Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-06-23
ATL @ SD
Home plate: Dan Merzel
“Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks.”
Umpire Grade
96.2% accurate
Run Favor
runs, SD
ABS Overturns
of 3 reviewed
What this shows — how Dan Merzel called the 182 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 175 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
- 1-0.20▲9 · 2-1 ball called strike
Drake Baldwin vs Mason Miller - 2+0.19▼2 · 2-0 strike called ball
Fernando Tatis Jr. vs JR Ritchie - 3+0.13▼2 · 1-0 strike called ball
Xander Bogaerts vs JR Ritchie
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 · 1 overturned (ump overruled) · 2 upheld (ump confirmed). This is Hawkeye ground truth, no model involved.
- 1Drake Baldwin — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 2Matt Olson — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 3Rodolfo Durán — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 2 of 3 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.