Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-04-27
CHC @ SD
Home plate: Dan Merzel
“An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much.”
Umpire Grade
94.9% accurate
Run Favor
runs, SD
ABS Overturns
of 6 reviewed
What this shows — how Dan Merzel called the 175 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 166 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+0.39▼5 · 2-2 strike called ball
Ty France vs Ben Brown - 2+0.28▲5 · 1-2 strike called ball
Ian Happ vs Randy Vásquez - 3+0.13▼6 · 1-1 strike called ball
Manny Machado vs Ben Brown
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
6 pitches went to the robots · 3 overturned (ump overruled) · 3 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1Matthew Boyd — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 2Seiya Suzuki — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 3Moisés Ballesteros — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 4Freddy Fermin — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 5Freddy Fermin — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 6Nick Castellanos — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 3 of 6 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.