2020 Final Standings & UEFL's Perfect Crew

UEFL Awards Season concludes with the 2020 Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's final standings and announcement of this year's perfect crew. The highest score in 2020 was 104 and the lowest score possible was -16, a points spread of 120 (compare to 2019's Perfect Score of 136 and lowest score of -23 [bear in mind that 2020 produced a COVID-shortened 60-game regular season vs 2019's standard 162-game schedule]).
Related Post: 2019 UEFL Final Standings and the Perfect Crew (11/12/19).

2020 Perfect Crew (Highest Score): 104 points.
Crew Chief (Crew Division): Angel Hernandez (21 pts).
Primary Umpires: Mark Ripperger (27 pts) & Dan Bellino (22 pts).
Secondary Umpires: Angel Hernandez (18 pts) & Jim Reynolds (16 pts).

Primary Umpire Points Leaders:
1) Mark Ripperger (27 pts)

2) Dan Bellino (22 pts)

3) Angel Hernandez (21 pts)

4) Vic Carapazza (18 pts)

5) Jim Reynolds (17 pts)

T-6) Ted Barrett, Jeremie Rehak, Quinn Wolcott (15 pts)

9) Bill Miller (14 pts)

10) Edwin Moscoso (13 pts)

2020 UEFL Imperfect Crew (Lowest Score): -16 points.
Crew Chief: Larry Vanover (-3 pts).
Primary Umpires: Mike Muchlinski (-3 pts) & Nate Tomlinson (-3 pts).
Secondary Umpires: Chad Fairchild (-4 pts) & Chad Whitson (-3 pts).

Final Standings for the 2020 UEFL Season.

Replay Review Ranking by Umpire [min. n=4] (RAP)
1) Cory Blaser (1.000, 5-for-5).
T-2) Angel Hernandez (.857, 6-for-7).

T-2) Vic Carapazza (.857, 6-for-7).

T-4) Ramon De Jesus (.833, 5-for-6).

T-4) Ben May (.833, 5-for-6).

T-4) Jansen Visconti (.833, 5-for-6).

7) Alan Porter (.800, 4-for-5).

T-8) Jim Reynolds (.750, 9-for-12).

T-8) Ryan Additon (.750, 6-for-8).

T-8) Lance Barrett (.750, 6-for-8).

T-8) Pat Hoberg (.750, 3-for-4).

T-8) Jeff Nelson (.750, 3-for-4).

T-8) Alex Tosi (.750, 3-for-4).

T-14) Mark Ripperger (.714, 10-for-14).

T-14) Chris Guccione (.714, 5-for-7).

16) Ted Barrett (.700, 7-for-10).

T-17) Brian Knight (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) Roberto Ortiz (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) Jeremie Rehak (.667, 6-for-9).

T-17) CB Bucknor (.667, 4-for-6).

T-17) Marvin Hudson (.667, 4-for-6).

T-22) Andy Fletcher (.636, 7-for-11).

T-22) Paul Nauert (.636, 7-for-11).

T-24) Chris Conroy (.625, 5-for-8).

T-24) Quinn Wolcott (.625, 5-for-8).

Full Results: UEFL's MLB Umpire Replay Review Statistics & Sabermetrics

Most Raw Overturns (Greatest # of Overturned Calls)
1) 8: Doug Eddings, Chad Fairchild.

2) 7: Ron Kulpa, Shane Livensparger.

3) 6: Mike Muchlinski.

4) 5: Jordan Baker, Adrian Johnson, DJ Reyburn, Chad Whitson.

2020 Ejection Leaders
1) Dan Bellino (8).

2) Mark Ripperger (5).

T-3) Vic Carapazza, Will Little (4).

T-5) Ted Barrett, Angel Hernandez, Ron Kulpa (3).

2020 UEFL Final Standings (Ties resolved per Rule 5-3)
1) ajbeisheim (65 pts).
2) cyclone14 (56 pts).
3) FVB6 (53 pts).
4) bschmidt24 (52 pts).

5) Dutch65 (49 pts).

6) MrMLBSmith (48 pts, 18 PRM-A [Carapazza]).
7) Cha Lee (48 pts, 15 PRM-A [Wolcott]).

8) braytonboggs (48 pts, 11 PRM-A [Timmons]).

9) elaresD (48 pts, 6 PRM-A [Hamari]).

10) Krusty The Clown (47 pts).

11) lshlarson (46 pts, 10 PRM-A [L Barrett] | 9 PRM-B [Hudson]).

12) andrew downs (46 pts, 10 PRM-A [Scheurwater] | 3 PRM-B [Torres]).

13) Williamsb59 (46 pts, 5 PRM-A [Bucknor]).

14) Cincyump08 (45 pts, 15 PRM-A [T Barrett]).

15) bbfan (45 pts, 14 PRM-A [Bi Miller]).

16) lsh9168 (44 pts).

17) TXWrangler (43 pts).

18) Young_Ump (42 pts, 15 PRM-A [T Barrett]).

19) ref44 (42 pts, 9 PRM-A [Tumpane]).

20) Umpirewillie100 (42 pts, 8 PRM-A [Nelson]).

21) Richard Gordon (42 pts, 4 PRM-A [Joe West]).

22) tre_n.47 (41 pts).

23) UmpAtty (39 pts, 10 PRM-A [Scheurwater]).

24) nyumpire (39 pts, 4 PRM-A [Baker] | 21 PRM-B [Hernandez]).

25) Alex Cheriel (39 pts, 4 PRM-A [Eddings] | 7 PRM-B [Marquez]).

Complete Final Standings, points, and results available via the UEFL Portal's 2020 Standings page.
Umpire Leaders available at UEFL's MLB Umpire Replay Review Statistics and Sabermetrics page.

The Rules Summit will begin tomorrow.

2020 UEFL Award for Umpire of the Year - Mark Carlson

On Veteran's Day, former Marine Mark Carlson wins UEFL's 2020 Umpire of the Year Award.

Voting: Carlson (18.8%), John Tumpane (17.0%), Pat Hoberg (10.1%).

Mark Carlson is the UEFL's 2020 Umpire of the Year.

Named an interim crew chief for the 60-game COVID schedule, Carlson drew praise for developing his crew throughout the season and again found himself with postseason assignments.

Wrote Russ, "For several years now Carlson has been one of the best Umpires in the league and that was no different this year."

Carlson officiated the 2020 Division Series round as well as the 2020 World Series, serving as Game 1's Right Field Umpire and concluding his season off the field; had the series gone to a winner-take-all Game 7, Carlson would have been the home plate umpire.

This marks the second consecutive season in which the UEFL's Best Umpire of the Year corresponds to MLB's selected umpire to officiate Game 7 of the World Series (Jim Wolf, 2019).

UEFL Awards History, Mark Carlson

Noteworthy Umpire of the Year: 2015

Mark Carlson now has 12 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (7 Previous + 5 Award = 12).

Final Standings will be released tomorrow.

2020 Ejection of the Year Award - Dan Bellino (x2)

Dan Bellino wins UEFL's 2020 Ejections of the Year Award [2019: Phil Cuzzi & Brennan Miller].

A two-fer win, Bellino ejected Twins 3B Josh Donaldson for exaggeratedly kicking dirt on home plate during a home run trot in Detroit on September 17 for the number one ejection of the 2020 season, having ejected a trio of Cincinnati Reds during a fight situation on August 29, the number two ejection sequence of 2020.

After taking a 2-0 slider from White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez in Chicago, Donaldson stepped back and expressed his displeasure, leading manager Rocko Baldelli to exit the dugout and have a brief conversation with Bellino behind home plate.

Upon his return to the batter's box, Donaldson hit Lopez's very next pitch for a solo-HR to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead. As Donaldson completed his journey around the bases, he made a point of kicking dirt onto home plate while jogging past home plate before returning to make sure Bellino had gotten the message, resulting in an ejection. Donaldson's Twins ultimately surrendered the lead on a White Sox ground ball to third base, where Donaldson would have been playing had he not been ejected; Chicago ultimately won the contest, 4-3.

Related Post: MLB Ejection 62 - Dan Bellino (4; Josh Donaldson) (9/17/20).

Several weeks earlier, Bellino presided over a benches-clearing incident in Cincinnati after Reds batter Shogo Akiyama took a 2-1 fastball from Cubs pitcher Adbert Alzolay that replays indicate was located over the heart of home plate, albeit above the height of the batter's head, during a back-pick attempt at first base (catcher-to-first baseman).

Bellino ejected Reds DH Joey Votto, LF Jesse Winker, and Manager David Bell in short order after warning the trio not to come onto the field to participate in the confrontation between teams.

Related Post: MLB Ejections 39-43 - Lentz, Bellino (CHC-CIN) (8/29/20).

Voting Results (Top 3): 62 Bellino (12.5%), 41-43 Bellino (11.2%), Mike Estabrook (<10%).

Dan Bellino now has 22 points in the UEFL Standings (21 Previous + 1 Award = 22).

The final postseason award, (Best) Umpire of the Year, will be released on Wednesday.

2020 Promising Umpire Award - Hoberg & Tumpane

Pat Hoberg & John Tumpane are 2020's Promising Umpires of the Year [2019: Hoberg & Al Porter].

Voting: Hoberg (25.0%), Tumpane (18.4%), Jordan Baker (14.2%), Adam Hamari (13.2%).

Pat Hoberg & John Tumpane are UEFL's 2020 Promising Umpires of the Year.

2019's top vote getter for Promising Umpire of the Year Pat Hoberg repeats with back-to-back Promising Awards as Hoberg adds to his impressive postseason résumé for a 2017 full-time hire to the MLB staff.

Hoberg officiated the 2020 Wild Card Round as well as his first League Championship Series, meaning that Hoberg has officiated the highest possible round of the postseason he has been eligible for ever since he became a full-time umpire (hired in 2017, Wild Card Game in 2018, Division Series in 2019, League Championship Series in 2020). Will Hoberg soon see a World Series?

Praised for his pose and command of the game, Hoberg's 99.3% mark tied for the highest plate score of the 2020 LCS with this year's second Promising Umpire of the Year Award winner, John Tumpane, after the real-time balls/strikes computer initially ruled that Tumpane had officiated a perfect game pursuant to UEFL f/x rules. In the end, both Hoberg and Tumpane came up just one pitch shy.

Tumpane similarly has officiated every postseason since his first year of eligibility in 2017 following his 2016 hiring and also worked his first League Championship Series in 2020.

UEFL Awards History, Pat Hoberg

Promising Umpire of the Year: 2019

UEFL Awards History, John Tumpane

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2017

Fill-In Umpire of the Year: 2015

Pat Hoberg now has 12 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (9 Previous + 3 Award = 12).

John Tumpane now has 9 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (6 Previous + 3 Award = 9).

The next postseason award to be released will be Ejection of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Honorable - Hernandez & West

Angel Hernandez & Joe West are 2020's Honorable Umpires [2019: Eric Cooper & Chris Guccione].

Voting Results: Hernandez (13.3%), West (11.1%), Ted Barrett (10.6%), Laz Diaz/Jim Reynolds (10.0%).

Angel Hernandez & Joe West are UEFL's 2020 Honorable Umpires of the Year.

With a spotlight thoroughly focused on him during a still-in-litigation dispute with Major League Baseball over the league's purported failure to promote him to Crew Chief prior to 2017, Hernandez finally had an opportunity to lead a crew as an interim chief during the COVID-modified 2020 season.

Hernandez's 21 points in Crew Division were the most for any Chief during the 2020 season.

Said RIABUAvp, "Went out and led his crew capably + earned a playoff plate despite all the usual ridiculous noise from the general public and the pending suit with the league in the background. Then had a terrific plate performance. Not to mention he was obviously working through some injury with some type of cast or brace on his arm all year, but I don't believe he missed an assignment."

Hernandez's Division Series plate during San Diego-Los Angeles NLDS Game 2 produced a 97.8% score, which was second-highest during the series to Bill Miller's 98.4% in Game 3, and prompted a slew of tweets from usual Angel-critics praising Hernandez for a quality plate performance during the postseason.

Joe West, meanwhile, began 2020 testifying on Hernandez's behalf in the ongoing discrimination lawsuit against MLB, while simultaneously winning his defamation lawsuit against Paul Lo Duca when the latter opted to defend his position by ignoring the suit.

After initially complaining that COVID-19 deaths were exaggerated, West nonetheless began wearing a face covering during the season's second week, battled through a bloody bat-to-the-head injury by later returning to that game as a base umpire, and backed up crew mate Hunter Wendelstedt in requesting Nationals GM Mike Rizzo's removal from a game in Atlanta.

West thus wins this award not necessarily for one specific action—and perhaps in spite of several of them—but for his long-held philosophy and creed for officiating:

"My first responsibility is to the game of baseball. That doesn’t mean the commissioner’s office. That means the game. The second responsibility is to your profession. When I get on my pedestal at the union meetings, I tell them to be moral, honest, true and correct. If you do them in that order, nothing you do out there will be wrong."

