Courtesy of BrooksBaseball.net

It seems like a good bit of Cardinal Nation (myself included) took issue with Ron Kulpa’s strike zone in World Series game 4.  In order to try and remove SOME bias from my opinion based on a SLIGHTLY biased perception, I thought it was a good time to head over to www.BrooksBaseball.net for some actual data.  The graph above shows the non-normalized map for all Cardinal batters in game 4 (it shows the Ranger hitters as well).  This means that the actual pitch height when it crossed the plate is being used, so the vertical portion of the strike zone may be somewhat inaccurate.  However, my interest is only in the horizontal component, because I didn’t perceive a significant variation in strike calls being made too high or too low.

Please note that the black box is a strikezone representation based on an average umpire’s strikezone.  It is neither holy or unholy writ.  The red squares represent strike calls on pitches made by Rangers’ pitchers, and green squares represent balls.  The red triangles represent strike calls on pitches made by the Cardinals, and the green triangles indicate balls.  Got all that?  Alright.

If you only look at the horizontal variations, you’ll notice that the Rangers’ pitchers benefited from 8 pitches that were outside the black box and were still called strikes.  The Cardinals gained the same benefit on only 1 pitch.  Kulpa gave Holland the benefit of the doubt on 4 pitches that were just slightly inside to Cardinal hitters, and all 4 were very close to call.  That’s fine, but there were between 2 and 4 pitches Holland made that were just as close as the 4 that were called for strikes.  That doesn’t mean that things somehow “evened out”.  Instead, it shows that Kulpa was not consistent on giving the inside strike to Holland when he faced right-handed hitters (RHH). 

I have no issue with the 4 inside pitches that were called strikes.  The real problem is the lack of consistency.  Pitches that are 3-4 inches inside to a right-handed hitter are frequently “a pitcher’s pitch”, and not knowing whether the a ball pitched there is going to be a ball or strike leaves hitters guessing (even more than usual).  Give some of those to a pitcher with serious velocity on his fastball, and you get a lot of weak grounders and foul balls even when contact is made.

Kulpa was even more inconsistent on the outside when the Cardinals sent RHH’s to the plate.  He gave away 3 strike calls to Holland, and the most egregious call was on a ball approximately 6-7 inches off of the plate.  Not good.  Just so not good.

Finally, notice the 3 green squares that are clearly inside the black outline.  Those squares represent 3 obvious strikes that were not so obviously strikes to Ron Kulpa.  Those are calls that went against Cardinal pitchers.  One was almost straight down the heart of the plate, so I’m not sure where Ron Kulpa was looking.

To be fair, the Cardinals did benefit from a strike call on a pitch that was clearly outside by about 6 inches.   That’s singular.  Uno.  The loneliest number. 

Does all this agonizing over colored shapes on pretty graphs make me feel any better about the job Kulpa did in game 4?  Yes.  Do I believe that the Rangers benefited more from Kulpa’s “amoeba strike zone” than the Cardinals did.  Yes.  Even so, perception does not match reality as much as I expected.  While the advantage certainly went to Holland, he also deserves credit and a lot of it.

His release point was incredibly consistent all night, and he located his fastball well enough to keep the Cardinals honest.  He certainly did his part, and that’s all he could do.  He isn’t responsible for calling  balls and strikes. 

There will certainly be some complaining, whining, and cussjar filling over Kulpa’s version of the strike zone.  Just don’t go too far with it.  Maybe the strike zone would have been the same for Edwin Jackson had he been able to hit location in the 1st inning.  Maybe not.  The point is that Kulpa’s work wasn’t spectacular, but it wasn’t so terrible that it is worth taking away credit from Derek Holland.  Taking a 2-hitter into the 9th inning requires some seriously good pitching, even if the home plate umpire gives the pitcher the benefit of the doubt a half-dozen times or so.  Yes, that makes the job a bit easier, but Holland still had to make a lot of good pitches, and he succeeded in doing so.  Time to just tip the cap and move on to game 5.

TIDBIT:  Feel free to check out BrooksBaseball for the rest of the pitch data for all of game 4.  Also keep in mind that when you are watching a game on tv and see a ball that appears to be 5-6 inches off the plate that you are probably judging that distance based on where the ball hits the catcher’s mitt.  That pitch quite likely passed by the plane defined by the front edge of the plate a lot closer than 5-6 inches from the strike zone. 

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Let’s just dispense with the pleasantries and list them all here, shall we?

This way, Cards fans have a repository to come back to game after game, without having to continue to come up with new reasons for a lost season.

In no particular order:

1. Moths
2. Ryan Franklin
3. Takashi Saito
4. Rob Drake
5. Tony Rasmus
6. Dan Lozano
7. Corey Patterson
8. Shelby Miller’s Fists of Fury
9. The frog in Al Hrabosky’s throat
10. Matt Holliday’s (former) appendix
11. Albert Pujols
12. Colby Rasmus
13. Alex Anthopoulos’ dreamy bedroom eyes
14. Miguel Batista
15. Mitchell Boggs
16. Fernando Salas
17. Corey Patterson
18. The offense
19. The bullpen
20. The starting rotation
21. Defense
22. The roster
23. John Mozeliak
24. Adam Wainwright’s (former) elbow ligament
25. Miller Park
26. Corey Patterson
27. Milo Hamilton
28. Arthur Rhodes
29. Brandon Phillips
30. Bloggers
31. Ryan Theriot
32. Tyler Greene
33. Tony La Russa
34. Brendan Ryan
35. Jake Westbrook
36. Corey Patterson
37. Jaime Garcia (but only on the road)
38. The fact that Pete Kozma was on a big league roster
39. Lighted ribbon boards
40. Marty Brennaman
41. Keith Law
42. Bill DeWitt
43. Ballpark Village
44. Rafael Furcal
45. Shingles
46. Corey Patterson
47. Mark McGwire
48. Brian Tallet’s facial hair
49. Sock/stirrup/long pants inconsistency
50. That gosh-danged Aaron Miles
51. Rust at Busch Stadium (on the building and the field)
52. Bud Selig
53. Payroll
54. Heath Bell
55. Jon Jay, full-time starting outfielder
56. Day games after night games
57. Sabermetrics
58. Pitches up and in
59. Corey Patterson

Whew! I think I’ve covered most of them.

Anything missing? Post ‘em in the comments below or find me on Twitter @PitchersHit8th.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Major League Baseball has handed down its ruling for Yadier Molina‘s rage-filled ejection on Tuesday night, hitting the catcher with a five-game suspension, intended to begin tonight, barring appeal.

From the press release sent out by MLB (h/t Adam McCalvy, MLB.com):

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina has been suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount for his inappropriate actions, which included making contact with Umpire Rob Drake multiple times and spraying him with spittle twice while arguing, in the top of the 10^th inning of his Club’s game on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.  Joe Garagiola Jr., Senior Vice President of Standards and On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.

Molina’s suspension is scheduled to begin tonight, when the Cardinals are to play the Florida Marlins in Miami.  If Molina elects to file an appeal, then the discipline issued to him will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.

“Spraying him with spittle”?  So, in other words, they have know way of knowing based upon the video what really happened on the field, because Molina said he didn’t spit, Drake was working on an Oscar-worthy performance, and it’s he-said-she-said.  Who are they going to side with there, the angry player or the umpire who is a member of a group historically not held responsible for actions or performance?

No word yet on whether Molina will appeal, but he is not currently in tonight’s lineup in Florida.  If he begins serving the suspension tonight, he will be back for the second game of the Milwaukee series in St. Louis on August 10th.

(UPDATE: According to a tweet from @FSMidwest, Molina will begin suspension tonight.)

It is absolutely baffling to me that Roberto Alomar can wind up and hock one right on John Hirschbeck‘s face, and Yadi gets the same suspension because perhaps his rendering of the English language results in a bit of say-it-don’t-spray-it when he raises his voice.  Not to mention the sweat produced on everyone on the field, given the humidity that we saw (Chris Carpenter‘s soaked cap?) with the roof open in Milwaukee.  I guess at least we know this incident won’t ruin his chances at being elected to the Hall of Fame?

Let’s make another comparison… Johnny Cueto anyone?  Cueto received a seven-game suspension for kicking Jason LaRue in the head and effectively prematurely ending his career.  Seven games that he served as related to the TEAM, not him personally playing.  So he missed one game.  He was suspended for ONE game.  MLB, in no great surprise, is making a statement that they don’t give a damn about the players, so long as they can defend their largely incompetent bunch of umpires.

(BONUS:  Watch this video of your favorite jack-ump Bob Davidson tossing Tyler Colvin and Mike Quade yesterday.  Davidson is one of the worst examples ever of umpires baiting players and managers.  Or, if he can’t get them to take the bait, he just tosses them anyway.)

Here’s what I’d like to see from MLB, in addition to Yadier’s suspension:

Major League Baseball umpire Rob Drake has been suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount for his inappropriate actions, which included poor job performance throughout the game, making contact with catcher Yadier Molina multiple times and grandstanding a farcical reaction to supposedly being spit on while arguing, in the top of the 10^th inning of his the Cardinals’ game on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.  Joe Garagiola Jr., Senior Vice President of Standards and On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.

Drake’s suspension is scheduled to begin tonight.  If Drake elects to file an appeal, then the discipline issued to him will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.

Unfortunately, umpires aren’t held responsible for virtually anything anymore and find no resistance to injecting themselves into the story of the game.  Have you noticed that a handful of umpires have become household names?  Why?  My favorite umpire is… I don’t know.  I don’t know who it is, because I don’t know his name.  He calls a game, doesn’t make a scene, and shows up again the next day to do his job, and do it well.

Make no doubt about it, what Yadi did was wrong.  You just can’t let your emotions get the best of you like that.  What Yadi did was also in the heat of a very important game that he felt wasn’t being fairly officiated.  Drake, in my opinion, oversold his reception of “abuse” in the situation.  You figure it out, MLB.

In the handful of hours since the Cardinals lost Game One of the NLDS to the Dodgers, the realization has set in that the Dodgers didn’t play much (if any) better than the hometown club.

Sure, they had more timely hits – both with the bat and by the ball – than the Cards, but there is a reason the game ran so long, a new NLDS record for game duration.

Both sides stranded runner after runner.  The Cardinals were 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.  Not to be outdone, the Dodgers were 2-for-15.

Where the Dodgers came out ahead was that they didn’t have to depend on hitting with RISP.  The home run by Matt Kemp came with Rafael Furcal on first base.  Furcal later knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly.  Russell Martin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Okay, so the Dodger bullpen performed better than the Cardinal bullpen, that much is clear.  But the rest of the game was an absolute struggle for both teams, even moreso for those of us watching less-than-stellar baseball on a tremendously bad broadcast of it (get your act together TBS).

Admittedly, the one nice addition to the TBS broadcast was the use of their PitchTrax feature in the right sidebar of the high definition feed.

This tool offered insight into what may have been one of the most important at-bats of the game for the Cardinals.  (Little did we know it would be a harbinger of things to come.)

With the bases loaded and no one out in the first inning, following an intentional walk to Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday came to the plate with an opportunity to blow the game wide open before ace Chris Carpenter even got to the mound.

This was the dream scenario for Cardinal fans, right?  For Tony LaRussa, John Mozeliak, and Bill DeWitt?  This is why Matt Holliday is a Cardinal.

Holliday quickly worked Dodger pitcher Randy Wolf to a 2-0 count, as Wolf was seemingly struggling with his control.

Wolf then got a called strike on the outside corner from home plate umpire Dana DeMuth.  Then another.  Then one more for the strikeout.  They were great pitches.  Holliday’s bat never moved.

How can you not offer at a single pitch in that at-bat?  Once Wolf got the first two called strikes, whether you agree with the calls or not (and Holliday clearly didn’t), how can you watch the third one sail in even closer to the plate?

Yes, it was closer, as the PitchFX data shows:

Holliday was ultimately right about the locations of the pitches.  But until balls and strikes are called by the PitchFX cameras instead of the fallible human umpires, taking pitches that close, in an at-bat with such high leverage, is inexcusable in my book.  Swing the bat.

Maybe Holliday thought he had earned those calls because of his star status in the league?  Would those have been strikes for Pujols and his notoriously good eye?

I’m not one typically prone to exaggeration, but I have a sneaking suspicion that was a huge at-bat/turning point in this series, and it happened in the top of the first inning.  Yikes.

…even Len and Bob said it was a balk.  Yet, you still don’t get the call, even with ‘Balkin Bob Davidson on the crew.

As I was watching Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds, watching the Cards squander another opportunity for a sweep, I saw something that I hadn’t seen from a Cardinal hurler all season.  I saw Kyle Lohse stick up for someone on his team.  Granted, it was himself he was sticking up for, but he showed some moxie nonetheless.

Edinson Volquez had buzzed Lohse in the top of the fifth, high and tight under the chin, and it was clear Kyle didn’t like it, glaring out at Volquez.  Edinson, for his part, played the role he’s supposed to in that case, stomping around like he was upset with himself for losing the pitch up there – he didn’t intend to do it.  And he’d have a good argument – Volquez is among the league leaders in HBP.  He walked four just in this game as well.

Whether he meant to come in on Lohse or not, Volquez quickly saw a very similar pitch from Lohse when leading off the bottom of the fifth inning.  Said Lohse after the game:

“Same spot,” Lohse noted, referring to his reply pitch. “Wasn’t trying to hit him, though.”

Umpire Greg Gibson quickly popped out from behind the plate, warned both dugouts, and the game went on.

“Well I’ll be danged” I muttered to myself.  All too often this season, opposing pitchers have taken liberties with Cardinal hitters, all-too-conveniently plunking them after a St Louis home run or clutch hit.  For all of the reputation that LaRussa has as a head-hunting manager, I sure haven’t seen any proof this season.  Even in this instance, I don’t believe LaRussa was behind it.  Whether you see it every outing or not, Lohse does have a competitive fire in his stomach, and I’m virtually certain that this buzzer to Volquez was all Kyle’s idea.

So,  no harm no foul, the game plods on to the top of the seventh inning.  That’s when Volquez got too far inside on Felipe Lopez and hit him in the small of the back.  While half-way expecting (and hoping for, because Volquez was cruising) an immediate ejection from home plate umpire Gibson, he made what I still to this day believe was the right call.  The pitch was not intentional.  Lopez took his base, Tony argued a little bit (but you’ll note not much, as you’d think he would if he really believed Volquez wanted to hit him), Volquez remained in the game, and they went on.  The funny thing is that not once did I think to myself “he was throwing at him, he should’ve been tossed.”  And I can admittedly be an over-reactive type, when it comes to things like that.

So, at the end of the day, the Cardinals took a loss, Lohse stood up for himself, and the umpires had gotten it right.  Cooler heads had prevailed.  Or so I thought.

The news came down yesterday that Bob Watson, vice president of on-field operations for MLB, had suspended Lohse for five games.

Um, what?

So for once this season (in the midst of heated battles between ownership and the umpires’ union over replay) your umpires had played their cards right, had let the game be decided by the players and not their rash decisions, and now you’re suspending a guy who wasn’t even kicked out of the game?  Come again?

Lohse, upon learing of his suspension said:

“My intent wasn’t to hit anybody. My intent was to make the opposing pitcher feel as uncomfortable as I did the at-bat before. The way they interpreted it, it seems like they feel I was trying to hit him.”

For a guy who has only 39 walks this season and has hit only two batters, I don’t think I’m too naive to believe that Kyle could have that sort of command of his pitches.  Throw it high and tight, don’t hit him.  To his credit, Volquez responded in kind:

“I don’t know if he really tried to hit me,” he said. “Maybe he was trying to take me out of the game a little bit, and mess with my concentration on the game.”

An excellent deduction.  Volquez was cruising, and Lohse had the ultimate spot and reason to fire off that pitch.  More from Volquez:

“I don’t want to hit a pitcher,” said Volquez, who received no discipline. “If I’m going to hit somebody, it’d be position players. In that situation, that wasn’t on purpose. I had two men on base and two outs. If I hit him, I have to face the No. 9 batter. I just tried to throw inside and the ball went up close to him. I think he got ticked off. That’s part of the game.” [bolding is mine]

Two things strike me here:  First, he’s right, he had nothing to gain by hitting Lohse, and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, based upon his statistics indicating he can get wild, that he wasn’t trying to hit Lohse.  However, he also says that he thinks Lohse got upset with the pitch regardless, and (at least the way I read it) understands why he might have seen a similar pitch in the bottom of the inning.

That’s part of the game.  Even Dusty Baker was surprised:

“Five games and they didn’t even kick him out of the game. Wow,” Baker said. “The umpires don’t kick him out but the league suspends him. That’s a first, isn’t it? I haven’t seen that.”

Well, apparently not the way Bob Watson sees it.  So in a situation that was completely diffused by the players’ behavior and the calm rationale of the umpiring crew that day, Watson has stepped in and handed down his sentence on Lohse.  Five game suspension and an undisclosed fine.

Of course, Lohse will appeal, and I have to believe that the suspension will be reduced.  SInce he is a starting pitcher, the suspension is likely to have little to no affect on his regular turns in the rotation anyway.  In my mind, that is beside the point.  If Lohse deserved this penalty, Volquez deserved at least the same.  Again, the umpires did not see fit to eject anyone from the game, yet Lohse gets five games and Volquez nothing.  It’s almost as if Volquez is being rewarded for often being wild and having a track record for hitting batters.  Yet I should reiterate, I don’t believe that either player really deserved punishment, but how can you single out one and not the other as well?

Richie Sexson went bonkers earlier this season, charging the mound and throwing his helmet and several punches at a pitcher.  He got six games that was later reduced to five.  How in the world does Lohse’s *almost* hitting a batter come even close to comparing to Richie’s inexplicable display?  Fascinating.

As I said earlier, this will likely (hopefully, assuming that more intelligent heads prevail during the appeal process) be reduced and have little effect on Lohse at all, save for the fine taking a chunk out of his pocketbook.  But the precedent or example being made here is wrong.  Bob Watson needs to let his umpires make the decisions on field, using the knowledge they have of game situations and being in the heat of the moment itself, not by watching on video in his cushy office three days later.

This time the umps got it right.  Maybe they should use instant replay for determining who should be in charge of doling out the suspensions.