2021 UEFL Award for Most Improved - Mike Estabrook

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2021 Postseason Award recipient for Most Improved Umpire is Mike Estabrook (83) [2020 Winner: CB Bucknor]).

Voting Results (Top 3): Estabrook (16.0%), Rob Drake (14.1%), Jordan Baker (5.1%).

Mike Estabrook receives 2021's Most Improved Umpire Award.

In nominating Estabrook for the 2021 Most Improved Umpire Award, many voters referred to 2019, during which Estabrook ejected an MLB-high 13 players, coaches, and managers. By contrast, Estabrook's ejection total during the COVID-shortened 2020 season was one while Estabrook ejected two people in 2021.

Another common theme was an improved strike zone and overall improvement that helped Estabrook return to the postseason, his first Division Series assignment during a full season of baseball.

UEFL Awards History, Mike Estabrook

None

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

2021 UEFL Award for Disappointing Season - Doug Eddings

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League's 2021 Postseason Award recipient for Most Disappointing Season is Doug Eddings (88) [2020 Winner: Rob Drake]).

Voting Results (Top 3): Eddings (13.1%), Angel Hernandez (12.5%), Hunter Wendelstedt (6.9%).

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. 209 total ballots were cast during this year's nominations process.

Doug Eddings receives 2021's Most Disappointing Season Award.

Eddings, it should be noted, received a postseason assignment in the form of Game 5 HP Umpire for the Dodgers-Giants NL Division Series, in which Eddings called a respectable 97.7%, the second-highest score of that NLDS (Pat Hoberg Gm 4 was highest [97.9%]).

Yet, as JD wrote in nominating Eddings for this award, "I'll be straightforward, this was an awful year in all optics for him...his body language out there at times made it seem like he wasn't enjoying himself or the profession." NoahYingling noted recency bias may have played a role, as Eddings' first half appeared stronger than the second half.

Eddings concluded 2021 with eight ejections and featured prominently in Crew Chief Bill Miller's late September ejection of Cardinals manager Mike Schildt following an infield fly rule/changed out/safe/"Time" play in which both Miller and 3B Umpire Gabe Morales signaled an infield fly on a batter's R1-R2, one-out fair pop fly in front of third base, but 2B Umpire Eddings nonetheless ruled R1 out on a (non-existent) force play when the defense tagged second base.

Related Post: MLB Ejection 185 - Bill Miller (4; Mike Shildt) (9/26/21).

During that ejection, commenter John noted that due to the ejection's very-late-season occurrence, "I'm not sure that we can assume that Eddings won't get any playoff games. While this call is BAD it's already been mentioned that the playoff list for the WC and divisional series has already gone out to the selected umpires."

UEFL Awards History, Doug Eddings

Most Improved Umpire of the Year - 2019

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

2021 UEFL Year-End Awards Nominations Open

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League announces its annual Postseason Awards and opens nominations at this time

Link to Postseason Awards Ballot (also appears below):

a. Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 1 umpire) +5

b. Promising Umpire of the Year (min. 1 / max. 2) +3

c. Bernice Gera Honorable Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

d. Fill-In Umpire of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +2

e. Most Improved Umpire (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

f. Crew Chief of the Year (min. 0 / max. 1) +1

g. Best Ejection of the Year (min. 0 / max. 2) +1

h. Most Disappointing Season (min. 0 / max. 1) -1

An eligible umpire may be selected for as many or as few awards as that umpire is eligible for; Ballots will be accepted until 11:59pm on Tuesday, November 23, with awards distribution beginning shortly thereafter.

Ballot as follows:

2021 World Series Discussion

Join us for discussion of the 2021 World Series: As we have done in the past, we will post UEFL f/x plate scores for every home plate umpire this postseason.

Performance plate scores are listed following the completion of each contest according to UEFL f/x (StatCast data and application of UEFL Rules 6-2-b-a [horizontal bound, "Kulpa Rule"] and 6-2-b-b [vertical strike zone, "Miller Rule"]) for called strikes and balls. Foul balls, swinging strikes, balls put in play, automatic balls, pitchouts, and hit-by-pitches are excluded from the analysis. Click here to learn how UEFL f/x 3.0 plate scores work.

