Blue Notes · Umpire Grade2026-08-18
STL @ CIN
Home plate: Brock Ballou
“The zone kept its promises.”
Umpire Grade
93.1% accurate
Run Favor
runs, STL
ABS Overturns
of 1 reviewed
What this shows — how Brock Ballou called the 130 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+0.19▲5 · 2-0 strike called ball
José Fermín vs Andrew Abbott - 2-0.13▼4 · 1-1 ball called strike· challenged ✓
JJ Bleday vs Kyle Leahy - 3-0.13▼2 · 1-0 ball called strike
Dane Myers vs Kyle Leahy
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
1 pitch went to the robots · 1 overturned (ump overruled) · 0 upheld (ump confirmed). This is the ABS system’s own measurement — Hawk-Eye optical ball-tracking, not our model.
- 1JJ Bleday — ump said strike, robot ruled ball: overturned.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 1 of 1 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone), not our error.