 Previous + 1 Correct Call = 9).

UEFL Standings Update

This is the 165th ejection of 2012.
This is the 72nd player ejection of 2012.
This is the Astros' 6th ejection of 2012, T-2nd in the NL Central (CHC 8; HOU, MIL 6; PIT 5; STL 4; CIN 3).
This is Lucas Harrell's first career MLB ejection.
This is Bill Miller's first ejection since May 15 (Brett Lawrie, John Farrell; QOC = Incorrect).

Wrap: Philadelphia Phillies at Houston Astros, 9/13/12
Video: Harrell ejected while exiting the field during a pitching change

12 comments :

Cricket said...

http://houston.astros.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24745477&c_id=mlb

Pitch looked inside; based on catcher's quick throw back, it appears he knew it was.

How was Miller's performance prior to this?

tmac said...

cricket here is miller's plot... very very good!!

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_09_13_phimlb_houmlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif

Russ said...

That zone looks a little worse than it actually is especially on the left side, but remember that Bill miller has always called a big strike zone. He was extremely consistent in calling the outside pitches strikes as he always is. Ted Barrett s the same way with his strike zone. When Gil or Jeremy do their numbers, those two will usually come away with sub 90 or 91% performances but in reality it is like 95% because they consistently call those pitches strikes and that is all you can ask for is consistency.

Bill miller has also quietly become one of the best Umpires in the league. No one ever talked about him and than he had the incident with Brett Lawrie (which IMO was no fault of his own at all) and people started lumping him in with the CB Bucknors of the world for about 2 weeks. That was incredibly unfair to someone who goes most of the time completely unnoticed. There is a reason he has made the Playoffs 4 years in a row and I am willing to bet we will see him this October as well. I would say he is by far the best Umpire on this crew and I don't even think it is very close. Dale Scott's a good Umpire, but I don't think he is a great Crew Chief. He always supports his guys during arguments but he doesn't seem like a good leader because he is not someone who talks a lot and takes charge. He is still a Playoff regular and I don't expect it to change this year. Dan Iassogna has been a rising star, but he has been pretty bad this season. Extremely incosistent strikezone, inaccurate at times on the bases. but I do love his enthusiasm and he clearly loves his job. And CB Bucknor is ,well, CB Bucknor. I don't have as much of a problem with him and he is not as bad as people say, but he is still not a great Umpire. Better than anyone on this site by a mile, but compared to other MLB Umpires, just not that great.

Lindsay said...

(tmac's linked plot above)
[im]http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_09_13_phimlb_houmlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif[/im]

Anonymous said...

The kid throws two perfect pitches and can't get either one called for a strike. He gets pulled from the game when he easily could have been out of the innning. Lucas did not understand that Pedro Martinez showed that the proper way to handle this and NOT get tossed is to wag your finger at the PU, use your hands to emphatically mark the boders of the strine zone andoffer the ball inside your glove to the PU so he can come to the mound and demonstrate how strikes are to be thrown. A single arm flail in frustration as you are headed to the showers is way beyond the limits of what can be tolerated on a baseball diamond.

ANON = LMS1953

Anonymous said...

I'm not good at reading lips but did he use a homophobic slur?

Anonymous said...

I think he said "Call some strikes. You're f"n horrible" Good Bye, and dont forget to pay the lady!"

SJR said...

Good analysis. I would be interested to see how you would rank all 68 MLB umpires minus the ones that have hardly worked this year.

Anonymous said...

yeah- about the pedro comment-the sox telecast showed a video of that a few days ago- he walked someone and then gestured to Dana DeMuth, "hey you come and pitch."!!

Bucknor has improved over the years, and I would be disappointed if he yet again was voted the worst umpire- I think that honor has to go to Angel Campos if they allow Triple-AAA fill ins, to be voted for. Miller has improved as well, it seems to me that his strike zone has not been as big as it once was since the Lawrie/Farrell ejection in May.

Anonymous said...

Yup, that is exactly where I got that. At first Pedro wagged his finger at DeMuth and then used his hand to mark high, low, inside and outside. It was as if he said, "Nope, there is high, low, inside and outside - you can't give the batter everything, you have to give me something: Here's the glove and ball - you come out here and show me how to do it". DeMuth said, "That's enough Pedro". But "enough" had occurred at the first gesture to demarcate the strike zone. DeMuth ended up looking like a scolded pup who had just pee'd the rug. It all had to do with Pedro being the best pitcher in baseball at the time and DeMuth being intimidated by the power of SixNatiin.

My "perfect pitch" comment above -- a "perfect pitch" is one that cannot be hit well. If contact.is even made. It will be hit weakly, most likely for an out. If taken, and if released from a hand attached to a body wearing a hat with the proper emblem, it has a good chance if being called a strike. Check out Cain's perfect game vs the Astros. Thirty percent of the called strikes he got were out of the strike zone:. Harrell threw two consecutive perfect pitches. Even the OP here said ball three was equivocal. Ball four was almost as good. He was understandably frustrated and he got pulled from the game. Miller could have just pointed at him with a stern look and told him, "That's enough", but rookies have to be humiliated and put in their place, especially if they play for the Astros.

ANON = LMS1953

Anonymous said...

Awesome post - do you really have to throw him out after he has been pulled? Would love to see the plot for the whole game and see if those had been strikes at any other point during the game....

Anonymous said...

I agree, as long as it's close.....just call it a strike. DeMuth, as a crew chief, did a great job keeping Pedro in the game. It's not about ego with DeMuth, he doesn't care if he is completely shown up on the field. The game would be much better if umpires would just bow down to the players or managers that argue. Call anything close, until the batter complains, then ball a few until the pitcher complains. All you need to remember is who complains last.

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