Great Moments in Enhanced Gameday History - 31 Aug 2007, game 1, inning 8
Posted by Rhubarb_Runner on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
RonDL to bat in the 8th, 1 out:
pitch 1: ball (!)
pitch 2: foul
pitch 3: foul
pitch 4: ball (!!)
pitch 5: ball (!)
pitch 6: ball (!)
Wow! Way to take what umpire Jeff Nelson is giving you, RW. Looks like some calls also can go the Twins' way, too.
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That one's a beauty. Were Bale and LaRue acting like they were getting squeezed?
I think so. There were followup walks after that one, so I think this AB threw them a bit.
I guess it's not all that surprising to me, but it does strike me that the Enhanced Gameday data almost always seems to agree with the players rather than the umpires when the players do get really disgusted about the strike zone.
I've met Jeff Nelson personally when he spoke at the DC SABR meeting a few years ago. I asked him the hardest thing to call as an umpire and he told me, without hesitation, "the lowest portion of the strikezone". He explained that, because he's looking over the catcher's shoulder, it's hard to judge the lowest portion of the zone and catchers can do more "framing" of pitches there than anywhere else around the plate.