There were 732,473 pitches thrown across baseball during the 2019 regular season. The Pirates' pitchers threw 24,862 of them. The Pirates' batters faced 23,525 of them. With a sample size that large, some miscues are inevitable. To err is human and whatnot.
While player mistakes are a part of the game, umpire mistakes are usually more frustrating. Sure, there are other factors like framing and sequencing that can influence a call, but umpires usually take the heat. However, sometimes the blame is justified, and when you open an article looking at "the worst ball and strike calls of the year," you are probably safe to assume they are the guilty party for these blunders.
To determine what the worst balls are, I measured the pitch by how close it was to the middle of the strike zone. For the worst called strikes, it was which pitch was the farthest from any part of the zone.
Let's start with the pitchers. Here were all the pitches Pirates threw that were called balls despite being in the Gameday strike zone:
There are 464 pitches in that chart. Joe Musgrove was the biggest contributor, with 54 of these would-be strikes going in the hitter's favor.
All told, Michael Feliz did not have too many calls go against him in 2019, only 17, but he did have the most egregious ball. The pitch in question was delivered to Trevor Story on May 19:
Elias Diaz dropped the ball on that one, both figuratively and literally. It was a prime, center-cut fastball, and while Diaz did call for it to be low and away, he would have almost certainly gotten the call had he caught it.
But that pitch was pretty inconsequential. What about the worst called ball four? For that, we have to go back to June 18:
Mitch Keller did fall behind 3-0 to Niko Goodrum, but he did not deserve that fourth ball. Goodrum's walk sparked a two run rally for the Tigers, who eventually won 5-4. According to Baseball Prospectus, no catcher cost their pitchers more runs from their framing skills than Diaz. Those were two samples to enforce that.
Time for the hitters. Here were all the called strikes Pirates batters took even though the pitch was out of the zone.
Pirate batters took 700 strikes that were out of the zone last season. Adam Frazier had the most calls go against him: 76. He also took the worst called strike of any Pirate batter. It was a close competition, but this slider that never broke on Aug. 13 was, by the smallest of margins, a bit farther:
Griffin Channing can credit that strike to a pretty fantastic frame by his catcher, Max Stassi. Stassi is one of the best in the business at stealing strikes, which is why Jacob Stallings started texting him for pointers so he could get better.
Frazier was able to bounce back in that plate appearance and eventually drew a walk. So it begs the question, what was the worst called third strike? For that, we head to Aug. 23 with Bryan Reynolds facing Anthony DeSclafani:
Reynolds is a pretty reserved guy, and that slight sneer as he walked back to the dugout is about as emotional as he got in his rookie season. He knew he got rung up on a bad pitch.
Now before you call for robot umps, it is worth mentioning there were fewer blown calls this year than any other year since the advent of pitch tracking in 2008. They are at least trending in the right direction. Maybe one day umpires will get to a point where a Mound Visit like this would be too nitpicky to publish.
All charts, videos and data courtesy of Baseball Savant.
MORE MOUND VISIT
Sept. 6: Frazier has fooled us again
Sept. 4: Hitters attack zone
Aug. 26: Moran’s modest gains
Aug. 23: Pitcher auditions
