MLB Umpire Handicapping: 3 Under Umpires

Handicapping Major League Baseball means taking a look at a whole bunch of different factors. I closely examine umpires for their tendencies when they are behind home plate. Why wouldn’t you want to consider this information? The home plate umpire has so much control over the game. Today, I want to take a look at three umpires who have a long history of being good for under bettors (pitcher-friendly). Keep an eye out for these umpires behind the plate. 

All statistics mentioned below are 5 year averages for the last five full seasons. 

Phil Cuzzi has been a Major League umpire for a long time, and he has been consistently a strike caller. We looked at some of the top over umpires in my last article, and we saw guys calling about 63% of pitches a strike. Cuzzi is at 65.23% of pitches a strike. That’s more than a two percent difference, and that makes a massive difference when you consider how large of a sample size it is every game. There are a lot of pitches thrown every single contest. Cuzzi is also third highest of any umpire in the majors with a 3.14 strikeout/walk ratio. You better be swinging the bat when Cuzzi is behind home plate!

Fletcher has had a ton of low scoring games in the last five years. His 63% under rate is impressive over a five year span. The 8.31 runs per game scored in Fletcher’s games are the second lowest of any umpire during that time. His strikeout/walk ratio is a solid 2.91. Fletcher is interesting because earlier in his career he was a bit of an over umpire, but in recent years he has become a consistent under umpire. 

O’Nora is impressive for his consistency toward the under and being a strike caller. Many umpires fluctuate back and forth. O’Nora continually is far above average in strikes called. O’Nora also has a high 2.89 strikeout/walk ratio over the last five years. His runs per game rank in the ten lowest of all umpires in baseball.