MLB has announced the 2012 Wild Card, ALDS and NLDS Umpires, the first two rounds of the 2012 Playoffs.
Wild Card A (NLWC/STL@ATL)
Jeff Kellogg -cc (6 pts)
Mike Winters (-1 pts)
Gary Cederstrom (5 pts)
Jeff Nelson (1 pt)
Sam Holbrook (15 pts)
Rob Drake (-3 pts)
Wild Card B (ALWC/BAL@TEX)
Gary Darling -cc (20 pts)
Jerry Layne (7 pts)
Ted Barrett (1 pt)
Bill Miller (1 pt)
Greg Gibson (7 pts)
Chris Guccione (1 pt)
Crew A (NLDS/CIN@SF)
Gerry Davis -cc (5 pts)
Phil Cuzzi (2 pts)
Chad Fairchild (6 pts)
Tom Hallion (5 pts)
Dan Iassogna (6 pts)
Brian O'Nora (8 pts)
Crew B (NLDS/WC@WSH)
Joe West -cc (9 pts)
Paul Emmel (2 pts)
Ed Hickox (10 pts)
Marvin Hudson (8 pts)
Jim Joyce (6 pts)
Alfonso Marquez (15 pts)
Crew C (ALDS/OAK@DET)
Dana DeMuth -cc (3 pts)
Scott Barry (6 pts)
Wally Bell (6 pts)
Eric Cooper (0 pts)
Jim Reynolds (2 pts)
Mark Wegner (6 pts)
Crew D (ALDS/WC@NYY)
Brian Gorman -cc (3 pts)
Mark Carlson (8 pts)
Fieldin Culbreth (6 pts)
Mike Everitt (11 pts)
Angel Hernandez (2 pts)
Tony Randazzo (11 pts)
-cc denotes Crew Chief, * denotes first Post-season assignment. Per UEFL Rule 4-3-c, all umpires selected to appear in the Wild Card games shall receive one bonus point for this appearance. Umpires assigned to the Division Series shall receive two bonus points for this appearance; crew chiefs shall receive one additional bonus point for this role (two or three points total).
News: Umpires for Wild Card Games, Division Series announced
NLDS Crew B looks pretty strong...
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Jeff Nelson is doing the Braves/Cardinals game and if the lineup is correct, he is umpiring at 3B this evening. Just a couple of days, he tossed out Freddie Freeman out of the game for that phantom check swing. Would like to see how this plays out if it occurs again this evening.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah I'm sure both Nelson, and Freeman were losing sleep about how that would play out....good lord.
DeleteIs the assumption then that the Wild Card crews are then going to be the NLCS/ALCS crews?
ReplyDeleteDarling is cc for nlcs
ReplyDeleteI would guess that the wild card umpires would work the championship series as both crews look pretty strong. They also each have one umpire who has not worked a championship series before which is what MLB seems to do each post season.
ReplyDeleteMy guess for the World Series would be Gerry Davis as crew chief with Hallion, Culbreth, Hernandez, Joyce and Wegner.
solid all the way around- i think is kellogg is a good pick. I was not expecting Gary Darling but I think he will do alright. Scott Barry is a great pick, finally getting some of the credit he deserves as one of the better young umps in the majors. DeMuth, West, Gorman, and Davis are four of the better in the game. Should be interesting..
ReplyDeleteif it is true that the play in game and the LCS umpires will be the same I would NOT expect the rotation to be what is listed :)
ReplyDeleteI can not see Drake or Gooch working game 6 of an LCS... So i'd expect the play in CC to work the lines in game 1 and 2 in order to be slated to work game 6!
Wild Card B, NLDS B, and ALDS D are very solid crews.
ReplyDeleteI think the MLB did a great job with these crews. There is not one guy that I look at and say they really didn't deserve it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with tmac that the rotations will be switched for the LCS games. I would expect Drake and Guccione to work the Game 2's of their respective series. I also think the AL wild card crew will work the NLCS and vice versa.
I also wonder if we will again see the CC at the plate in Game 3 or if they will go back to working Game 1. I also noticed there are 3 CC's on the NL Wild Card Game and presumably ALCS. The last time I remember 3 CC's working an LCS was 2004 during that epic Red Sox-Yankess ALCS with Marsh,West and Hirschbeck working that one.
One last note, I think it is interesting the 2 NL series get 2 CC's but the 2 AL series get 1 CC. Also, 5/6 of the Umpires in Reds-Giants series come from Hallion and Davis crews.
As for the actual Umpires, I got 29/36 Umpires in my guesses correct. I obviously got some of the rounds wrong but nonetheless I think I did pretty well. I missed Darling,Iassogna,Cuzzi,Fairchild,Holbrook,Emmel. Instead I had Schreiber,Scott,Timmons,Kulpa,Wolf,Barksdale and Johnson.
ReplyDeleteI have to say though that even though I did not pick Darling,Holbrook and Emmel to work the Playoffs, I am not at all surprised to see them there. They are playoff regulars and have some of the better strike zones in the league. My biggest surprises for who missed out are Kulpa,Wolf and Timmons. But there are good Umpires who miss out every season.
The umpires, except the crew chief, for the LDS's are listed in alphabetical order. The actual rotation of the umpires will be different than what is listed. Normally the 2nd crew chief for the LDS is on the right field line for the 1st game.
ReplyDeletegreat call by Kellogg on the interference..... in the braves/cards match up...That call may have changed the game!!
ReplyDeleteyou're right tmac,
ReplyDeleteit may've changed the game, but it was the correct call,
holbrook blowed a infield fly rule call- let gonzalez slide- braves fan throwing cups and other beverages onto field- ron darling back to his whining- nice final game for chipper. Or so it looks like so far.......
ReplyDeleteUh oh. Infield fly rule controversy.
ReplyDeleteHorrible call.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible call by Sam Holbrook. Kozma was not camped under the ball and the ball was in the outfield. Holbrook continues to show me he is overrated. Every year he works an LCS or WS and every year he makes headscratching calls. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think Holbrook blew that call. Still not an excuse for Atlanta fans to act like that. Just horrible of them.
ReplyDeleteAren't umpires from this series eligible for the LCS?
ReplyDeleteborderline inf fly. could have gone either way.
ReplyDeleteOne of the requirements of the rule is that the umpire 'make the call immediately', is it not?
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure these are the LCS crews with Kellogg working the ALCS and Darling the NLCS
ReplyDeleteThis also illustrates just how stupid the rule is to begin with...
ReplyDeleteI bet for the rest of the postseason, outfield umpires will be under explicit instructions not to call the infield fly rule.
ReplyDeleteM.L.B. Rulebook: "... the umpire shall immediately declare “Infield Fly” for the benefit of the runners..."
ReplyDeleteGame officially under protest.
ReplyDeleteRuss i 100% disagree with you this is an infield fly. An infield fly CAN be caught in the outfield and CAN be caught by an outfielder so long as the infielder has the ability with ordinary effort to make the play. the ball landed where the shortstop was... He could have caught the ball and likely would have had he not ran away after believing he was called off by the left fielder.
ReplyDeleteThat all being said i see no way the game will continue with sammy on the field shame on the atlanta fans!!
happy umpiring!!
"He could have caught the ball and likely would have had he not ran away after believing he was called off by the left fielder."
ReplyDeleteWhich, to me, means that the umpires shouldn't 'get in the way' of the play.
I'm not surprised that someone here is defending the call.
The purpose of the infield fly is for the defense to get an advantage and in no way would they on this play; HOWEVER at this point there can not be a selective interpretation of the rulebook.
ReplyDeleteAn infield fly could be caught theoretically anywhere in fair territory by an infielder with ordinary effort however as the ball carries more into the outfield it is less likely the d will have an advantage. If you don't want this called you need some kind of marking on the field. That is a VERY slipery slope!! And while this might not be an infield fly in joe 6pack's over 30 game or it IS on an MLB field.
In order for it to be an infield-fly (even on "an MLB field"), the umpires must follow the rules. The rules require that the call be made "immediately". And it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI have seen over the years, the infield fly rule creep deeper and deeper into the outfield which should have been stopped a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThat is where the protest will come into play. The 'judgement' of whether or not it was an infield fly cannot be officially questioned (even if, in this case, it WAS poor judgement), however the execution of the "immediately" language in the rule book may constitute an "error interpreting the rulebook" and therefore the protest has a chance.
ReplyDelete@anon 5:11
ReplyDeleteso what you're saying is the call is correct but the umpires should stay out of the way. I'm sure you're a pleasure to umpire with ( if you umpire at all)... you seem like the guy who wouldn't call balks or interference (see Jeff Kellogg's great interference call in this game).
I think i've umpired with your kind and I haven't liked it much.
Umpires ENFORCE rules if you don't like the RULE or the way it was correctly enforced please see the Atlanta Braves fan pages!! They'll happily welcome you!!
"so what you're saying is the call is correct but the umpires should stay out of the way"
ReplyDeleteNo. Bad call.
I hate how a site 'about umpires' has become 'for umpires'...
tmac: If it was an infield fly at the MLB level, as you assert....then how come no one else called if except Holbrook? Nelson echoed Holbrook's call, but Holbrook was the only one who called it. Not Nelson. Not Kellogg. Not Cederstrom. It seems to me that if you are working LF and you have a possible infield fly....you don't make the call until one of the guys in the infield makes it. The fact that Holbrook was flying solo on this tells us all we need to know. He's a good umpires, but he kicked it. Bad.
ReplyDeleteAgree with BAMF.
ReplyDeleteSad that we have controversy already....and we haven't even gotten to the Phil Cuzzi games yet.
ReplyDelete@ bamf
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to change your mind BUT i will say there are certain areas where only one umpire would make the call.
lets change this play to a 4 man crew it is VERY likely Jeff Nelson would have made the same call echoed by other umpires.
the 2nd base umpire or the plate umpire would not initiate this call.. this isn't high school ball.
Can anyone explain why it SHOULD NOT be an infield fly?
Here's what triggers the IF call... the SS calling the ball standing under it....
Anon @ 5:11 - I'll umpire with you any day of the week...
ReplyDeleteTmac on the other hand....
Tmac -
ReplyDeleteDoes the SS running away from it trigger the call? Because that is when he called it!
Holbrook calls it when SS waves everyone off since he was under it...then SS moved when LF came in. He did call it immediately...as soon as it "ordinary effot" established by the wave off by SS.
ReplyDeletetmac:
ReplyDeleteAgree that in a 4-man, Nelson would have primarily responsibility for the call (though anyone could make it). The same should be true in the 6-man. As Nelson is moving into position, you can see him tracking the ball and making no call. Watching the play, I would not deem this to be a play in or around the infield that could be made with ordinary effort . The SS had a long way to go, and never settled under the ball.
Remember, the purpose of the infield fly is to protect the offense. No member of the offensive team was in jeopardy here, because it was not a routine ball in or around the infield. If no call was made and, say, St. Louis turned a DP...anyone think that the Braves would have complained that no infield fly was called? Doubtful.
Not sure why Holbrook made the call he did. It certainly could have been because he isn't used to being in LF and was not aware of how deep he was. But he stepped in it.
I don't think it cost the Braves the game--all those throwing errors did. But this was not a good call.
I'm surprised to see some of the notable veterans missing from this postseason list. Guys like Tim McClelland, Tim Welke, Dale Scott, Tim Tschida. It seems like McClelland hasn't been given a postseason assignment since he had that shaky ALCS series in 2009.
ReplyDeleteGreat job by Jeff Kellogg and Gary Darling behind the plate in tonight's wildcard games.
Tschida also hasn't worked the playoffs since 2009, although he missed a lot of time the last two years.
ReplyDeleteTschida will not be working any more games as a Major League Umpire.
DeleteI love the infield fly comments. I thnk they got it right!
ReplyDeleteReally can't understand why nobody on this site cannot put comments like this under the right category. It happens all the time! You guys are literally trying to have the same conversation going in two separate living rooms at the same time. For a groups that believes in regiment, this just seems silly....
@ Dan
ReplyDeleteTim Welke has a horrific season. He was on ESPN more then some of their anchors!! Tsichida had been hurt and may or may not be healthy or have qualified in the first place. McClellend is just hanging on. Sadly he hasn't been fading away and was supposed to retire after this season. BUT now the rumors are he will be umpiring two more seasons to reach a milestone!
Dale Scott made a couple very poor decisions early in the season that likely cost him a playoff spot. Then esentially lying about calling time did not help his creditability!!
anon 10:40, that is shocking to me! I am assuming it has something to do with the reason why he missed games each of the last 2 years. His skills have decreased in the last couple of years and he got a little more short fuzed (is that even a word?) this year. Nonetheless,if this news is true he will certainly be missed. I thought he had a good 6-10 years left.
ReplyDelete