Umpire Grade · Blue Notes

Lance Barksdale

25 games graded behind the plate.

Season Grade

92.6% ± 0.8

Avg Swing

runs / game

ABS Overturns

62/109 calls

3,604 correct of 3,891 graded takes (92.6% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.7% · worst 85.6%. 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 Lance Barksdale

This season is 3,891 graded takes, which puts Lance Barksdale'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 778 takes, so ±1.8 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
any single corner of the zone — about 324 takes, so ±2.8 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 65 takes, so ±6.4 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 109 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 109 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 Road from Brookhaven

Lance Barksdale debuted in 2000, made the call on the first replay-overturned home run in MLB history, and has worked two World Series.

On May 13, 2009, Adam LaRoche drove a ball deep, and Barksdale, at first base, called it a home run. Replay review overturned the call to a double. Barksdale became the first umpire in MLB history to have a home run reversed by instant replay.

Lance Barksdale was born on March 8, 1967, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He umpired his first major league game on May 29, 2000, arriving in the big leagues as a fill-in umpire — working major league games without a permanent slot on the staff. He served in that role until MLB promoted him to the full-time umpiring roster in 2006. He wears uniform number 23, a number previously worn by Rick Reed. He was promoted to crew chief ahead of the 2023 season — a milestone that came more than two decades after his first big league assignment.

Under the Mask

The games Barksdale has worked over more than two decades carry him through some of the sport's notable moments. On May 8, 2001, he was the home plate umpire at Bank One Ballpark when Randy Johnson struck out 20 Cincinnati Reds batters, tying a major league record at the time. He has worked two World Series over his career, in 2019 and 2022. On March 21, 2023, he served as home plate umpire for the World Baseball Classic championship game between Japan and the United States. His service across the tournament spanned five editions, dating back to 2006.

His record on this page covers 19 games he has worked behind the plate this season.

Reporting: Wikipedia, Retrosheet, Baseball Reference Bullpen. 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
SEA @ BOS2026-08-31	A-	0.5 BOS	0/3	The zone kept its promises.
CHC @ WSH2026-08-13	B+	1.3 WSH	1/4	Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling.
LAA @ MIA2026-08-08	A	0.6 MIA	0/1	A steady night's work behind the plate.
ATH @ CIN2026-08-04	B	0.9 ATH	1/2	The zone had wings tonight.
TOR @ WSH2026-07-29	B+	1.5 WSH	2/5	Tonight's zone had a rooting interest.
SD @ MIA2026-07-24	A-	0.6 SD	3/6	The zone kept its promises.
DET @ LAA2026-07-19	B	0.1 DET	5/5	This one went to video review more than most.
COL @ SF2026-07-11	B	0.7 SF	2/5	Called a fair game and let the players decide it.
AZ @ SD2026-07-07	B+	0.2 SD	4/5	Pitchers earned every strike the hard way.
HOU @ DET2026-06-26	D	0.8 DET	4/5	Off the corner was close enough tonight.
LAD @ MIN2026-06-22	C+	0.3 MIN	8/9	The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here.
CLE @ MIL2026-06-18	B+	0.7 MIL	3/6	An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much.
AZ @ CIN2026-06-13	C+	1.0 AZ	5/5	This one went to video review more than most.
MIN @ DET2026-06-09	A	0.7 MIN	5/6	A busy night for the machines in the truck.
TB @ BAL2026-05-27	B+	0.1 BAL	2/2	A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix.
CIN @ PHI2026-05-18	B+	0.2 PHI	2/3	The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story.
SD @ MIL2026-05-14	B	0.7 SD	1/5	Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone.
NYM @ AZ2026-05-09	C+	1.5 AZ	4/6	Tonight's zone had a rooting interest.
ATL @ SEA2026-05-04	B	0.6 ATL	1/3	Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment.
MIN @ NYM2026-04-23	A	0.0 MIN	0/2	Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment.
DET @ BOS2026-04-19	D	0.1 BOS	2/5	Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches.
LAA @ NYY2026-04-15	A-	0.7 NYY	2/4	The zone kept its promises.
MIL @ KC2026-04-04	C+	0.1 MIL	3/6	A small strike zone, generously enforced for the offense.
SF @ SD2026-03-30	B-	0.9 SF	1/4	The plate grew a few inches after the first pitch.
CLE @ SEA2026-03-26	A-	0.6 CLE	1/2	Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment.