A look at World Series Game Two home plate umpire Doug Eddings

By Jeff Lombardi Jr.

Doug Eddings will have the responsibility of calling balls and strikes for the two hurlers – the first World Series plate assignment of his 21-year career.

 Eddings was behind the plate for a notable Game 2 back in the 2005 ALCS. His indecisive call on a dropped third strike allowed then White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski to reach first base as the Angels vacated the field in belief that they had recorded the third out. Pierzynski represented the go-ahead run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Pablo Ozuna pinch ran for Pierzynski and came around to score the winning run as the following batter, Joe Crede hit a walk-off double.

 In Wednesday’s action, both starters (and whoever takes the mound behind them) should be excited to see Eddings in the home plate gear. During the regular season, Eddings owned a 33.4 called strike percentage on pitches outside of the zone – good for second highest among all officials.

 Highest Called Strike Percentage

Pitches outside of the zone

Alex Tosi                    34.5%

Doug Eddings            33.4%

Of all of the zones of the plate, Eddings tends to call the high pitch the most. His 26.6 called strike percentage on pitches out of the zone, located up and away was the fourth highest in MLB. His called strike percentage on pitches out of the zone located up-middle of 49.6% ranked 6^th during the regular season.

Highest Called Strike Percentage out of the zone

Pitches Up and Away

Bill Miller                   27.6%

Scott Barry                             27.1%

Adrian Johnson           27.0%

Doug Eddings            26.6%

 

Highest Called Strike Percentage out of the zone

Pitches Up and Middle

John Bacon                             63.9%

Brennan Miller                        56.3%

Shane Livensparger                 54.3%

Ben May                                 51.7%

Nick Mahrley                         51.5%

Doug Eddings                        49.6%

This plays more into the repertoire of Stephen Strasburg than it does Justin Verlander. During the regular season, Strasburg threw 54.9 of his pitches out of the zone. Strasburg has started seven games in his career with Eddings serving as the home plate umpire – which is tied for the second with James Hoye for most games as the HP umpire in a Strasburg start (40.1 IP, 5.58 ERA 59 K, 13 BB).

 In comparison, Verlander threw 48.5% of his pitches outside of the zone – slightly less than the league average of 51.1%. Verlander has started four games in his career with Eddings calling balls and strikes (30.2 IP, 3.23 ERA, 32 K, 5 BB).

Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions describes Eddings concisely:

“His can be a wide zone horizontally and a large zone vertically. He’s arguably the most likely umpire in baseball to call a borderline pitch a strike and the most likely in this series to get on hitters’ nerves.”