UEFL Awards History, Angel Hernandez

Promising Umpire of the Year: 2010, 2012, 2014

Most Improved Umpire of the Year: 2015, 2016

UEFL Awards History, Joe West

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2009

Ejection of the Year: 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018

Angel Hernandez now has 21 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (19 Prev + 2 Award = 21).

Joe West now has 4 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (2 Prev + 2 Award = 4).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Promising Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Crew Chief - Jim Reynolds

Jim Reynolds wins the UEFL's 2020 Crew Chief of the Year Award [2019 Winner: Gary Cederstrom].

Voting Results: Reynolds (13.7%), Bill Miller (13.2%), Mark Carlson (12.7%), Joe West (11.7%).

Jim Reynolds is the 2020 UEFL Crew Chief of the Year.

In his first season as a full-time Crew Chief, Reynolds commanded a COVID-modified crew that effectively featured two call-up umpires, given that Reynolds' season-opening number two—Jim Wolf—suffered a season-ending concussion injury nary one week into the season.

Explained Russ, "He and his crew were fantastic all season and he ended up being an LCS CC despite it only being his first season as a full time CC. That is unheard of but his work all season and in the Playoffs was phenomenal."

Reynolds concluded the 2020 season with 10 points in Crew Division.

UEFL Awards History, Jim Reynolds

Ejection of the Year: 2015

Jim Reynolds now has 17 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (16 Previous + 1 Award = 17).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Honorable Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Fill-In Umpire - Jeremie Rehak

Jeremie Rehak wins UEFL's Fill-In Umpire of the Year Award for 2020 [2019 Winner: Jansen Visconti].

Voting Results: Rehak (19.3%), Ben May (16.3%), Sean Barber (15.8%), John Libka (14.9%).

Jeremie Rehak is the 2020 UEFL Fill-In Umpire of the Year.

Two years after last capturing this award, Rehak again takes the Fill-In of the Year title. Rehak's two ejections in 2020 were both associated with correct calls and his on-field performance throughout the season prompted a simple summation from Turducken: "Jeremie Rehak is ready."

2020 was Rehak's third season as a minor league call-up umpire (thus, he won Fill-In of the Year following his rookie season) and, having entered 2020 with 231 games of MLB experience, Rehak has been on pace for a quality look at a full-time opportunity.

UEFL Awards History, Jeremie Rehak

Fill-In Umpire of the Year: 2018

Jeremie Rehak now has 15 points in the UEFL Standings (13 Previous + 2 Award = 15).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Crew Chief of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Triple-Digit Rookie - Edwin Moscoso

Edwin Moscoso wins the Triple-Digit Rookie Umpire Award for 2020 [2019: N/A]

Voting Results: Moscoso (32.5%), Jose Navas (12.0%), Junior Valentine (10.5%).

Edwin Moscoso is the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2020 Triple-Digit Rookie Umpire of the Year.

In an unprecedented year with a pandemic and veteran MLB umpire opt-outs, 19 Minor League Umpires made their MLB debuts in a temporary/fill-in capacity during the 2020 season. Of these, Moscoso was the first to appear, working his first MLB game in Los Angeles on July 23.

Related Post: MLB Debut of Umpire Edwin Moscoso (7/23/20).

Moscoso, who finished the season with two ejections, earned praise from UEFL'ers for his situation handling; said Michael, "Outside of the uniform number you would have no idea that he was a 'taxi squad' member," with several commenters opining that Moscoso demonstrated his readiness for the major league level.

UEFL Awards History, Edwin Moscoso

None

Edwin Moscoso now has 13 points in the UEFL Standings (11 Previous + 2 Award = 13).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Fill-In Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Most Improved - CB Bucknor

CB Bucknor wins the Most Improved Umpire Award for 2020 [2019: Doug Eddings, Eric Cooper]
Voting Results: Bucknor (16.2%), Mike Estabrook (7.9%), Angel Hernandez (7.3%).

CB Bucknor is the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2020 most improved umpire of the year.

During the 2020 postseason, Bucknor officiated his first Division Series since 2013, earning a Game 2 Plate assignment during the Rays-Yankes American League Division Series. He also officiated the 2020 Wild Card round.