Click here for the 2021 World Series umpire roster.

- 10/26 ATL@HOU Gm 1: Chris Conroy. 112/113 Balls + 44/46 Strikes = 156/159 = 98.1%. +3 HOU.

- 10/27 ATL@HOU Gm 2: Ron Kulpa. 79/79 Balls + 39/41 Strikes = 118/120 = 98.3%. +0 Neutral.

- 10/29 HOU@ATL Gm 3: Tom Hallion. 106/108 Balls + 35/38 Strikes = 141/146 = 96.6%. +1 HOU.

- 10/30 HOU@ATL Gm 4: Dan Bellino. 107/110 Balls + 41/43 Strikes = 148/153 = 96.7%. +1 HOU.

- 10/31 HOU@ATL Gm 5: Ted Barrett. 111/112 Balls + 51/59 Strikes = 162/171 = 94.7%. +3 ATL.

- 11/2 ATL@HOU Gm 6: Mike Muchlinski. 93/94 Balls + 46/50 Strikes = 139/144 = 96.5%. +1 HOU.

Note: The highest plate score during the 2020 World Series was Marvin Hudson's 98.7% (WS 5).

The highest overall plate score during the 2020 Postseason was Jordan Baker's 99.4% (ALWC 1).

2021 MLB World Series Umpire Roster

Major League Baseball assigned seven umpires to the 2021 World Series, with crew chief Tom Hallion leading the way with backup chief Ted Barrett and first-timers Dan Bellino, Chris Conroy, and Mike Muchlinski. The 7th umpire position for the World Series is a reserve or standby slot and will remain with the crew instead of traveling to/from New York's Replay Review HQ during the Fall Classic. Instead, the umpire rotation shall be as follows: Game 1: HP; Game 2: RF; Game 3: LF; Game 4: 3B; Game 5: 2B; Game 6: 1B; Game 7: Reserve/Off; the Reserve/Off-field standby umpire position precedes the home plate assignment.

Crew Chiefs are indicated in bold text and by the -cc suffix with regular season crew chiefs denoted by an asterisk (*) while those working their first career World Series will be noted with a ^ mark.

MLB World Series (Atlanta Braves @ Houston Astros)

HP: Chris Conroy^

1B: Tom Hallion* -cc [Game 3 Plate]

2B: Dan Bellino^ [Game 4 Plate]

3B: Ted Barrett* [Game 5 Plate]

LF: Mike Muchlinski^ [Game 6 Plate]

RF: Alfonso Marquez* [Game 7 Plate]

Reserve/Off: Ron Kulpa [Game 2 Plate]

Replay Review: Pat Hoberg, Tim Timmons.

MLB Ejection 190* - Alfonso Marquez (2*; Brian Snitker)

This is a late-add ejection report. 4/11/21: 3B Umpire Alfonso Marquez ejected Braves manager Brian Snitker (Replay Review decision that upheld HP Umpire Lance Barrett's safe call) during the #Phillies-#Braves game. With one out and one on (R3), Phillies batter Didi Gregorius hit a 1-2 fastball from Braves pitcher Will Smith on a fly ball to left fielder Marcell Ozuna as Phillies baserunner R3 Alec Bohm tagged up and attempted to score, ruled safe at home plate by HP Umpire Barrett on a tag attempt by Braves catcher Travis d'Arnaud, and affirmed via Replay Review as the result of a Crew Chief Review by 3B Umpire Marquez. Replays fail to conclusively indicate whether Bohm's foot touched home plate but do conclusively indicate that if Bohm's foot touched home plate, the runner arrived prior to the catcher's tag, the call (call stands) was correct. At the time of the ejection, the Phillies were leading, 7-6. The Phillies ultimately won the contest, 7-6.

This is Alfonso Marquez (72)'s 2nd* ejection of 2021.
*The statistics for this ejection reflect the time at which it was reported.

Both Marquez and Snitker will appear in the 2021 World Series.

This is the 190th ejection report of the 2021 MLB regular season.

This is the 86th manager ejection of 2021.

