Chad Fairchild
25 games graded behind the plate.
3,489 correct of 3,767 graded takes (92.6% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 98.7% · worst 88.4%. Grade is accuracy on taken pitches vs the rulebook zone; ABS is the Automated Ball-Strike System challenge record (how often the robots overruled the call).
What we can't say about Chad Fairchild
This season is 3,767 graded takes, which puts Chad Fairchild's overall accuracy at 92.6% ± 0.8 (95% interval). That is a real measurement against a league spanning about four points end to end. It is not enough for anything finer, and here is the arithmetic rather than our word for it:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 753 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 314 takes, so ±2.9 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 63 takes, so ±6.5 points. (a given pitcher is worked once or twice a season.)
And a note on the number itself: an accuracy figure is a rate plus a convention for what counts as a miss. Ours grades every taken pitch against the rulebook zone as the feed reports it. Others are more forgiving — UmpScorecards counts a call wrong only when the pitch was at least 90% likely to be a strike — so two sites can print the same percentage about the same umpire and not mean the same thing by it. How the grade is built.
The overturn rate is a different kind of number and does not belong beside the grade: it is accuracy on the 101 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 101 is enough to print it with its own denominator, which is what we do — but it still ranks umpires by how often they are appealed, not by how often they are right.
The road to the plate
Thirteen Years to Full-Time
Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Chad Fairchild spent thirteen seasons in the minors before reaching full-time MLB status in 2010 — and two World Series followed.
Chadwick Jarrett Fairchild was born on December 30, 1970, in Sandusky, Ohio, and grew up in Wakeman. He began umpiring professionally in 1997, and for the next thirteen years he worked through six minor leagues — Gulf Coast League, New York–Penn League, South Atlantic League, Florida State League, Southern League, International League. His first MLB game came on September 30, 2004. The full-time appointment did not come until 2010, thirteen seasons into his professional career.
He has worked the All-Star Game in 2013, the World Series in 2018 and 2024, and multiple League Championship and Division Series. He wore uniform number 75 until the 2014 season, when he changed to number 4.
The Hardball Times identified Fairchild as having one of the smallest strike zones in MLB during the 2011 season, a reputation that followed him throughout his career. In a July 2007 game in Milwaukee, Tom Glavine was chasing his 300th career win with more than two dozen family members in the stands. Fairchild's tight zone — especially outside to right-handed batters — hindered Glavine, who took a no-decision. Fairchild was also hit in the head by David Ortiz's bat during a game broadcast on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, a moment that became one of his most widely recognized.
We have graded him behind the plate in 18 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Wikipedia, MiLB.com, Deadspin. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-24 — the profile reads as of its filing; the grading record above is live · every fact in this piece comes from a sourced research pack and clears an independent fact-check, and nothing is edited after filing.
The games
| Game | Grade | Favor | ABS | Blue Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHI @ SEA2026-08-26 | C+ | 0.5 PHI | 3/6 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| MIN @ SD2026-08-22 | A+ | 0.2 MIN | 0/2 | Called it the way the rulebook drew it up. |
| WSH @ TEX2026-08-18 | A- | 0.5 TEX | 3/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| MIN @ MIL2026-08-08 | A | 0.6 MIL | 1/2 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| NYM @ CLE2026-08-04 | C+ | 1.1 CLE | 2/4 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| WSH @ ATL2026-07-30 | A- | 0.4 ATL | 2/3 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| ATH @ MIN2026-07-26 | B+ | 0.4 ATH | 2/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CIN @ SEA2026-07-21 | A- | 0.7 SEA | 0/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| CLE @ MIA2026-07-12 | B | 0.1 MIA | 3/6 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| LAA @ TEX2026-07-08 | B- | 0.2 TEX | 3/5 | Off the corner was close enough tonight. |
| AZ @ TB2026-06-26 | B | 0.0 AZ | 0/2 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| KC @ WSH2026-06-16 | B- | 1.0 KC | 1/3 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| PHI @ MIL2026-06-12 | B | 1.1 PHI | 2/5 | Somebody's pitching staff sent a thank-you note. |
| NYM @ SD2026-06-07 | C+ | 0.1 NYM | 4/7 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| COL @ LAA2026-06-03 | B- | 0.1 COL | 4/6 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| HOU @ CHC2026-05-22 | B- | 0.1 CHC | 4/6 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| SD @ SEA2026-05-17 | D | 3.0 SD | 2/5 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| STL @ ATH2026-05-12 | C | 1.3 ATH | 2/3 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| ATL @ COL2026-05-01 | A- | 0.0 ATL | 1/4 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| MIN @ TB2026-04-26 | A | 0.2 TB | 1/3 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| TOR @ LAA2026-04-21 | C | 0.5 TOR | 2/2 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| CWS @ ATH2026-04-17 | B- | 0.0 ATH | 3/6 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| BOS @ STL2026-04-12 | B- | 0.3 BOS | 1/1 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| CHC @ TB2026-04-07 | A- | 0.0 TB | 4/6 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| NYY @ SF2026-03-27 | A | 0.7 SF | 3/4 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |