Arizona Diamondbacks blown calls of the week, May 24-30

Summary

• 42 bad calls in total, averaging 6.0 per game. That’s the lowest figure this season, and there seemed to be a decline in outrageously bad calls too. This doesn’t necessarily indicate the umpires are getting “better”, it could be tied to equipment calibration.
• With the exception of one game, this was entirely a road week, and for the first time, the calls there were basically even, at 19-18 in favor of helping the D-backs. There was still a home bias, however, with a 4-1 margin at Chase Field.
• The totals for the year
  Overall: 194-225 (46.3% favor the D-backs)
  Home: 115-109 (51.3%)
  Road: 79-116 (40.5%)
• Both home and road split tilted back towards Arizona as a result, but the overall ratio still skews against the Diamondbacks. That’s particularly true away from Chase where three out of every five bad calls goes against Arizona.
• Best-called game: May 30, 3-0 @ PIT (Eric Cooper). Robbie Ray was not the only person to have a really good night, as home-plate umpire Cooper was tagged with only two bad calls - and one of those was not confirmed from a second source, so it may have been even better.
• Worst-called game: Angel Herna... Wait, what? He actually called a better than average game, with only five questionable calls? Get out the Crayolas and color me surprised. By far the worst was actually: May 28, 5-9 @ MIL (Lance Barrett). From another source (Fangraphs), here’s his strike-zone (red is called strikes, black is called balls, white is batter swings):

• Worst confirmed call of the week: Also comes from the same game, and you can easily see it on the chart above, as well as below.

The individual games

May 24, 8-6 vs CHW (Angel Hernandez)

• 5 bad calls (1.72% of pitches)
• 4 help, 1 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 440
• Worst call

May 25, 4-0 @ MIL (Stu Scheurwater)

• 7 bad calls (2.59% of pitches)
• 5 help, 2 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad call
• Bad call score: 588
• Worst call

May 26, 4-2 @ MIL (Jim Reynolds)

• 3 bad calls (0.99% of pitches)
• 1 help, 2 hurt
• 0 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 256
• Worst call

May 27, 1-6 @ MIL (Greg Gibson)

• 5 bad calls (1.79% of pitches)
• 1 help, 4 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 410
• Worst call

May 28, 5-9 @ MIL (Lance Barrett)

• 12 bad calls (3.95% of pitches)
• 8 help, 4 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 996
• Worst call

May 29, 2-4 @ PIT (Adrian Johnson)

• 8 bad calls (2.79% of pitches)
• 3 help, 5 hurt
• 2 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 672
• Worst call

May 30, 3-0 @ PIT (Eric Cooper)

• 2 bad calls (0.93% of pitches)
• 1 help, 1 hurt
• 1 outrageously bad calls
• Bad call score: 174
• Worst call