I will preface this article with two important caveats. First: Complaining about referee fairness is the behavior of a loser in any sport and under any circumstances. For better or worse, calls usually fall flat. Even on the extremely rare occasion that a single penalty literally costs a team a victory, the chatter isn’t going to change anything.
Second: I’m more lukewarm about the upcoming challenge system and ABS than many people. I think umpires generally do a good job of calling balls and strikes, and calling the rulebook area does nothing to appease fans who carefully study umpire scorecards. They don’t want a rulebook area; they want rules. They want their team to be able to field all calls. Overall I think it’s a positive for the game and I’m not as obsessed with it as I am with the stadium clock, for example.
That being said, I have one particular expectation for the challenge system. This would eliminate one of my least favorite games in baseball, which we saw in Game 3 of the World Series with disastrous consequences but with some luck on the Major League Diamond last time.
When the three-ball count is in play, if the pitch is completely close to that zone, the home plate umpire will wait to see if the batter has advanced to first base. If he did, then the ump would have called the pitch a strike.
I hate it. This is worse than your attention-grabbing umpteenth showmanship; it’s territory marking. The umpire reminds players that no matter where the pitch actually goes, you can only capture your base if I graciously grant you permission. Going forward, I’m going to call this the “Bridge Troll Auto Strike” because the batsman may not pass before answering the umpire’s riddle three.
I admit, “the least popular game in baseball” is a big statement. I don’t know, I guess it’s not as bad as throwing something at the batter’s head. But it’s been something I’ve particularly hated for at least 10 years. This is no exaggeration. I have the receipt. Below is an old tweet of mine complaining about the practice of back-to-back games in the 2015 Big Ten Tournament. I don’t know who I’m complaining to; there were about 100 people in the stands for this 9 a.m. local game, but young Brandon Lowe made a surprise appearance. Apparently there was another example during the College World Series, because a month later I’m still hung up on it:
The first law of college baseball is that umpires are more concerned with whether you leave first than whether the ball is in the zone.
— Michael Baumann (@MichaelBaumann) June 25, 2015
Until recently, I thought bridge troll auto-aggression was a distinct college baseball phenomenon. The umpires there are often less skilled and less rigorously trained, and the NCAA is less able and/or willing than MLB to weed out nosy power trippers.
But this has happened a few times in the playoffs. The most notable was Daulton Varsho in the second inning of Game 3, courtesy of home plate umpire Mark Wegner:
Canadian radio and television calls to non-No. 4 golfers:
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog.xyz) 2025-10-28T00:42:48.056Z
The reason I sound like a crazy person talking about these strike calls is because they usually don’t have a significant impact on the game, so they usually go unnoticed. A player who receives a bad 3-0 strike call has more chances to touch the ball. Vasiu did, in fact, walk in the end, just three pitches later than he should have.
This situation is different for two reasons: First, most Bridge Troll auto-attacks occur on truly fringe pitches. The ball missed the area by about six inches. In fact, it was higher than the previous pitch, which Wegner called a ball. I try to give umpires as much grace as possible in terms of the strike zone, but missing pitches so badly at this level is unacceptable.
Second, the call was so egregious, and Wegner’s double call was so late and inaudible, that it not only deceived Valshaw, but also Beau Bichette. Bichette walked away first, looking forward to moving on. Eventually, Tyler Glasnow remembered the ball was still alive and picked him off, killing Toronto’s freshman rally.
Had it happened five months later, Wasiu would have challenged the decision. He’ll be on the field and Bichette will be back on base. They will become whole and no one will be angry about it for more than 30 seconds. But the call had a major impact on a pretty important game, and there was no way to correct it once it was made.
Heading into Monday night’s game, batters had committed errors on three strikes 18 times this postseason. As a percentage of this call opportunity, that’s not outside of historical norms.
I examined the percentage of three-pitch pitches that were called strikes that were outside the strike zone but within 4 inches vertically and 3 1/3 inches horizontally of the zone. In fact, referees have stepped up their supervision over the past few seasons:
That’s all there is to a potential Bridge Troll autoattack call. Some of these are honest mistakes, or pitches so close to the edge of the zone that the naked eye cannot differentiate between a ball and a strike.
