Arizona Diamondbacks blown calls of the week, May 10-16

Summary

• 45 bad calls in total, averaging 6.4 per game.
• The split was almost even with 23 of these help the D-backs, and 22 hurting them. Playing at home for the entire duration of this round likely helped.
• The totals for the year
  Overall: 148-185 (44.4% favor the D-backs)
  Home: 96-104 (48.0%)
  Road: 52-81 (39.1%)
• The home split continues to be at or near what you’d expect, calls breaking evenly for and against the D-backs. No road games, so no change in the statistically significant bias against us on the road.
• Best-called game: May 10, 7-1 vs DET (Kerwin Danley). Only two bad calls, neither of them particularly problematic, making this definitely the best-called contest of 2017 so far. Well done, Mr. Danley.
• Worst-called game: That was last night’s game where Rob Drake had a particularly bad one. There were 10 calls highlighted by @Dbacksump, but it seems there could have been a few more. Here’s the Fangraph plot. Black dots are called balls, red ones are called strikes, and white dots pitches at which the batter swung. [Note: I flipped the pic horizontally, so that it’s from the same perspective as the @Dbacksump images]

• Worst confirmed call of the week: There was just a single 0-percenter this week, which feels like an improvement. However, it has been cross-checked with the data at Fangraphs and found wanting. It came last Thursday against Pittsburgh, in the top of the first inning. Perhaps Tom Woodring was still getting his eye in...

May 10, 7-1 vs DET (Kerwin Danley)

• 2 bad calls (0.80% of pitches)
• 1 help, 1 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 175
• Worst call

May 11, 2-1 vs PIT (Tom Woodring)

• 8 bad calls (3.32% of pitches)
• 6 help, 2 hurt
• 3 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 678
• Worst call

It’s perhaps interesting to note that every one of the five bad calls from the fifth inning on favored the Diamondbacks. Though that’s a small sample size, I suspect an innate bias may be present towards the pitcher when the home-plate umpire realizes there’s a no-hitter or perfect game in progress.

May 12, 11-4 vs PIT (Ed Hickox)

• 5 bad calls (1.74% of pitches)
• 3 help, 2 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad call
• Bad call score: 422
• Worst call

May 13, 3-4 vs PIT (Chris Conroy)

• 5 bad calls (1.74% of pitches)
• 2 help, 3 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 428
• Worst call

Yes, the last two games featured both the same number of blown calls (five), outrageous calls (one) and exactly the same number of pitches (288). This pleases me. Unsurprisingly, the time of game was also very similar, at 2:57 and 3:00 respectively.

May 14, 4-6 vs PIT (Jerry Meals)

• 8 bad calls (2.10% of pitches)
• 4 help, 4 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 630
• Worst call

May 15, 7-3 vs NYM (Rob Drake)

• 7 bad calls (2.44% of pitches)
• 2 help, 5 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 594
• Worst call

May 16, 5-4 vs NYM (Rob Drake)

• 10 bad calls (3.55% of pitches)
• 5 help, 5 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 830
• Worst call