Umpire Love
Some pretty terrible umpiring tonight. That play at the plate with Scutaro was blown three times:
- Scutaro should have been called out on the tag
- If the tag was missed, there should have been no call made (and not safe 3 times)
- If Scutaro getting back mattered because the first tag was missed, he got his hand in the second time.
So three wrongs add up to a right…the second one is my pet peeve, though. You see it all the time at the major league level and little league umpires are taught again and again, if the tag is missed you just stand there like a statue until something happens to make the runner either out or safe. NOT HARD.
Anyway, it also seemed like the ump was giving A.J’s curveball based on where it was caught, not where it crossed the plate. Especially jerky was the delayed call on Chase Utley when he was halfway to first base. So here’s tonight’s location on calls:
As I mentioned in my handy reference guide, pitches are on average called strikes two inches off the edge of the plate, so this isn’t as bad as all that. I tip my hat to Burnett for painting what that the umpire was giving with a pitch he has next to no control over.
He’s still a tool, though. Tonight A.J. went back to throwing the 2-seamer he had put on the shelf for several starts in favour of his new cutter. (I’m not kidding…that’s not just his fastball “sinking tonight” like Tabler kept saying - It’s a totally different pitch, slow and diving/tailing). He mixed in said cutter and a bunch of changeups as well. So tonight, A.J. Burnett had an unimpressive (but controllable) curveball, but threw 5 different pitches (including three different fastballs) to keep the Phillies off balance. What a concept!
what a concept, indeed…it’s pretty amazing to watch just how inconsistent AJ is from start to start…he is the polar opposite of Doc, the model of consistency
Which one was the called strike on Utley? One of the ones way way inside? Or was it actually a reasonable strike call?
It was the second furthest inside called strike.
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That was the first AJ start that the radio guys noticed the cutter. I forget which one was calling at the time, but he originally called it a slider, and then noted that AJ doesn’t throw a slider, and, after a bit of debate (I think), they decided it was a cutter.
Really! Good eye by whoever…I hope it was Ashby. Did they seem confused about it at all? The first time I heard it mentioned was Fletcher on TV, and I scoffed because he doesn’t throw a cutter either.