Chris Conroy
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,567 correct of 3,814 graded takes (93.5% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.3% · worst 89.5%. 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 Chris Conroy
This season is 3,814 graded takes, which puts Chris Conroy's overall accuracy at 93.5% ± 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 763 takes, so ±1.7 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 318 takes, so ±2.7 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 64 takes, so ±6.0 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 97 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 97 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
The Berkshires Road
A North Adams native whose career the Berkshire Eagle has followed from Mount Greylock to the 2021 World Series.
Chris Conroy was born on July 22, 1974, in North Adams, Massachusetts, in Berkshire County. The Berkshire Eagle has followed him across the milestones of a career that carried him from Mount Greylock Regional High School and Siena College to the major leagues. The paper reported on him when he landed his full-time MLB position in 2013, and again, years later, when he was promoted to crew chief in 2023. He is a Berkshires native whose working life the home paper has tracked at each turn.
He made his major league umpiring debut on September 29, 2010. He was added to the full-time MLB staff on June 14, 2013, replacing Brian Runge.
Conroy has been on the field for some of baseball's less frequent events. On September 28, 2012, he was stationed at first base when Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds threw a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was at first base again on August 24 of that same year, when Adrián Beltré of the Texas Rangers hit for the cycle against the Minnesota Twins. In November 2014, he was selected as one of three MLB umpire representatives for the Japan All-Star Series — an international assignment that came early in his full-time career.
His postseason assignments include the 2021 World Series. He was promoted to crew chief in 2023. He continues to work major league games this season, and we have graded him behind the plate in 17 of them — the record that puts his name on this page.
Reporting: Wikipedia, The Berkshire Eagle. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEX @ MIL2026-08-29 | A | 0.1 MIL | 3/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| CIN @ SF2026-08-24 | A- | 0.7 CIN | 4/6 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| DET @ PIT2026-08-19 | B- | 0.5 DET | 2/3 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| CWS @ BOS2026-08-06 | A- | 0.3 BOS | 3/5 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| MIA @ NYM2026-08-02 | A | 0.4 MIA | 3/5 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| AZ @ PIT2026-07-29 | B | 0.4 AZ | 0/1 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| NYY @ PHI2026-07-25 | B+ | 0.3 PHI | 3/6 | The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch. |
| TB @ TOR2026-07-21 | B | 0.1 TB | 2/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| TEX @ ATL2026-07-17 | B | 0.1 ATL | 1/2 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| MIN @ HOU2026-07-01 | B+ | 0.9 MIN | 4/8 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| ATL @ SF2026-06-27 | C+ | 0.7 SF | 0/0 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| BOS @ COL2026-06-22 | A | 0.2 COL | 2/4 | The zone showed up, did the job, and went home. Ideal. |
| LAD @ PIT2026-06-11 | B | 0.8 PIT | 1/5 | Pitchers found a little extra real estate. |
| CIN @ STL2026-06-05 | A- | 0.9 STL | 2/4 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| LAA @ DET2026-05-26 | A- | 0.1 DET | 0/3 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| BAL @ WSH2026-05-16 | A- | 1.1 WSH | 4/6 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| KC @ CWS2026-05-12 | A | 0.4 KC | 3/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| ATL @ LAD2026-05-08 | A | 0.1 LAD | 3/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| NYM @ LAA2026-05-03 | A- | 1.4 LAA | 0/3 | One side pitched to a slightly bigger plate. |
| NYY @ TEX2026-04-28 | B- | 0.6 NYY | 2/4 | The zone shrank when the pitchers needed it most. |
| AZ @ BAL2026-04-14 | A- | 0.4 BAL | 1/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| CLE @ ATL2026-04-11 | C | 1.1 CLE | 5/8 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| MIL @ BOS2026-04-06 | A- | 0.6 MIL | 0/1 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| LAA @ HOU2026-03-26 | B- | 0.8 HOU | 1/3 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |