STL @ SF
Home plate: John Libka
“Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks.”
What this shows — how John Libka called the 151 pitches that were taken (no swing), graded against the tracked rulebook strike zone, or, on a pitch the ABS (Automated Ball-Strike System) reviewed on a challenge, against its ruling. 139 were right. Below, only the misses are plotted, alongside every challenged pitch.
The zone, as he called it
The calls that moved the game
- 1-0.28▲2 · 1-2 ball called strike
José Fermín vs Blade Tidwell - 2+0.13▼1 · 1-1 strike called ball
Turner Hill vs Andre Pallante - 3-0.13▼8 · 1-1 ball called strike
Drew Cavanaugh vs Cade Winquest
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 · 2 overturned (ump overruled) · 1 upheld (ump confirmed). This is the ABS system’s own measurement — Hawk-Eye optical ball-tracking, not our model.
- 1Leo Bernal — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 2Drew Cavanaugh — ump said ball, robot ruled strike: overturned.
- 3Thomas Saggese — ump said strike, robot ruled strike: upheld.
Our tracked-rulebook zone matched the ABS ruling on 3 of 3 — a zone-definition gap (ABS grades a standardized, height-based zone). Where the two disagree, the umpire is graded on the ABS ruling.