5 most egregious called strikes against Cardinal batters since 2016

Umpires have a greater effect on the baseball game than fans may think, particularly home plate umpires. The average MLB game has around 300 pitches thrown, so the umpires behind the plate play a massive role in any given game. Some home plate umpires are placed in scorching conditions in the middle of the summer; some mistakes are understandable.

Umpires such as CB Bucknor, Laz Diaz, Phil Cuzzi, and Angel Hernandez, long-time veterans of their craft, are notorious for being terrible pitch callers. Angel Hernandez has received plenty of flak so far in the young 2024 season. All of the missed calls by umpires have made fans and critics of the game alike clamor for an automated strike system similar to what is used in the minor leagues.

Most recently, Hernandez missed 21 calls in a game between the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers. However, most of his fame this year came from three terrible calls against Texas Rangers rookie Wyatt Langford.

All of these missed calls made me want to figure out which called strikes have gone against the St. Louis Cardinals in the most egregious ways. In order to find out this information, I went to Baseball Savant. Below is a thread I put out on X (formerly known as Twitter) that details the 5 most extreme called strikes since 2016.

The Cardinals have already been on the wrong side of many calls by umpires this year. While they haven't experienced the worst of home plate umpire calls, they have received a fair amount of calls going the other way. While umpires aren't the main reason the Cardinals are off to a relatively uninspiring start, they are a part of it.

For this exercise, I limited the scope to 2016, as that is when accurate pitch tracking became strongest.

Here are the 5 most egregious called strikes against the St. Louis Cardinals since 2016.

#5: LHP Brent Suter vs Harrison Bader 06/21/2018
Umpire: Mike Muchlinski
Count: 0-0
Pitch: 80.4 MPH Changeup
Distance from zone: 1.26 feet

Typically, umpires will miss same-handedness pitches that go away from hitters because the pitch will cross the zone at some point. Mike Muchlinski is set up in the middle of the plate, and you can see his head track the ball all the way through. Catcher Manny Pina receives the ball well and frames it back in quickly.

While it is atypical for left-handed pitchers to get outside calls go their way against right-handed batters, this isn't the case with Suter's changeup to Bader. It was a straight pitch that was never in the zone, and it was an estimated 1.26 feet out of the zone. At this point in the game, however, the Brewers had a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning; it's possible that Muchlinski just wanted to end the game a little quicker.

The at bat ended with Bader popping out to first base. The Cardinals ended up losing the game.

#4: RHP Anthony Swarzak vs Tommy Pham 08/01/2017
Umpire: Chad Whitson
Count: 0-0
Pitch: 85.3 MPH slider
Distance from zone: 1.27 feet

Tommy Pham appears twice on this list, and I didn't exactly peg him as an unlucky hitter. This 85 MPH slider came from a right-handed pitcher, so umpire Chad Whitson's missed call makes a little more sense than the previous blown call. However, this strike being called in this particular count really put Pham behind, and you can see it in his disgust after the call. On average, batting average goes from .344 on a 1-0 count to .324 on an 0-1 count.

There are two things that are interesting to me about this call: first, Whitson is set up on the inside of the plate, so of course he won't be able to accurately see an outside pitch, particularly one that sweeps away from the hitter. Also, Swarzak is set up on the glove side of the mound, thus placing him on the outside of the plate already.

Pham ended up striking out swinging later in the at-bat. This call came in the 8th inning with one man on in a 3-2 game where the Cardinals were trailing. It's just one called strike, but Pham's eventual strikeout could have changed the outcome of the game.