Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-04-16
SF @ CIN
Home plate: Junior Valentine
“Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks.”
Umpire Grade
95.6% accurate
Run Favor
runs, SF
ABS Overturns
of 4 reviewed
What this shows — how Junior Valentine called the 158 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 151 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
- 1-0.13▼1 · 1-0 ball called strike
Matt McLain vs Landen Roupp - 2-0.13▼9 · 1-0 ball called strike
Dane Myers vs Erik Miller - 3+0.09▲1 · 0-0 strike called ball
Willy Adames vs Chase Burns
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
4 pitches went to the robots · 3 overturned (ump overruled) · 1 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1P.J. Higgins — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 2Rafael Devers — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 3Patrick Bailey — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 4Patrick Bailey — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 1 of 4 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.