Sunday, August 7, 2011

Ejections: Rob Drake (8, 9)

HP Umpire Rob Drake ejected Royals left fielder Alex Gordon and Manager Ned Yost for arguing a strike three call in the bottom of the 8th inning of the Tigers-Royals game. With none out and none on, Gordon took a 3-2 fastball from Tigers pitcher Duane Below for a called third strike. Replays indicate the called third strike was hollow of the knee high and over the heart of home plate, the call was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Royals were leading, 4-3. The Royals ultimately won the contest, 4-3.

These are Rob Drake (30)'s eighth and ninth ejections of 2011.
Rob Drake now has 30 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (22 Previous + 2*[2 MLB + 2 Correct Call] = 30).
Rob Drake is owned as a Secondary Umpire by BSBALLUMP, who is now in 2nd place in the UEFL with 25 points.

These are the 147th and 148th ejections of 2011.
This is the 71st player ejection of 2011.
This is the 69th Manager ejection of 2011.
This is Gordon's first career ejection.
This is Yost's second ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Gordon was 0-3 in the contest.
This is Rob Drake's second consecutive plate game with at least one ejection.

Wrap: Tigers at Royals 8/7/11 Wrap
Video: Gordon and Yost Ejected by Drake

Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

18 comments :

jimlapbap said...

Gordon wasn't ejected for arguing the third strike, he was ejected for tossing his bat after strike three was called (which he did so because he thought it was a walk).

Strike three was the correct call, but Gordon was in the process of tossing his bat aside when he heard strike three, then changed mid toss to a flip, which is what caused the ejection. Ned Yost argued that Gordon should not have been ejected because Yost believed Gordon was not trying throwing equipment in argument.

Of couse, all of this is irrelevant for the UEFL, because it all stemmed from the strike call.

Anonymous said...

21 correct call votes with no video yet posted. I love it!!

Anonymous said...

love how you can hear Ned Yost swear in every ejection he has. He gets really angry. Like the Mike Estabrook baiting Kendall one, you can still here him screaming.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 7:30PM, that's the power of pitch f/x!

Anonymous said...

I think Yost kinda has a point here, he started to throw the bat before he was even rung up. Good call though.

Anonymous said...

How come the broadcast has the pitch relatively lower in their box than the chart here does? Undoubtedly, it was a strike and he should have swung, but why the variation between the two systems which both supposedly use computer technology?

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this helps but on the NFL Fox broadcasts, the game clock shown on the TV screen is not the actual game clock. Fox keeps it's own time, in a format that fits on the screen. The Fox clock is quite accurate, but if you've ever noticed, it will sometimes be wrong, and then quickly correct itself.

Maybe the same goes for the pitch chart, and the broadcast strike zone. They probably use the same information, but because they format it right away for T.V., human error creeps in and pitches aren't EXACTLY the same.

ump_24 said...

Wow, that's a really chincey one. I'm not so sure that warranted an ejection.

All the same, what the hell took Gary Darling so long to get in there? Two plates in a row, Drake has had ball / strike ejections where someone's tried to go up one side of him and down the other. I'm sure he would've appreciated more support.

Lindsay said...

The broadcast "Foxtrax" or "K-Zone" versus the online pitch f/x chart is one of those non-normalized/normalized strike zone issues. Also keep in mind, Foxtrax and K-Zone are shown from the pitcher's perspective, whereas pitch f/x is shown from the catcher/umpire's perspective (the images are thereby mirrored).

Specifically, it comes down to the broadcast's version of the software versus what you see online. This is most clearly seen with ESPN's K-Zone or other versions that overlay the "strike zone" graphic directly on top of home plate in real time, such that the pitch is graphically tracked during the delivery by the software. The bounds of the broadcast's real-time zone are static, they don't move, while pitch f/x as seen online in a normalized zone stretches or shrinks the vertical constraints of the strike zone depending on the batter's actions and key point positioning (hollow of the knees & the upper midpoint).

The "pz" (vertical) value of the strike three pitch here was 1.517. The pitch f/x zone online is always drawn with a lower bound of 1.500 and upper bound of 3.500 (leaving a 2 foot zone). The pitch f/x normalization then expands or compresses the vertical measured zone so that the bottom measure is always 1.500 and the upper bound is always 3.500. I do not believe the television's software performs this calculation on every pitch, so what you are seeing is the real location of the pitch, with no regard for the batter's actual stance. What you see on a pitch f/x normalized graph is a modified location of the pitch, based on the batter's actual stance.

Last, pitch f/x is two dimensional. The strike zone (and home plate) is not. Pitch f/x outputs the location of the ball as it passes through the front edge of home plate. Given that most batters position themselves towards the back half of home plate, pitches at or around the bottom boundary of the strike zone tend to look controversial. For instance, this pitch crosses the front of home plate at the hollow of the batter's right knee. By the time the pitch reaches the depth of where the batter would ordinarily connect with the baseball (his "wheelhouse", 66% point, etc.), the pitch has dropped ever so slightly, such that it appears low. The strike call is correct by rule for the ball has crossed home plate at the hollow of the knee, yet the ball's perceived location (by the batter and casual viewer) is lower than its actual location as it crossed the front edge of home plate, due to the batter setting up deeper in the batter's box. This same logic would apply to the low pitch, called a ball, in the event that a batter sets up at the front (shallow) edge of the batter's box, closest to the pitcher, the pitch passes the batter's front leg at the hollow of the knee, but in dropping, crosses home plate below that lower boundary.

Anonymous said...

Either way, you don't flip a bat over your head like that. First and foremost, it's a safety issue.

Anonymous said...

Darling is a joke of a CC. ZERO support to Drake. Even if there is decension amongst the crew, Gary needs to be a leader....and professional.

Anonymous said...

Catcher didn't think it was a strike. Look at the body language....he was about to return the ball to the pitcher when the strike was called....

Jon Terry said...

Did that commentator really claim that Drake's strike call was late? That's silly. It's a dead strike, the call was fine, and Drake took plenty before he tossed Yost. The commentators trying to imply a problem with Drake over the Molina ejection was cheap.

Anyone see Yost wipe his mouth halfway through the argument? ;-)

jrd said...

I do not understand why Gary Darling is a crew chief. Time and time again on this forum we ask ourselves where is Gary Darling?

And let us remember that Bill Hohn may have been saved from a number of ejections if Gary had stepped in earlier and broke up the argument instead of Hohn having to hear it from a whole dugout.

Also, do you remember last year when Emmel ejected Girardi and DRECKMAN had to come down and break it up? Why did Dreckman have to do Darling's job? That created a whole slew of problems because Dreckman and Girardi have a history.

Gary Darling is causing problems for his crewmates by not getting in there. If he doesnt want the job, let O'Nora or Wally Bell take over his spot. Period

tmac said...

Maybe someone can fill me in... Is there a problem between Gary and Rob? I"m not sure how you can tell that.

Every Crew Chief handles things differently. Maybe Rob likes to be one on one until an ejection. Maybe Gary thought Rob needed to wear that one a little because it was a quick hook.

Here's something you may not know. IN MILB and MLB there are equipment fines. That's what bothered Yost so much in a lot of those spots an equipment fine is given instead of an EJ.

Sometimes if you say eqipment violation the player will pop off and it will result in an EJ. But i tend to think that an equipment fine would have sufficed there.

Anonymous said...

What CC would wait that long ? Thats his way of doing things ? I went back and looked at a couple of ejections but Darlings crew mates. Emmel with Eric Wedge to name one. wedge and Paul go on and on and on. Darling nowhere near. Since Emmel joined his crew, Hohn on his crew, now Drake on the crew...all have had issues. Maybe Gary is the common denomenator.If its Darlings "way", maybe he needs to re-think his approach....or hand the job to someone else.

Anonymous said...

Rob may like to handle it until the ejection....but he had two on the play....and Ned is allowed to go on and on and on...Rob turns away a couple of times and no one is there to take Yost away. Why do people make excuses for incompetence ? Do your job...work as a "crew". If anything because of the Molina incident...which was extremely unprofessional by Molina, maybe Gary should have been in that much sooner. Doesn't matter how strong we may look as umpires....inside it feels very uncomfortable when bad confrontations happen...unless you are Bob Davidson who looks like its always everyone elses' fault....and shows his patented idiodic smirk.

Anonymous said...

Darling doesn't even look like an umpire. Wears his hat way 2 high, and wears the uniform like he should be showing off either chest hair or a Mr. T starter kit. Put an undershirt on !!

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