MLB umpires use the hitters’ bodies to determine their strike zone.
According to the league’s official site, “the official strike zone is the area over home plate from the midpoint between a batter’s shoulders and the top of the uniform pants — when the batter is in his stance and prepared to swing at a pitched ball — and a point just below the kneecap.”
Now, you would imagine that New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, being 6-foot-7, has a large strike zone.
However, umpires often abuse this perception and gift opposing pitchers mind-blowing strike calls, especially in the lower part of the zone.
Codify Baseball tweeted about this: “Aaron Judge already has a larger strike zone according to the rules. Imagine if the umpires weren’t making it even bigger. These eight examples are from the past two days. All called strikes,” they wrote, with a short clip.
Aaron Judge already has a larger strike zone according to the rules. Imagine if the umpires weren't making it even bigger.
These eight examples are from the past 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀.
All called strikes. pic.twitter.com/hTBpqWMoeh— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) May 10, 2022
The clip had several blown calls, all against Judge.
An Ongoing Issue With Umpires
It’s not a new problem, in fact: it has been going on for years.
Manager Aaron Boone recently got tossed from a game for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire during a Judge at-bat.
He kept asking the umpire to “make the adjustment”.
Judge is a big man, and umpires certainly have a challenge calling balls and strikes in his plate appearances.
But more often than not, they will award the pitcher some really bad calls, especially down in the zone.
The most impressive thing of all is that the missed calls haven’t seem at all capable of slowing down Judge, who is on his way to one of the best seasons of his career.
At the moment, heading to Tuesday’s game, he is slashing .284/.354/.608, with nine home runs, 19 runs, and 19 RBI.
Imagine if umpires did a good job in his at-bats.