Scott Barry
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,354 correct of 3,634 graded takes (92.3% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 95.7% · worst 89.1%. 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 Scott Barry
This season is 3,634 graded takes, which puts Scott Barry's overall accuracy at 92.3% ± 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 727 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 303 takes, so ±3.0 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 61 takes, so ±6.7 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 95 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 95 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
Scott Barry
From Battle Creek through four minor leagues and a World Baseball Classic to two decades of major league work.
Scott Adam Barry was born on August 3, 1976, in Battle Creek, Michigan. He came up through the Appalachian League, the South Atlantic League, the Midwest League, and the Carolina League, with time in the Arizona Fall League. Before he held a full-time major league job, he was assigned to the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic — a tournament that drew primarily on minor league umpires. He made his MLB debut on June 4 of that year, and 2006 opened a door that did not swing wide until 2011, his first full-time season.
Once the full-time appointment came, the postseason assignments followed: Division Series in 2012 and 2014, the All-Star Game in 2014, a League Championship Series in 2018, Division Series again in 2022, and Wild Card Series in 2025.
In August 2010, Barry ejected Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman for tossing his bat and helmet after a strikeout, then ejected manager Jim Riggleman the same night. Days later he ejected Phillies slugger Ryan Howard on a check-swing call — the first career ejection for both Zimmerman and Howard.
He wears uniform number 87 and works on Crew C, whose crew chief is Ron Kulpa. He has worked major league games since that June 2006 debut. This season, our grading record includes 17 of his games behind the plate.
Reporting: Wikipedia, Deadspin. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAD @ DET2026-08-30 | C+ | 0.3 LAD | 5/6 | The players kept asking for a second opinion — and kept getting one. |
| TEX @ CWS2026-08-25 | B | 0.8 CWS | 4/6 | You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice. |
| DET @ KC2026-08-21 | A | 0.4 KC | 0/2 | Solid and unspectacular — exactly what the job asks. |
| CWS @ CHC2026-08-17 | C+ | 0.6 CHC | 4/7 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| WSH @ PHI2026-08-06 | B+ | 0.4 PHI | 1/3 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| NYY @ CHC2026-08-02 | C | 0.3 NYY | 7/9 | The challenge cart got its steps in. |
| ATL @ NYM2026-07-29 | B | 1.0 ATL | 1/2 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| CWS @ TOR2026-07-17 | B | 0.1 TOR | 4/7 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| SF @ COL2026-07-04 | B- | 1.3 SF | 3/6 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| MIL @ ATL2026-06-21 | C+ | 1.4 ATL | 0/0 | The strike zone picked a side, and wasn't shy about it. |
| TOR @ BOS2026-06-17 | A- | 0.8 TOR | 1/1 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| STL @ NYM2026-06-11 | C+ | 0.3 NYM | 0/3 | The zone had wings tonight. |
| WSH @ AZ2026-06-06 | A | 0.2 WSH | 2/3 | Quietly excellent. The best umpiring is the kind you forget was there. |
| TEX @ STL2026-06-01 | C | 0.0 STL | 0/3 | The zone stretched its legs. |
| CLE @ DET2026-05-20 | C | 0.3 CLE | 1/5 | You wanted a strike, you had to earn it twice. |
| LAD @ LAA2026-05-16 | B | 0.8 LAD | 0/3 | If it was close, it was a strike. The hitters noticed. |
| MIA @ MIN2026-05-12 | B+ | 1.1 MIN | 1/4 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| CIN @ CHC2026-05-07 | B- | 0.2 CIN | 2/5 | Generous with the corners — the pitchers said thank you. |
| TOR @ MIN2026-05-03 | B+ | 0.3 MIN | 2/5 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| TB @ CLE2026-04-29 | A | 0.1 TB | 1/1 | Called it the way the rulebook drew it up. |
| PIT @ MIL2026-04-25 | A- | 1.0 MIL | 4/6 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| STL @ MIA2026-04-20 | B- | 0.3 STL | 2/3 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| STL @ WSH2026-04-08 | A- | 0.1 STL | 2/3 | The kind of night where the umpire is the least of the story. |
| TEX @ BAL2026-03-31 | A- | 0.3 BAL | 1/2 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |