Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-04-13
HOU @ SEA
Home plate: Todd Tichenor
“The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story.”
Umpire Grade
95.4% accurate
Run Favor
runs, HOU
ABS Overturns
of 3 reviewed
What this shows — how Todd Tichenor called the 108 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 103 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+0.23▲2 · 0-2 strike called ball
Taylor Trammell vs George Kirby - 2+0.23▲5 · 0-2 strike called ball
Cam Smith vs George Kirby - 3-0.21▼6 · 3-0 ball called strike
Brendan Donovan vs Mike Burrows
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 · 2 overturned (ump overruled) · 1 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1Brendan Donovan — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 2Yainer Diaz — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 3Yainer Diaz — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 1 of 3 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.