Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-05-18
“You could set a watch by that zone.”
Umpire Grade
97.1% accurate
Run Favor
runs, NYY
ABS Overturns
of 4 reviewed
What this shows — how Ben May called the 170 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 165 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+0.21▼4 · 3-0 strike called ball
Max Schuemann vs Patrick Corbin - 2-0.13▼4 · 1-0 ball called strike· challenged ✓
Max Schuemann vs Patrick Corbin - 3+0.10▼1 · 0-1 strike called ball
Cody Bellinger vs Patrick Corbin
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 · 2 overturned (ump overruled) · 2 upheld (ump confirmed). This is the ABS system’s own measurement — Hawk-Eye optical ball-tracking, not our model.
- 1Max Schuemann — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 2Davis Schneider — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 3J.C. Escarra — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 4Brandon Valenzuela — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 3 of 4 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.