During the season, Bucknor occasionally served as acting crew chief in the absence of regular season chief Jeff Nelson, and earned praise from voters for that role.

Wrote baseballfollower, "CB is long the punching bag of announcers, fans and casual viewers. Not this year. Happy for him and he was EXCELLENT filling in as a CC."

After his ALDS plate job, USA Today published an article criticizing Bucknor's strike zone in which the article itself fared poorly against fact checking with four of seven claims refuted by evidence: It may very well be that as strike zone technology becomes more accessible, we may be in similar positions to run the numbers and fact check media critiques, vindicating long-maligned umpires like Bucknor.

Related Post: Booby Bumbaca - USA Today Criticizes Bucknor While Simultaneously Showing Graphics Exonerating Him (10/7/20).

Dale Scott wrote a guest op-ed article similarly coming to Bucknor's defense.

Related Post: Dale Scott Guest Op-Ed - Of Umpire Labeling, CB & Angel (10/8/20).

UEFL Awards History, CB Bucknor

Most Improved Umpire of the Year: 2013, 2014

Worst Umpire of the Year: 2017

CB Bucknor now has 5 points in the UEFL Standings (4 Previous + 1 Award = 5).

The next postseason award to be announced will be Triple-Digit Rookie Umpire of the Year.

2020 UEFL Award for Disappointing Season - Rob Drake

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's first Postseason Award is for Most Disappointing Season, which this year is Rob Drake (30) [2019 Winner: Rob Drake].

Voting Results (Top 3): Drake (26.2%), Hunter Wendelstedt (9.5%), Angel Hernandez (8.9%).

The UEFL Awards as defined in Rule 4-4 begin with Most Disappointing Season, below, and continue with Most Improved, Fill-In, Crew Chief, Honorable, Promising, Ejection(s) of the Year and concluding with Umpire of the Year. 235 total ballots were cast during this year's nominations process.

Rob Drake receives 2020's Most Disappointing Season Award.

As occasionally occurs with a Most Disappointing Season Award, Drake's nomination may have hinged on a poorly timed bad day at the office, which happened to be the final day of the 2020 regular season. During September 27's Padres-Giants season finale, Drake called a plate of 89.9% by UEFL f/x standards, which constituted a statistical outlier compared to baseball's larger body of plate work.

For some, the interplay of a sub-90 plate score (83.8% on ML Public) during San Francisco's do-or-die game to make the postseason, capped off by an incorrect strike three call that effectively shut the door on 2020 at Oracle Park, was enough to define an entire season of work, when not even Drake's above-average rank on Replay Affirmation Rate (T-22nd) or sole 2020 ejection over a correctly officiated interference call in Arizona would be enough to prevent an overwhelming nomination for this award.

Related Post: MLB Ejection 34 - Rob Drake (1; Torey Lovullo) (8/24/20).

Said baseballfollower, "Came back 'rebranded' with the bucket hat and had probably the worst HP job I have seen with the game on the line in SD-SF. Just shocked at how far he has slipped since 2015, and his regression is no longer a one off. I think he needs to work with Ted Barrett or Jeff Nelson next year and really get back on track."

Juanantonio Guevara was more blunt: "He fell off hard this season and just got lost, in a bad way."

In a year during which nearly every eligible umpire officiated the 2020 postseason (e.g., Tony Randazzo, Jim Wolf, and Hunter Wendelstedt were not eligible due to injuries), Drake was assigned to the NL Wild Card series in San Diego as Game 1's right field umpire, under the watchful eye of his regular season crew chief, Bill Miller.

And, yes, we'd be remiss if we didn't again mention the same Rob Drake Twitter incident that led to his nomination for the 2019 Most Disappointing Season Award. Is it fair to hold Drake's infamous "cival war" tweet against him over a year later? Probably not, but as we stated last fall, major league umpires should not make public statements on politics lest perceptions become permanently tarnished. For Drake, that lesson appears to have carried over into 2020—it doesn't help that MLB's subsequent investigation failed to generate a public outcome—and may be reflected in the voting for this award just as 9/27 was.

Related Post: Rob Drake's Twitter War, Umpires and Social Media (10/24/19).

UEFL Awards History, Rob Drake

Honorable Umpire of the Year: 2016.

Most Disappointing Season: 2019.

Rob Drake now has 5 points in the UEFL Standings (6 Previous - 1 Award = 5).

The next postseason award, Most Improved Umpire of the Year, will be released next.