This is Atlanta's 2nd ejection of 2021, 5th in the NL East (MIA 10; PHI 9; WAS 8; NYM 7; ATL 2).

This is Brian Snitker's 1st ejection since Sept 14, 2019 (Bill Welke; QOC = N [Check Swing]).

This is Alfonso Marquez's 1st ejection since August 19, 2020 (Danny Santana; QOC = Y [Balls/Strikes]).

Wrap: Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves, 10/25/21 | Video as follows:

RoboUmp's Odd Strike Zone Gets AFL Game Called Early

Teams ran out of pitchers leading to a game getting called early as the 2021 Arizona Fall League's electronic umpire experiment proved problematic during Saturday's Solar Sox vs Rafters game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. RoboUmp's demi-sized strike zone helped produce 22 walks as Mesa and Salt River bled through 12 pitchers before the teams and umpires agreed to call off the game in the 8th inning with Salt River leading, 15-7. The Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) is only in use for games played at Salt River Fields.

According to Keith Law at The Athletic, several rule changes were in use during the game, including a variable pitch clock, ban on shifts, and of course an automated strike zone that rendered HP Umpire Alex McKay little more than a computer mouthpiece. (If you're wondering what happens to the MiLB call-ups during the offseason, you can find some working the Arizona Fall League; McKay's crew included 1B Umpire Malachi Moore, 2B Umpire Ryan Wills, and 3B Umpire Kyle McCrady).

Returns from the game indicate an issue that has plagued electronic zones since their very inception: an unforgiving, and in this case small, strike zone that continues to fall short of the standard to which human umpires call balls and strikes. The Atlantic League version, for instance, occasionally fell prey to the opposite problem: strike zones that were too large.

Related Post: Checking in With RoboUmp's Auto Ball/Strike System (7/10/21).

For this reason, our postseason plate performance scores continue to be given in a three-metric format: UEFL f/x with a roughly one-inch margin of error nestled between the larger buffer of Zone Evaluation Equivalent and the zero-error model the viewing audience sees known as ML Public (although our version of ML Public features postgame processing data point correction whereas what fans see on TV is raw and uncorrected).

Related Post: About UEFL f/x 3.0 Plate Scores for Postseason (9/29/20).

Interference in Boston? Laz Diaz's Astros-Red Sox No-Call

After HP Umpire Laz Diaz called strike three on Astros pitcher Cristian Javier's 3-2 fastball to Red Sox batter JD Martinez while catcher Martin Maldonado nearly tried to throw stealing runner Alex Verdugo out at second base, interference questions began popping up, as did both managers with Houston's Dusty Baker campaigning for an interference call on Martinez and Boston's Alex Cora more upset about the strike three call on a pitch off the outside corner.

As we always do, we begin with the rulebook for this play from the bottom of the 3rd inning of Game 4 of the 2021 American League Championship Series. Although Official Baseball Rule 6.03(a)(3) [batter out for illegal action] calls for an out when the batter "interferes with the catcher’s fielding or throwing by stepping out of the batter’s box or making any other movement that hinders the catcher’s play at home base," the relevant rule here is actually OBR 6.01(a)(5) because the batter was out due to the strike three call: "Any batter or runner who has just been put out, or any runner who has just scored, hinders or impedes any following play being made on a runner."

The high school equivalent is NFHS 7-3-5 ("interfere with the catcher's fielding or throwing by leaning over home plate, stepping out of the batter's box, or making any other movement...which hinders actions at home plate or the catcher's attempt to play on a runner") while college is NCAA 6-3-b (similar to OBR), the penalty for which states, "If the batter strikes out, the runner is also out."

While a throw to second is not required to call interference, it sure helps. The throw leaves no doubt as to the catcher's intention and quite clearly demonstrates a hindering act has occurred. By not throwing, Maldonado made Diaz's job more difficult. By not throwing, now the umpire must decide WHY the throw didn't happen. Was it because the catcher thought the pitch was ball four (the computer sure did)? Was it because the runner Verdugo would have slid in safely at second base? Or was it because retired batter Martinez interfered?

