Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-06-15
TB @ LAD
Home plate: Dan Merzel
“Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines.”
Umpire Grade
95.3% accurate
Run Favor
runs, LAD
ABS Overturns
of 5 reviewed
What this shows — how Dan Merzel called the 127 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 121 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
- 1-0.69▲9 · 3-2 ball called strike
Taylor Walls vs Tanner Scott - 2+0.30▲6 · 3-1 strike called ball
Austin Slater vs Eric Lauer - 3+0.10▲4 · 0-1 strike called ball
Nick Fortes vs Eric Lauer
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
5 pitches went to the robots · 3 overturned (ump overruled) · 2 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1Junior Caminero — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 2Dalton Rushing — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 3Dalton Rushing — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
- 4Taylor Walls — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 5Dalton Rushing — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 2 of 5 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.