Rob Drake
26 games graded behind the plate.
3,598 correct of 3,891 graded takes (92.5% ± 0.8, 95%). Best game 96.5% · worst 87.5%. 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 Rob Drake
This season is 3,891 graded takes, which puts Rob Drake's overall accuracy at 92.5% ± 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 778 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 324 takes, so ±2.9 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 99 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 99 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
Four Octobers
From Indiana, Pennsylvania, to 28 seasons on a major league staff and four League Championship Series.
Four Octobers
Rob Drake was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1969. He umpired his first major league game on September 3, 1999, at age 30, and has been on a major league staff for 28 seasons since — spanning 1999 through at least 2026. He works behind the plate as an active major league umpire in 2026.
Drake worked a League Championship Series in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2021 — four Octobers of LCS work spread across a decade. The 2013 postseason was one of the deepest October runs of his career: he worked six League Championship Series games that fall, plus a Wild Card Game. A National League Division Series assignment followed in 2024. Across the years, the October work has run the full range: Wild Card Games, Division Series, League Championship Series.
In May 2015, Drake ejected Nationals star Bryce Harper on a check-swing call. Manager Matt Williams was ejected on the same play after arguing the call. Over his major league career, he has recorded 76 ejections — a figure accumulated across the seasons since his first major league game in September 1999.
Fever has graded Drake behind the plate in 21 games this season, and the record on this page is the reason his name is here.
Reporting: Baseball Almanac, Wikipedia. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYY @ LAA2026-08-31 | A- | 0.8 NYY | 2/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| WSH @ MIA2026-08-21 | C+ | 1.6 MIA | 4/7 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| SEA @ NYY2026-08-13 | C+ | 1.3 NYY | 5/7 | This one went to video review more than most. |
| STL @ TOR2026-08-01 | A | 0.3 STL | 0/1 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| TEX @ TB2026-07-28 | B+ | 0.8 TB | 3/3 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| BAL @ BOS2026-07-22 | A | 0.1 BAL | 2/3 | If umpiring had a highlight reel, this wouldn't make it. That's the compliment. |
| LAD @ NYY2026-07-19 | C | 0.0 NYY | 3/5 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| AZ @ LAD2026-07-11 | B- | 0.6 LAD | 1/2 | A few he'd want back, and the grade says so. |
| TOR @ SF2026-07-07 | B+ | 0.3 TOR | 0/2 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| MIA @ ATH2026-07-03 | B | 1.1 MIA | 3/3 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| CWS @ DET2026-06-19 | B | 0.8 DET | 1/3 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| MIA @ PIT2026-06-13 | B | 0.2 MIA | 2/4 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| STL @ NYM2026-06-09 | D | 0.5 NYM | 2/2 | Borderline went to the battery all night. |
| MIL @ COL2026-06-05 | B | 0.7 MIL | 4/5 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| LAD @ AZ2026-06-01 | B | 0.0 LAD | 3/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| COL @ AZ2026-05-23 | A | 0.5 AZ | 1/2 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| LAD @ SD2026-05-19 | C | 0.8 SD | 3/4 | Expanded the plate a touch past its 17 inches. |
| MIL @ MIN2026-05-15 | B+ | even | 2/4 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| MIL @ WSH2026-05-03 | A- | 0.4 WSH | 2/4 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| HOU @ BAL2026-04-30 | B- | 1.1 HOU | 3/4 | One side pitched to a slightly bigger plate. |
| LAD @ SF2026-04-23 | C | 1.1 LAD | 6/6 | This one went to video review more than most. |
| TEX @ SEA2026-04-18 | B | 0.6 TEX | 2/4 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| COL @ HOU2026-04-14 | B+ | 0.0 HOU | 2/4 | Corner-to-corner and then some. |
| DET @ MIN2026-04-06 | B+ | 0.4 DET | 1/5 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| PIT @ CIN2026-04-01 | B | 0.2 PIT | 3/5 | The zone kept to itself — the hitters said thanks. |
| COL @ MIA2026-03-28 | B | 0.3 COL | 1/3 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |