Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-04-03
CHC @ CLE
Home plate: Dan Merzel
“You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice.”
Umpire Grade
90.8% accurate
Run Favor
runs, CHC
ABS Overturns
of 3 reviewed
What this shows — how Dan Merzel called the 152 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 138 right. Below, only his misses are plotted, alongside every pitch the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike System) reviewed on a challenge.
The zone, as he called it
strike called ballball called strikeABS overturnedABS upheld
The calls that moved the game
- 1+0.28▲5 · 1-2 strike called ball
Pete Crow-Armstrong vs Joey Cantillo - 2+0.13▲8 · 1-1 strike called ball· challenged ✓
Moisés Ballesteros vs Shawn Armstrong - 3+0.10▲3 · 0-1 strike called ball
Ian Happ vs Joey Cantillo
Run impact from the count run-value table: a missed strike three is worth far more than one on 3-0.
ABS — the Automated Ball-Strike System
3 pitches went to the robots · 1 overturned (ump overruled) · 2 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1Brayan Rocchio — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 2Moisés Ballesteros — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 3Ian Happ — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 3 of 3 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.