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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Ejection 052: Doug Eddings (1)

HP Umpire Doug Eddings ejected Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters for arguing ball calls in the bottom of the 5th inning of the Orioles-Blue Jays game. With two out and two on, Blue Jays batter Rajai Davis hit a 2-2 fastball from Orioles pitcher Miguel Gonzalez for a RBI single. Both the 0-1 (pitch #2 of the at bat) and the 1-2 (pitch #5 of the at bat) were called for balls. Replays indicate that both pitches were belly button high, however inside off the plate (pitch #2 had a px value of -1.127 and pitch #5 had a px value of -1.053, well within the ball range). There were no incorrect callable pitches in the at bat, the call was correct.* At the time of the ejection, the Blue Jays led, 8-1. The Blue Jays ultimately won the contest, 8-6.

This is Doug Eddings (88)'s first ejection of 2012.
Doug Eddings now has 4 points in the UEFL (0 Previous + 2 MLB + 2 Correct Call = 4).
Crew Chief Dana DeMuth now has 1 point in the UEFL's Crew division (0 Previous + 1 Correct Call = 1).
*This call is correct under the Kulpa Rule (UEFL Rule 6-2-b-1) because the pitches in question had px values of -1.127 and -1.053, respectively. The ball range begins with a px value of |0.935|.

This is the 52nd ejection of 2012.
This is the 19th player ejection of 2012.
This is Matt Wieters first ejection of 2012.
This is the Baltimore Orioles' 2nd ejection of 2012.
This is Doug Eddings' first ejection since April 21, 2011.
Video: After Davis singles, Wieters continually jaws at Eddings over ball calls and is ejected
Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball

26 comments:

  1. Can someone please buy Doug Eddings a new hat? I mean, come on, look at that hat hair.

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  2. Must have been some contentious conversation to get so heated, they say umpires must be held accountable but in this case the computer and instant Replays shOw that both times, the calls were correct. Too bad for the fans...

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  3. @Anonymous 10:15 p.m.: Just because Wieters got himself tossed after the Davis at bat doesn't mean he was arguing about those two pitches. I think this was something building up over the course of the game and boiled over during the Davis at bat.

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  4. Eddings was really good in this game and here is the proof

    http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_05_29_balmlb_tormlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif

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  5. SJR, you are wrong.

    Doug only called one pitch from a Baltimore pitcher a ball that should have been a strike (two borderlines were called balls). He gave Baltimore pitchers two strikes that were balls. Those were the only ones he missed one way or the other on Balitmore. His misses were all really close. So Balitmore pitchers got the benefit on two pitches, and didn't on one. Wieters could have been arguing about his balls snd strike calls in general, but this is correct all the way around.

    With that, this ejection is not eligible for a balls/strikes exemption because HP Umpire Doug Eddings had a 100% accuracy in the 5th inning prior to the Wieters ejection (and for good measure after too).

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    1. Interesting. Wieters hasn't gotten this hot in a while so I didn't think those two pitches which were obviously balls would have been the reason why he got tossed. Makes me wonder if he would have done the same thing had it been say Tim McClelland back there. By the way, I was not challenging the QOC ruling. In fact, I agree with those who say only those in the league should be able to challenge.

      I'm just curious since you crunched the numbers for the 5th inning if you could crunch the numbers for the whole game. It does look like Eddings did a great job from the strikezone plot.

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  6. All good!

    Who knows what happened, as we never really get to know the whole story. I'm guessing it was probably the blow out, and there were a lot of close pitches during the game, that didn't necessarily go there way (although they were balls...borderline though on some that Eddings got right).

    I'd say rough estimate for the whole game he was probably around 95-96%. That is just doing a quick one in my head.

    Wieters did talk for a while before his ejection (and after), so obviously something was bothering him!

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  7. It almost has to be another game that Wieters is upset about.

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  8. I would love for MLB to stop with the nonsense of Doug Eddings not working the post season. He made a bad call in the 2005 ALCS, never admitted it and has not worked a playoff game since. I feel like there has to be some correlation and that is just ridiculous. I have been following Eddings for awhile now and his strike zone is usually pretty good. It can get tight at times but every Umpire has their quirk. Even though Eddings comes across as a hothead sometimes, he really isn't like that anymore. He only had 2 ejections in 2010 and 1 last season in April. Not exactly Bob Davidson here.

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  9. My only problem with this ejection is that if you know the cameras are going to be zooming in for a close-up 'cause you just had an ejection - watch out for that hat-head!

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  10. Re: Eddings' hat-hair: I've noticed that before.

    As for the actual incident, he gave Wieters quite a lot of rope IMO.

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  11. I watched this game. Eddings was horrible. The checked swing strikeout on Andino was bogus. There was little consistency in the location of balls and strikes. There is historical record of multiple bad calls from this guy. Many of which are labeled as worst ever in baseball. Can this guy YEEEERRR OUTT!!!!!!

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    1. On a side note Wegner just ejected the White Sox starter and Ventura. Was listening to WGN and Hawk was losing his mind over the ejection calling Wegner and embarrassment to umpires and how Wegner needed to be suspended and go back to school. Real classy Hawk

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  12. @ Unknown

    Would you care to provide evidence supporting your claims?

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  13. @Anonymous May 30,2012 7:15 AM
    "Even though Eddings comes across as a hothead sometimes, he really isn't like that anymore. He only had 2 ejections in 2010 and 1 last season in April. Not exactly Bob Davidson here."

    I think Tim Hudson would probably disagree. In his first start of the year, Eddings shouted out to Hudson after Hudson after gave a disgusted look after a pitch. Hudson said nothing but Eddings felt the need to step from behind the plate and shout to Hudson, "HEY, I SAID IT WAS OUTSIDE!"

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  14. @unknown- Take a look at the pitch fx plot tmac posted and tell me where the inconsistency is. That is one of the best zones I have seen all season. He has always had a pretty tight zone and nothing changed about that yesterday. Historical record of bad calls? Give me a break. He had one of those in the 2005 ALCS and that happened to be a very difficult play to call. I also think he gave Weiter a lot of rope. If you turn around to face the umpire you will probably go.

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  15. Hawk is obviously a moron, but I thought it was horrendous judgement by Wegner. Quintana was making his second start ever and was most likely going to be wild. He is probably not trying to hit anybody.

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  16. @Unknown, did you not read this post? This was directed at SJR, but it also covers your post.
    ________________________________________________

    Jeremy Dircks said...
    SJR, you are wrong.

    Doug only called one pitch from a Baltimore pitcher a ball that should have been a strike (two borderlines were called balls). He gave Baltimore pitchers two strikes that were balls. Those were the only ones he missed one way or the other on Balitmore. His misses were all really close. So Balitmore pitchers got the benefit on two pitches, and didn't on one. Wieters could have been arguing about his balls snd strike calls in general, but this is correct all the way around.

    With that, this ejection is not eligible for a balls/strikes exemption because HP Umpire Doug Eddings had a 100% accuracy in the 5th inning prior to the Wieters ejection (and for good measure after too).
    ________________________________________________

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  17. Re unknown at 10:46 YOUR Orioles seem to be doing a lot of things right so far this season. Congrats, but don't take one loss out on a guy who had his difficulties in the past, but Doug Eddings has worked in my opinion fairily succesfully at making himself a better umpire. A good number of the 19 minor league umpires who were thrust into major league jobs in 1999 have worked hard and now are good, solid umpires. Some have not succeeded as well, but Doug Eddings is not one of them. Perhaps being perpetually attached to Dana Demuth as crew chief has helped, a very very good mentor. Posting as an unknown, with the approach you took, IMO labels you as an Oriole fan above anything else. Nothing wrong with that, but even if their team went 162 and 0, most fans would find something to take exception with an umpire about, they are after all JUST fans.

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  18. Anon 11:39 is right. You turn around and you will go. But the umpire is free to come around front to confront you and that's perfectly fine!

    Umpires don't like being shown up. They prefer to show you up instead..

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  19. anon 12:54, I actually agree with you. If Umpires don't like when a catcher turns around they should not leave their position and pretend to brush the plate off ala, Campos-Treanor, Estabrook-Kendall, Schreiber-Martin, etc. But Eddings did not show Weiter up at all. The only reason he was out of his position is Rajai Davis had just singled.

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  20. I give Eddings credit.

    His zone was pretty consistent all night long.

    He's got quite the leash, too. Took him forever to throw out Terry Collins a year ago, and he always seems to have a very calm demeanor in handling things like this. He gave Wieters an awful long time to just drop it.

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  21. eddings was impressive the whole game...weiters had been visibly complaining about the zone (turned around while crouching) an inning or two before, and eddings simply put his hands on his knees (set position) to talk to him. most people wouldn't have even noticed (except I knew an EJ was coming from this board so I was watching for it!)...stayed calm, like always.

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  22. With this ejection, now every single crew has recorded at least one ejection this season. This has got to be some sort of record for quickest amount of time all crews recorded an ejection. Last season it took Hirshbeck's crew until July 29th for their first (Barry-Carrasco) and in 2010 it took Groman's crew until July 3rd before an ejection (Nauert-Bochy).

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  23. What is wrong with an umpire going in front of the catcher to brush off the plate? Most fans will not even realize anything is going on. This situation was handled very well by Doug Eddings.

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  24. I will never forgive him for the 2005 Playoffs call. He should have been fired, especially after he denied it all.

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