But of the 18 false calls before the Varsho-Wegner-Bichette incident, I think as many as 14 or 15 were bridge troll automated attacks. There were a few batters who clearly disagreed with the call but did not explicitly move toward first base until the umpire made his decision. The AP had no less than four inconclusive three-pitch strikes in Game 2 (two of which came on back-to-back pitches from Victor Robles), but they all came late in a blowout. One of the few forces as powerful as the Bridge Trolls Auto-Strike is the Send Everyone Home Auto-Strike.
I’d happily consider nine pitches this postseason as potential Bridge Troll auto-attacks, and that doesn’t include Glasnow-Walshaw. Here they are, in chronological order.
Brad Keller on Xander Bogaerts, home plate umpire DJ Reyburn in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series
In the ninth inning, the score was 3-2, the score was stalemate, and the winner took all. Even if you think it was entirely innocent – which I doubt given Bogaerts’ run-in with the officials in Game 1 of this series – this is a call you can’t miss. Bogart and the Padres absolutely exploded, and rightly so.
Troy Melton on Jorge Polanco, ALDS Game 1 fourth inning, home plate umpire Alex Tosi
A little late, Polanco did a good job getting out of the zone, delivering a 3-0 pitch that sent a message to the batter without completely screwing up his at-bat — it looked like a textbook Bridge Toll auto-hit. The only evidence that Tosi exonerates is that Dillon Dingler is a great playmaker who drives the field back into the zone.
Colin Rea on Joey Ortiz, NLDS Game 2 Sixth Inning, Home Plate Umpire Mike Estabrook
Ortiz had yet to make a clear first move when Estabrook pulled the trigger, but he made it clear with his dramatic play that he thought the pitch was inside. If everyone doesn’t get the message the first time around, turning around and muttering to yourself in obvious disgust makes it clear how he feels on the phone.
Cam Schlitler on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., ALDS Game 4 fifth inning, home plate umpire Tony Randazzo
Randazzo must have called Guerrero after he started running to first, but Fradito was quick. Also, great framing work by Austin Wells and really cool promo by Schlittler. No one likes hitting three balls with a backdoor sinker more than I do. Having said that, this was a bad call, made after the batter had already started to attack the bases.
Matthew Boyd on Blake Perkins, NLDS Game 4 fifth inning, home plate umpire Lance Barksdale
Perkins played cooler than he needed to. He was almost at the top, but he calmly took a step back and tilted his head dissatisfied. Another great framing job, this one courtesy of Carson Kelly, so I don’t believe Barksdale is sending a message.
Keider Montero on JP Crawford, ALDS Game 5, 12th inning, home plate umpire Alan Porter
Crawford, like Mike Trout, was called up on a walk. He has committed three errors in 12 postseason games this year; he has only four actual walks in the entire postseason.
It’s an absolutely unacceptable spot to be in if Crawford leaves early, and the pitch is so close and Dingler’s framing is so good. But by the time Porter made any movement to hit the ball, Crawford had turned and doubled over, and when Porter actually made the snap, he was unhooking his elbow pads.
Louis Varland on JP Crawford, ALCS Game 1 seventh inning, home plate umpire Ryan Additon
Alejandro Kirk is a great ball-striker, but this ball isn’t even close. This time, Crawford didn’t take off his clothes like he did in previous games, but I really liked his reaction to the call: sullen like a cat that doesn’t want to be picked up. Indeed.
Yariel Rodríguez on Leo Rivas, ALCS Game 2 seventh inning, home plate umpire Doug Eddings
This is the play I mentioned earlier; as the Mariners got stronger, Eddings expanded the offensive zone like you often see late in games. I guess there’s an argument to be made that refs shouldn’t be making this kind of run-clock movement in the playoffs given what we’ll learn about the bigger picture in the Blue Jays game later, but it doesn’t irritate me as much as the Bogart or Vasho calls. I put it here because the call was so late; by the time Eddings raised his arm, Rivas had turned and left the batter’s box.
Kevin Gausman on Jorge Polanco, ALCS Game 5, first inning, home plate umpire Marvin Hudson
I don’t care how good of a framer Kirk is, this is clearly a ball. You could tell it by the surprised sounds from Joe Davis and John Smoltz when Hudson called the shot a strike.
At least the Mariners won this game. In the waning days of bridge troll auto-battling, “Balls Don’t Lie” is the best you can hope for.
