Marvin Hudson
21 games graded behind the plate.
2,888 correct of 3,115 graded takes (92.7% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 96.7% · worst 86.7%. 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 Marvin Hudson
This season is 3,115 graded takes, which puts Marvin Hudson's overall accuracy at 92.7% ± 0.9 (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 623 takes, so ±2.0 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 260 takes, so ±3.2 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 52 takes, so ±7.1 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 81 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 81 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
Marvin Hudson
A Georgia catcher turned major league umpire, Marvin Hudson has worked perfect games, no-hitters, and a World Series.
The Road from Marietta
Marvin Hudson was born on March 3, 1964, in Marietta, Georgia, and graduated from Marietta High School in 1982. At Piedmont College he studied business administration and played catcher on the school's baseball team, graduating in 1986.
He began umpiring professionally in 1992, starting in the Appalachian League. From there he worked his way through the Southern League and the International League before reaching the majors. He umpired his first Major League Baseball game on July 29, 1998.
The Games Under His Mask
The assignments since then span no-hitters, perfect games, and a World Series. He was the home plate umpire for Armando Galarraga's near-perfect game against the Cleveland Indians on June 2, 2010 — one of the most famous missed calls in baseball history. He was on the field for Ervin Santana's no-hitter in 2011 and for Philip Humber's perfect game in Seattle in 2012. In 2016, MLB selected him to the umpiring crew for the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians, and he worked home plate during Game 4. In June 2025, he was behind the plate when Yoshinobu Yamamoto came within one pitch of an immaculate inning against Fernando Tatis Jr., who did not swing at a pitch Hudson called a ball.
Away from the field, Hudson and fellow umpire Mike DiMuro co-founded the Blue for Kids Foundation in 2004. The foundation is now part of UMPS CARE Charities. He was named a crew chief for the 2022 season and wears uniform number 51.
We have graded 15 of his games behind the plate this season.
Reporting: Wikipedia, Retrosheet, Piedmont University Athletics, UMPS CARE Charities. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT @ STL2026-08-29 | C+ | 2.0 STL | 6/7 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| COL @ WSH2026-08-25 | D | 0.3 WSH | 1/5 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| TEX @ LAA2026-08-13 | B | 0.8 TEX | 1/2 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| PHI @ BAL2026-08-01 | B- | 1.0 PHI | 3/5 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |
| KC @ MIN2026-07-28 | A- | 0.1 MIN | 5/7 | ABS had a long evening on this one. |
| SEA @ TEX2026-07-24 | B- | 0.2 TEX | 2/3 | Not his sharpest evening behind the plate. |
| MIA @ MIL2026-07-19 | A | 0.8 MIA | 2/4 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| KC @ BAL2026-07-11 | A- | 0.5 BAL | 2/4 | Reliable as a Tuesday: no complaints, no headlines. |
| CLE @ MIN2026-07-07 | A- | 0.1 CLE | 3/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| BAL @ BOS2026-06-04 | A | 0.1 BOS | 5/7 | A few too many trips to the challenge cart. |
| ATL @ CIN2026-05-30 | B+ | 0.6 ATL | 0/2 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| STL @ MIL2026-05-25 | A | 0.2 STL | 1/2 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| HOU @ MIN2026-05-18 | A | 0.1 MIN | 1/3 | A clean sheet behind the plate — the kind of night nobody posts about. |
| SF @ LAD2026-05-14 | B- | 0.2 LAD | 3/4 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| TEX @ DET2026-05-02 | B | 1.1 DET | 1/1 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| BOS @ TOR2026-04-27 | D | 0.4 BOS | 4/6 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| CIN @ TB2026-04-20 | B | 1.0 CIN | 1/2 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| CWS @ KC2026-04-09 | A- | 0.9 KC | 3/5 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| TB @ MIN2026-04-05 | B+ | 0.1 TB | 2/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| WSH @ PHI2026-03-31 | D | 0.8 PHI | 1/3 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| ATH @ TOR2026-03-27 | B+ | 0.1 TOR | 1/1 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |