Joe West Greets Girardi's Ump Proposal with Snark & Stat

After Joe Girardi recently proposed his idea to move the home plate umpire to behind the pitcher's mound to call balls and strikes, Joe West responded via the umpire union's Twitter account, shooting down Girardi's claim that an umpire's view from behind the catcher hinders the ump's ability to accurately discern pitch location.

Girardi simulates pitch calling from the mound.

Monday night on MLB Network, Girardi explained his proposal, claiming that umpires can better officiate the issue of balls and strikes from behind the mound than from behind the plate because the unobstructed view from the middle infield allows an umpire to see the entire plate, as opposed to a catcher blocking out the umpire from seeing a corner or lower height.

MLBN's Studio 42, for reference, where Girardi conducted the Diamond Demo, is not regulation size.

On Tuesday, the umpires association took to Twitter in response to Girardi's claim:

“While it would probably have been safer to call balls and strikes behind the mound when Girardi was catching, we prefer to stay behind the plate to keep our 97.3% average.” Joe West 

#MLBUA #mlbnetwork #MLBTonight

97.3% average. And what happens during the remaining 2.7% of the time?

As manager of the New York Yankees, Girardi was ejected 20 times for arguing balls and strikes, but only 25% of these ejections were because the umpire had actually made an incorrect call; the umpire was still right a majority of the time.

Of those 20 ejections, 15 concerned pitches that were correctly officiated, meaning that Girardi was in the wrong 75% of the time (2/2 in 2008, 1/2 in 2009, 2/2 in 2010, 2/2 in 2011, 2/3 in 2012, 1/1 in 2013, 1/2 in 2014, 2/2 in 2015, 1/1 in 2016, and 1/3 in 2017). That's five meritorious ejections in 10 years.

Video as follows:

Could umpires call the balls and strikes from behind the mound? 🤔

Joe Girardi thinks so. #MLBTonight pic.twitter.com/GZ3eOLi5GN

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 7, 2018

Alternate Link: Girardi talks umpiring on MLB Tonight, proposes new ball/strike method (MLBN)