James Hoye
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,591 correct of 3,861 graded takes (93.0% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.0% · worst 90.3%. 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 James Hoye
This season is 3,861 graded takes, which puts James Hoye's overall accuracy at 93.0% ± 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 772 takes, so ±1.8 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 322 takes, so ±2.8 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 64 takes, so ±6.2 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 113 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 113 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
James Hoye
Born in Parma, Ohio, Hoye has worked two World Series and called balls and strikes for a no-hitter.
On April 18, 2007, James Hoye worked first base for Mark Buehrle's no-hitter against the Texas Rangers. On May 8, 2018, by then a full-time member of the Major League staff, he was behind the plate for James Paxton's no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays, calling balls and strikes.
The Road from Parma
James Patrick Hoye was born on February 8, 1971, in Parma, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio State University and began his professional umpiring career in 1997. Before reaching the majors, he umpired in the New York–Penn League, the South Atlantic League, the Florida State League, the Eastern League, and the International League. He worked as an MLB reserve umpire from 2003 to 2009 before being hired to the full-time Major League staff prior to the 2010 season. He was promoted to crew chief in 2023.
He has worked two World Series, in 2019 and 2022, and two All-Star Games, in 2015 and 2024. For the 2024 All-Star Game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Major League Baseball selected him as both the plate umpire and the crew chief, an assignment the league announced ahead of the midsummer classic.
He works games in 2026. We have graded Hoye behind the plate in 18 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Wikipedia, AP News. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF @ BOS2026-08-22 | A | 1.2 SF | 1/4 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| TOR @ TB2026-08-18 | A | 1.0 TOR | 2/5 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| CLE @ DET2026-08-13 | B | 0.1 CLE | 1/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| BAL @ TEX2026-08-08 | B | 0.1 BAL | 3/6 | Pitchers found a little extra real estate. |
| PIT @ MIL2026-08-04 | B- | 0.2 PIT | 5/7 | A busy night for the machines in the truck. |
| ATL @ BAL2026-07-24 | B- | 0.1 BAL | 8/11 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| WSH @ ATH2026-07-18 | A- | 0.5 ATH | 1/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| MIN @ NYY2026-07-04 | B- | 0.7 NYY | 7/11 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| NYM @ TOR2026-06-29 | A- | 0.6 TOR | 1/4 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| BAL @ LAA2026-06-24 | B+ | 0.9 LAA | 5/6 | The robots earned their keep tonight. |
| MIN @ AZ2026-06-20 | A | 0.3 MIN | 1/1 | The zone kept its promises. |
| COL @ CHC2026-06-15 | B | 0.1 CHC | 0/3 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| PHI @ LAD2026-05-30 | B- | 0.2 LAD | 2/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| AZ @ SF2026-05-25 | B+ | 0.1 AZ | 2/5 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| PIT @ STL2026-05-21 | B- | 0.6 STL | 1/4 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| CIN @ CLE2026-05-15 | B- | 0.2 CLE | 3/7 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| CHC @ TEX2026-05-09 | A | 0.1 TEX | 1/2 | Textbook top to bottom — a quiet masterclass. |
| NYM @ COL2026-05-06 | B | 0.7 NYM | 2/5 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| CWS @ SD2026-05-01 | A | 0.7 CWS | 0/3 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| ATL @ PHI2026-04-18 | B | 0.2 PHI | 4/5 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| WSH @ PIT2026-04-15 | C+ | 0.5 PIT | 0/3 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| ATH @ NYM2026-04-11 | C+ | 0.1 ATH | 1/4 | A pitcher's-nightmare zone — you had to paint it to get it. |
| CIN @ MIA2026-04-07 | B+ | 0.4 CIN | 5/6 | A busy night for the machines in the truck. |
| TEX @ PHI2026-03-26 | C+ | 0.9 TEX | 0/1 | The zone shrank when the pitchers needed it most. |