Louie Krupa
14 games graded behind the plate.
2,063 correct of 2,200 graded takes (93.8% ± 1.0, 95%). Best game 97.1% · worst 91.8%. 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 Louie Krupa
This season is 2,200 graded takes, which puts Louie Krupa's overall accuracy at 93.8% ± 1.0 (95% interval). That interval is a large share of the whole league's four-point spread, so this grade is a reading and not yet a ranking — we print it, and we do not place it against umpires with a full season behind the plate. Everything finer is further out of reach still:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 440 takes, so ±2.3 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 183 takes, so ±3.5 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 37 takes, so ±7.8 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 59 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 59 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
Louie Krupa
From Sault Ste. Marie to Citi Field — nearly twelve years in the minors before the call came.
The road began between innings at a baseball tournament in Escanaba. Louie Krupa's high school coach pointed out a former minor league umpire working the games. Krupa — Lucas Krupa, born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, a 2012 graduate of Sault Area High School — walked over and introduced himself. They had a long conversation after the game, and Krupa left knowing which umpire school to attend.
He enrolled at the Wendelstedt Umpire School in 2014 and did not make the cut. The school sent him to the independent Northwoods League, where he worked games and honed his skills. He returned to umpire school in 2015, was asked to stay, and earned one of 16 minor league contracts out of a 60-person evaluation course in Vero Beach, Florida. What followed was nearly 12 years umpiring in the minor leagues before he received his MLB call-up.
The debut came on April 24, 2026, at Citi Field during a series between the New York Mets and the Colorado Rockies. Colleagues and bosses advised Krupa to take a full half-inning just to look around and soak in the moment. He chose the top of the third inning — the crowd, the bright lights — and then locked back in to work the game.
We have graded Krupa behind the plate in 8 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Baseball Almanac, 9&10 News, Sault Ste. Marie Evening News, myupnow.com. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOR @ NYY2026-08-23 | B+ | 0.4 TOR | 0/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| AZ @ BOS2026-08-19 | A | 1.2 AZ | 1/4 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| CWS @ DET2026-08-15 | B+ | 0.7 DET | 1/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| PHI @ STL2026-08-10 | B | 1.1 PHI | 2/5 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| SF @ TEX2026-08-05 | B+ | 0.1 TEX | 1/1 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| DET @ ATH2026-08-01 | B | 1.4 ATH | 5/6 | The robots earned their keep tonight. |
| PHI @ WSH2026-06-25 | B- | 0.9 WSH | 2/4 | You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice. |
| CHC @ COL2026-06-11 | B | 0.9 CHC | 2/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| CLE @ TEX2026-06-06 | B+ | 1.7 TEX | 1/4 | One side pitched to a slightly bigger plate. |
| PIT @ HOU2026-06-02 | A | 0.1 HOU | 2/6 | You could set a watch by that zone. |
| PHI @ SD2026-05-27 | B | 1.3 SD | 1/5 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| CWS @ SF2026-05-23 | A- | 0.5 SF | 4/6 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| ATH @ LAA2026-05-19 | A- | 0.5 ATH | 0/3 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| COL @ NYM2026-04-26 | A+ | 0.7 NYM | 1/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |