Do Umpires Hate Jay Bruce?

Last night the Reds played the Braves in a nationally televised game on ESPN. They won, woo-hoo. However, I noticed something that has been bothering me for quite some time; the number of questionable called strikes against Jay Bruce. Jay Bruce has always been a very streaky hitter. When he is in the zone he can hit like no other player in the game. However, when he is in a slump he becomes very ineffective and his at-bats are difficult to watch. Yet no matter how Bruce is playing I always noticed that the umpires give him very little respect in terms of called strikes against him. For some reason Jay Bruce seemingly has the largest strike zone of any player in baseball. If some of the questionable called strikes against Jay Bruce were called balls, as they should have been, he would find himself in many more favorable hitting situations. This is obvious when you think about whether a MLB hitter would rather be in the batter’s box with 2 balls and 0 strikes versus 0 balls and 2 strikes. It seems more often than not, Jay Bruce falls behind in the count due to a questionable called strike and is forced to protect the plate as opposed to attacking the pitcher. More often than not this leads to Bruce swinging and missing at a breaking ball low and away. After thinking about this, I wondered if there was a way to actually prove it. After a 4-second google search I hit a home-run. I found a website (http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/) that provides sortable, historical pitch/FX data for hitters and pitchers. Using this tool you can see in chart form the called strikes for any MLB hitter. So let’s go to the charts:

The chart above shows pitches taken by Jay Bruce for the year. Just look at how many obvious balls were actually called strikes (by my count I see approximately 25 balls that were called strikes). It becomes clear after looking at this chart that the book on Jay Bruce is to throw low and away and hope he swings at it, and if he doesn’t swing hope the umpire calls the pitch a strike anyway, which he usually does. The problem for Jay Bruce, as well as Reds fans, is that umpires are consistently calling obvious balls thrown low and away to Bruce as strikes. Thus, Jay Bruce has no choice but to swing at those pitches because he knows that MLB umpires are probably going to call those balls as strikes. If he doesn’t swing, then he will find himself hearing the umpire yell strike. If these pitches were appropriately called as balls just think how many hitter’s counts (more balls than strikes) Jay Bruce would face, and how much better of a hitter he could be. Maybe this could even help make him a more consistent player.

For the sake of comparison let’s look at an MLB player who has more of a track record in the league who many would suspect gets more respect from umpires. The chart above shows pitches taken by Derek Jeter for the year. Jeter does have some low balls called as strikes, but he doesn’t have nearly the number of called strikes that were actually balls as Jay Bruce did (by my count I see 15 balls that were called strikes).

There are obvious limitations to this comparison: Jeter is right handed, he plays in the AL, and he bats at a different spot in the order. However, the results are still obvious, Jay Bruce finds himself in more pitcher’s counts (more strikes than balls) because umpires call obvious pitches that are low and away balls as strikes against him. Just look at that ridiculous called strike against Bruce that looks to be about 12 inches below the strike zone!

If Jay Bruce was given a fair shake when he steps in the batter’s box by umpires not calling strikes on obvious balls thrown low and out of the strike zone there is no telling how great of a hitter he could be!