In only one of those scenarios would the proper call be interference. In the end, the judgment call rests with that question: what was Maldonado's intent here and why was no throw made? If the answer is because of retired batter Martinez's hindrance, the call is interference. If the answer is because of another reason other than Martinez's movement, the likely call is to make none at all.

Video as follows:

Discussion of 2021 ALCS & NLCS

Join us for discussion of the 2021 American and National League Championship Series: As we have done in the past, we will post UEFL f/x plate scores for every home plate umpire this postseason.

Performance plate scores are listed following the completion of each contest according to UEFL f/x (StatCast data and application of UEFL Rules 6-2-b-a [horizontal bound, "Kulpa Rule"] and 6-2-b-b [vertical strike zone, "Miller Rule"]) for called strikes and balls. Foul balls, swinging strikes, balls put in play, automatic balls, pitchouts, and hit-by-pitches are excluded from the analysis. Click here to learn how UEFL f/x 3.0 plate scores work.

Click here to view the 2021 League Championship Series umpire roster.

 

- 10/15 BOS@HOU Gm 1: David Rackley. 118/119 Balls + 45/52 Strikes = 163/171 = 95.3%. +2 HOU.

- 10/16 BOS@HOU Gm 2: Rob Drake. 128/129 Balls + 43/44 Strikes = 171/173 = 98.8%. +2 HOU.

- 10/16 LAD@ATL Gm 1: Tripp Gibson. 71/72 Balls + 37/37 Strikes = 108/109 = 99.1%. +1 LAD.

- 10/17 LAD@ATL Gm 2: Jordan Baker. 101/104 Balls + 32/36 Strikes = 133/140 = 95.0%. +5 LAD.

- 10/18 HOU@BOS Gm 3: Bill Miller. 102/102 Balls + 42/48 Strikes = 144/150 = 96.0%. +0 Neutral.

- 10/19 ATL@LAD Gm 3: Jerry Meals. 133/135 Balls + 57/62 Strikes = 190/197 = 96.4%. +5 LAD.

- 10/19 HOU@BOS Gm 4: Laz Diaz. 120/124 Balls + 33/46 Strikes = 153/170 = 90.0%. +1 HOU.

- 10/20 HOU@BOS Gm 5: Dan Iassogna. 102/104 Balls + 33/37 Strikes = 135/141 = 95.7%. +4 HOU.

- 10/20 ATL@LAD Gm 4: James Hoye. 91/92 Balls + 43/44 Strikes = 134/136 = 98.5%. +0 Neutral.

- 10/21 ATL@LAD Gm 5: Mark Carlson. 91/92 Balls + 51/54 Strikes = 142/146 = 97.3%. +0 Neutral.

- 10/22 BOS@HOU Gm 6: Jim Wolf. 84/86 Balls + 43/45 Strikes = 127/131 = 96.9%. +4 HOU.

- 10/23 LAD@ATL Gm 6: Lance Barksdale. 100/102 Balls + 46/48 Strikes = 146/150 = 97.3%. +2 LAD.

Note: The highest plate score during the 2020 ALCS/NLCS was John Tumpane's 99.3% (ALCS 2).

The highest overall plate score during the 2020 Postseason was Jordan Baker's 99.4% (ALWC 1).

Teachable - Baker's Barker on Braves' Safe Play at Home

In this postseason, teachable, Tmac spotlights the first part of Atlanta's NLCS Game 2 comeback win over Los Angeles as HP Umpire Jordan Baker rules Braves baserunner Eddie Rosario safe at home plate, having slid ahead of Dodgers catcher Will Smith's tag attempt, a called confirmed by Replay Review.

With one out and one on (R2) in the 8th inning, Braves batter Ozzie Albies hit a Julio Urias curveball on a line drive to right fielder Steven Souza, who fielded the batted ball on a bounce and threw home as runner R2 Rosario rounded third and charged toward the plate. 

We see HP Umpire Baker begin the play at the point of plate before moving toward his left for an intermediate starting position, and then finally sidestepping toward the first baseline in order to maintain the wedge or keyhole angle of daylight between the catcher and runner.

Video as follows: