Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-06-26
KC @ CWS
Home plate: Sean Barber
“The zone kept its promises.”
Umpire Grade
95.3% accurate
Run Favor
runs, CWS
ABS Overturns
of 3 reviewed
What this shows — how Sean Barber called the 170 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone. He got 162 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
- 1-0.28▼4 · 1-2 ball called strike
Colson Montgomery vs Beck Way - 2+0.21▼8 · 3-0 strike called ball
Chase Meidroth vs Tyler Tolbert - 3+0.13▼5 · 1-0 strike called ball
Miguel Vargas vs Lucas Erceg
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 · 0 overturned (ump overruled) · 3 upheld (ump confirmed). This is the ABS system’s own measurement — Hawk-Eye optical ball-tracking, not our model.
- 1Carter Jensen — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
- 2Sam Antonacci — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
- 3Kyle Teel — ump said ball, robot ruled ball: upheld.
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.