Must C | Must C Call: Zobrist strikes out looking - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

 

It seems that the umps new position (over the catcher's shoulder) has really screwed up the outside strike zone. Oh well, Nathan gets his 300th save

It was a blown strike call, but not as bad a pitch as AJ made it look. Probably not even the worst strike call of the year so far.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/NathanZobrist2.gif.opt_.gif

It was a blown strike call, but not as bad a pitch as AJ made it look. Probably not even the worst strike call of the year so far.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/NathanZobrist2.gif.opt_.gif

 

It was pretty bad.

Here is the pitch F/X on that AB, from the pitchers view:

 

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/numlocation_io.php?pitchSel=150274&game=gid_2013_04_08_tbamlb_texmlb_1/&batterX=73&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=3

Yeah it was a good 6 inches off the plate. I thought it was interesting that the umpire said after the game that he tried to account for AJ's poor framing. A pretty smart effort I'd say, that he just took too far, and he admitted that he should have called it a ball. So I can't get fired up about it. In fact, the fact that a strike call like this gets people's attention is really a testemannt to how much strike calling has improved since even 2 or 3 years ago when we were still trained to accept that each umpire carried his own personal and amorphous strikezone around in a suitcase from stadium to stadium. At least now there is a modicum of consistency and accountability.