HP Umpire Jordan Baker ejected Mariners left fielder Michael Saunders for arguing a strike call in the bottom of the 10th inning of the Orioles-Mariners game. With two out and two on, Saunders took a 3-2 slider from Orioles pitcher Darren O'Day for a called third strike. Replays indicate the pitch was located thigh high and off the outer edge of home plate (px = -1.280), the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 2-2. The Orioles ultimately won the contest, 4-2, in 18 innings.
This is Jordan Baker (71)'s third ejection of 2012.
Jordan Baker now has -1 points in the UEFL (1 Previous + 3 AAA + -1 Penalty + -4 Incorrect Call = -1).
Crew Chief Wally Bell now has 3 points in the UEFL's Crew Division (3 Previous + 0 = 3).
UEFL Standings Update
This is the 172nd ejection of 2012.
This is the 76th player ejection of 2012. Prior to his ejection, Saunders was 0-5 in the contest.
This is the Mariners' 2nd ejection of 2012, 4th in the AL West (TEX 6; OAK 5; LAA 4; SEA 2).
This is Michael Saunders' first career ejection.
This is Jordan Baker's first ejection since August 19 (Daniel Murphy; QOC = Incorrect).
Wrap: Baltimore Orioles at Seattle Mariners, 9/18/12
Video: Called out to end an extra inning, Saunders is ejected arguing Baker's strike zone (SEA)
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24 comments :
Is it strange that driving home this game was on the radio? I found myself wondering A) if Baker is going to run someone and B) Bell must be the crew chief today.
Too close to leave with two strikes, or does that adage not mean anything anymore?
Haha. M's announcers were poking fun at Baker for being young and new to 16 inning baseball. Not five seconds later, he calls a balk on their pitcher. Awesome.
So 5 hours, 45 minutes long, 525 pitches and a plot that looks like this. I can't even begin to try and do a pitch f/x evaluation for that quantity.
[im]http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/cache/zoneplot.php-pitchSel=all&game=gid_2012_09_18_balmlb_seamlb_1&sp_type=1&s_type=7.gif[/im]
The pitch was half-a-foot outside...But it does looks like Baker did a solid job for seeing 500+ pitches in one game.
Oh, and attendance for this game was all of 12,000. I wonder how many were around for the end?
@Cricket Those around at the end should of gotten tickets or something. Basically sitting for two games.
Great job by a young umpire
I don't know about 'great job'. Some of those pitches in the plot are well within the strike zone, and he balled them. Just because he saw a lot of pitches doesn't mean he can miss pitches that are clearly balls or strikes. Hate to say it, but watching this young man, he may be not quite ready for prime time.
Anon 6:48: unless you watch those pitched you think he severely missed on video too, you have no clue whether it was a missed pitch well within the zone. If it was severely butchered by the catcher, or maybe a huge 12-6 curve that is well within the zone but then hits the dirt, those are not strikes, but they will show up on a plot like this. These will be adjusted as 'correct' when he gets his actual score, which has nothing to do with this plot. If you want to keep calling those pitches in Little League though, more power to you. Frankly, I've come to expect this type of comment from this site though. Great job JB.
They can't all be butchered and 12-6'ers. And the ones well off the plate? You're comment isn't surprising. I've come to expect people jumping all over people who say anything against an umpire, or have a different opinion. But you keep thinking that plate work is a good job in the MLB.
Baker has had three ejection this season- all have been the first time that that player has been ejected- just to point out
For some reason they really rushed him before his first big league game, which i believe was in july, went from AA to AAA and then within three weeks in houston.
It wasn't quite that fast for Baker. He was in Triple A this whole season and most of last season, but when Tyler Funnemann resigned he became a Crew Chief and then within about 2 weeks he worked his first MLB Game. He lasted as a CC for about 3 weeks and then became a rover. For those of you who don't follow MILB Umpiring, it is almost unheard of to become a rover during that short of a time period. David Rackley spent 2.5 or 3.5 years as a CC before becoming a rover as an example. John Tumpane is till not a rover. Not sure hwy they are rushing Baker so much becaus ehe is just not very good and has one fo the shortest fuses in the league. He is not a hothead but all three of his ejections were questionable IMO, not necesarily bad but questionable. I would not have had a problem with him working a little bit this season and a lot next season, but he is taking games away from guys like DJ Reyburn, Angel Campos and Cory Blaser all of whom are better than Baker right now. I don't care what you think about Campos, his strike zone is not worse than Bkaer's
It is not exactly clear, but in the last post when I mention Funnemann resigning, I am talking about Baker from there on out not Funnemann.
These questions don't relate to this ejection but since the playoffs are fast approaching I pose these questions to see if anyone has any inside info.
1. With the addition of the wild card game will MLB use some of the 36 playoff umpires and how will that be determined.
2. Since Jim Joyce has been an acting CC all year will he be slotted with the 16 other crew chiefs or will he fight for his spot in the playoffs with the 51 non crew chiefs.
3. Is there a minimum number of games you have to work in order to qualify for the playoffs?
Thanks in advance to anyone who knows any of the answers.
Would be interesting to see if Baker is working tonight - 18 innings behind the plate is a LOT, and one can imagine he is going to be pretty sore. MLB has done that a lot lately - a big change from the old days. Poor Ed Sudol had to work the very next day after working that infamous Memorial Day doubleheader at Shea in 1964. He worked the plate in the second game, which only went 24 innings. He tells how he had nasty cramping after, but the NL made him work his game the next day in Philly.
I worked a 14 inning high school SOFTBALL game behind the plate this year, and that was an interesting experience the next day.
here is some more post EJ footage!!
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24885205&c_id=mlb
@ russ you bring up some interesting points.... I think they are thinking LONG TERM with Baker and not right now.... They like his size but his maturity has usually been his issue.... Sometimes we forget that many guys are hired in their teens and most in their early 20's this means they grow up often as adults on the road.
I've seen enough of Campos and Reyburn.... Give some of the young guys a chance to sink or swim!
AM i the only one who thinks Baker looks sloppy in his uniform?
In tonights (Wed) 2nd LAD @ WAS game, check out Porter counting Matt Kemp run on third out FC in top of 4th. Kemp is about 10 feet from plate when tag is made.
Ditto...
And you keep throwing MLB umpires under the bus even though you couldn't work higher than a JV baseball game.
tmac I absolutely agree Baker is in it for the long run. I am not saying he won't make a good MLB Umpire one day, he has just shown me time and time again he is not ready. He just looks amateurish to me. And it is not how he handles his ejections, because he does a good job with that. He never gets heated. It is the actual ejections themsleves. They might fly in Double A but are not MLB caliber. Saunders wasn't even complaining that much and wasn't even talking to Baker. That is an inexcusible ejection IMO. Baker seems like a good guy who is not arrogant despite his fast rise, and he is certainly not afraid to call balks and you see many MLB Umpires pass up on those. But I think he is just a little sensitive aand needs to let some of these things go. I gurantee you none of the other three Umpires would have had an ejection there. Bell, Kulpa and Guccione have combined for less ejctions than Baker this season. I do think he is not quite ready for the MLB yet and that is not an indictment on Baker. I think MLB rushed him in and he would have been better served spending this season as a CC in Triple A all season getting the occasional call-up like what they have been doing with Clint Fagan. Spending 2 weeks as a Triple A CC is just not enough IMO, I don't care how good you might be.
On another note, Wally Bell did a really good job here. Take notes Gary Darling and Brian Gorman this is how you break up an argument. When aSaunders was ejected from second base, Bell came in instantly and walked with Saunders and made sure no contact happened. Bell has shown this year that he wants to be one of the next CC's. I think him and Hernandez are virtual locks for the next opening. Vanover, Davidson, Danley and Meals are the others pre 19999 but I just think there is way too much inconsistency among those four.
@Lee, Porter was correct originally here. He did not count the run and then Mattingly came out and wanted a discussion. From the looks of the conference Winters was the one who overruled him. Replays show Porter was right originally and it wasn't really close.
@Russ, announcers are saying that Porter did not even make a call. Although it is hard to see. at end of Gameday Video, Porter indeed makes no motion either way. From the way Winters came in right away to HP, I would have to agree no call was made.
That's right, you know me. And I didn't run him over, just stating my objective opinion.
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