Tuesday, October 2, 2012

2012 Postseason Umpire Assignment Speculation

As the 2012 MLB postseason approaches, umpires prepare for a lengthy offseason—or for a postseason assignment and the bonuses that come with it: $15,000 for the Division Series, tie-breakers and Wild Card playoffs, $17,500 for the the League Championship Series and $21,500 for the World Series, according to Bill Madden (then again, Madden wrote the provocative phrase "Three of the consistently lowest rated umpires were quietly let go by MLB").

Still, and with Wild Card, Division Series and League Championship Series assignments already made and distributed amongst the MLB umpiring ranks, some have started to speculate, just days in advance of the league's customary press release. Says Russ:
I am very interested how the Playoff Umpire crews will work with 10 teams now instead of 8.Will they use LCS crews for the play in game? will they have the same LDS crew that will do the 1 vs 4 series? Will they have even more Umpires in the Playoffs? I doubt the last suggestion is true but it will be interesting to see for sure. I also suspect we will see the CC work Game 3 behind the Plate in the LDS again. The higher seed now hosts games 3-5 and are on the road games 1-2. Like Bart Scott says, Can't Wait!!!
Russ has also found the crews working MLB's high profile pennant chase games during this final series: Last year, crew chiefs primarily handled "big games," with John Hirschbeck, Joe West, Dale Scott and Kerwin Danley working the plate for the final day's big games (including Red Sox-Orioles [Hirschbeck] and Yankees-Rays [West]).

This season, the Sox-Yankees series will feature CB Bucknor behind the plate, Ted Barrett will take Orioles-Rays, Gary Cederstrom has Rangers-A's after tweaking the rotation to give the crew chief the plate, Alfonso Marquez will have the Reds-Cardinals and Greg Gibson will take Phillies-Nationals. The Reds and Nats are still competing for the NL's #1 seed, while the Cardinals could clinch the Wild Card Tuesday or Wednesday. Accordingly, the Dodgers-Giants finale, a possibly meaningful game, has Larry Vanover. The Dodgers could also be eliminated Tuesday, a Paul Emmel game. Chad Fairchild goes Tuesday in St. Louis.

It is an intriguing argument [or coincidence] as West, Scott and Danley each worked the 2011 postseason. The question then becomes, will LCS work the Wild Card play-in, similar to past tie-breaker contests?

In 2009, umpires Randy Marsh, Scott, Jerry Layne, Gary Cederstrom, Fieldin Culbreth and Bruce Dreckman worked the Tigers-Twins tiebreaker. Each went on to work a 2009 LCS. The exact same pattern of assignment occurred in 2008 (MIN-CWS), though in 2007, Tim Tschida, Culbreth and Jim Wolf worked both the SD-COL Wild Card tiebreaker and a subsequent Division Series.

Present agreement and stipulation with the umpires' union states that umpires shall not work back-to-back Special Event series; because the Wild Card play-in game is officially part of the postseason, it qualifies as a Special Event, though it is unclear whether it will be treated like the All-Star Game, which is specifically exempted from the above selection restriction.

12 comments :

Anonymous said...

All umpires under contract with MLB get the post season bonus. Working a series does not matter. Triple a call ups do not get the post season bonus.

BAPACop said...

Jeff Nelson ejected Atlanta 1B Freddie Freeman for arguing a check-swing call for strike three from the dugout. Gave him a pretty big leash beforehand too. And even the Pirates announcers tried to use the "he's in the dugout so he should get away with anything" excuse.

Russ said...

I am surprised nobody has guessed anything yet. Here are my guesses. I have no idea how it will work with the new wild card games. My guess straight out of left field is it will be the two LCS crews and the regular season crew chief,but not the CC on that crew will work the . For example, last year it would have been Hallion and Winters working these games.

LDS #1: Davis,Hudson,Reynolds,Randazzo,Hernandez,Schreiber
LDS #2: Demuth,Drake,Timmons,Culbreth,Gorman,Barry
LDS #3: Scott,Fairchild,Wolf,Bell,Layne,Johnson
LDS #4: Hallion,Hickox,Wegner,Cooper,Winters,Barksdale

ALCS: West,Guccione,Miller,Marquez,Barrett,Kellogg
NLCS: Cederstrom,Carlson,Gibson,Kulpa,Nelson,Joyce

WS: Demuth,Wegner,Cooper,Culbreth,Hernandez,Hallion

Russ said...

I forgot Mike Everiit and Brian O'Nora, I am pretty sure they will be working the Playoffs. I'll put Everitt on LDS crew # 1 in the four spot, I'll move Randazzo to the 3 spot and switch Reynolds to the 2 spot on crew #3.I'll put O'Nora on LDS crew #2 in the spot and move Timmons to the 2 spot. Rob Drake moves to the 6 spot on crew #3 Sorry Chad Fairchild and Adrian Johnson, but I am replacing you.

Mark said...

My shot in the dark guess at the crews, I am unaware of any criteria in terms of who can work with who so bare with me if im way off

LDS1 Cederstrom Hernandez DeMuth Kulpa Randazzo Dreckman
LDS2 Hallion Tschida Johnson Reynolds Barrett Guccionie
LDS3 McClelland Bellino Wegner Iassonga Gibson Wolf
LDS4 West Joyce Danley Cooper Marquez Barry

ALCS Davis O'Nora Runge Bell Winters Drake
NLCS Layne Fairchild Culbreth Everitt DiMuro Carlson

WS Hallion Wegner Bellino Joyce Danley Reynolds

Bryan said...

^ Your way off. And dreckman is injured

Anonymous said...

Why come on here and say you are way off if you know who is working. Just let us know who they are.

Anonymous said...

DiMuro is not in the picture, neither is Danley, or Dreckman. What about wild card game umpires? Are they going with a six man crew? or four?

Anonymous said...

ALDS *Hallion Eddings Hernandez Timmons Bell Barksdale
ALDS *DeMuth Fairchild Everitt Wegner Joyce Johnson

NLDS *McClelland Hickox Holbrook Wolf Winters Barry
NLDS *Davis Randazzo Culbreth Guccione Darling Fletcher

ALCS *Layne Marquez Nauert Cederstrom Reynolds Kellogg
NLCS *West Barrett Gibson Gorman Carlson Scott

WS *McClelland Wolf Bell Randazzo Hernandez Joyce

Anonymous said...

Forgot Kulpa, replace Reynolds with Kulpa in ALCS

Anonymous said...

Since they brought up all the umpires in 1999 there is only 1 umpire that has not worked a post season series of any kind and the is Andy Fletcher #49 Why is that? he has only worked 1 All Star Game.

Anonymous said...

There are a some others who have so few events that it is not worth mentioning that they have more than someone else.

Post a Comment