- There are 17 MLB crews consisting of four umpires each. At any given time, 15 are working and 2 are on vacation.
- In 2000 they consolidated AL and NL umpires. Each crew travels around randomly, with its advance schedule kept (mostly) secret by MLB for various reasons including gambling and personal safety.
- Because each crew works about 140 games, each umpire will be behind home plate about 35 times a season, and therefore see each MLB team an average of 2-3 times. Obviously due to scheduling quirks and other issues, sometimes a team gets a particular home plate umpire zero times, or even seven or eight in a year. It used to be much more common to see one umpire that frequently.
- A few extremely hitter-friendly umpires: Tim Tschida (very few Ks, lots of BBs, and lots of runs), Tim McClelland (most runs per game), Dana DeMuth (highest percentage of OVER on betting lines), Joe West
- A few pitcher-friendly umpires: Lance Barksdale, Vic Carapazza, Gary Darling, CB Bucknor
- If you're a Cincinnati Reds fan, two guys you don't want to see spooning with the catcher are Laz Diaz and Mark Wegner. For no known reason, both guys have it out for the Reds, who are 6-23 all-time with Diaz behind the plate and 5-24 all-time with Wegner. Diaz has already dropped three more Ls on the Reds in 2011, while Wegner (thankfully) has had a limited schedule due to a leg injury in May and hasn't seen the Reds yet. Obviously the players are the biggest deciding factor in any game, but when numbers are as statistically significant as with these two umps, you have to wonder.
Sources for my research: baseball-reference.com, mlb.com, thespread.com
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