Every home-plate umpire calls a slightly different strike zone — a tighter zone means more walks, deeper counts and more runs; a generous zone speeds hitters into outs. Over a large sample that shows up as a measurably different run environment per umpire, which is why totals bettors track these numbers. The honest caveat: even a full season behind the plate is a small sample, and most of the spread you see below is noise around the league average. We use umpire tendencies as one small input to our MLB totals model — never as a betting rule on their own.
| # | Umpire | Games | Avg total runs | Over 8.5 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vic Carapazza | 148 | 9.00 | 48.6% |
| 2 | Edwin Moscoso | 145 | 9.12 | 54.5% |
| 3 | Bill Miller | 144 | 8.63 | 47.2% |
| 4 | Adam Hamari | 142 | 8.62 | 49.3% |
| 5 | Dan Bellino | 141 | 9.70 | 58.9% |
| 6 | Ryan Wills | 141 | 8.76 | 46.1% |
| 7 | Adam Beck | 140 | 8.63 | 44.3% |
| 8 | Dan Iassogna | 140 | 9.46 | 50.0% |
| 9 | Doug Eddings | 140 | 8.57 | 41.4% |
| 10 | Lance Barrett | 140 | 9.18 | 52.9% |
| 11 | Nestor Ceja | 140 | 8.44 | 47.9% |
| 12 | Gabe Morales | 139 | 8.82 | 48.2% |
| 13 | Carlos Torres | 138 | 8.94 | 50.0% |
| 14 | John Libka | 138 | 8.88 | 47.1% |
| 15 | Lance Barksdale | 138 | 8.77 | 51.4% |
| 16 | Mark Ripperger | 138 | 8.91 | 48.5% |
| 17 | Nic Lentz | 138 | 8.41 | 44.9% |
| 18 | David Rackley | 137 | 8.46 | 46.0% |
| 19 | James Hoye | 137 | 9.10 | 48.9% |
| 20 | Nick Mahrley | 137 | 8.96 | 49.6% |
| 21 | Clint Vondrak | 136 | 9.43 | 45.6% |
| 22 | Dan Merzel | 136 | 8.59 | 41.9% |
| 23 | Chris Segal | 135 | 8.88 | 52.6% |
| 24 | Jansen Visconti | 135 | 8.91 | 53.3% |
| 25 | Sean Barber | 135 | 9.22 | 49.6% |
| 26 | Alan Porter | 134 | 9.17 | 51.5% |
| 27 | Alfonso Márquez | 134 | 9.83 | 61.2% |
| 28 | Jordan Baker | 133 | 9.28 | 54.9% |
| 29 | Mike Muchlinski | 133 | 9.56 | 54.1% |
| 30 | Adrian Johnson | 132 | 9.71 | 59.1% |
| 31 | Ben May | 132 | 9.41 | 54.5% |
| 32 | Ryan Blakney | 132 | 8.08 | 43.9% |
| 33 | Stu Scheurwater | 132 | 8.75 | 43.9% |
| 34 | Tripp Gibson | 132 | 9.14 | 48.5% |
| 35 | Chad Fairchild | 131 | 8.95 | 48.1% |
| 36 | Erich Bacchus | 131 | 9.12 | 52.7% |
| 37 | John Tumpane | 131 | 8.80 | 50.4% |
| 38 | Junior Valentine | 131 | 8.57 | 43.5% |
| 39 | Quinn Wolcott | 131 | 8.74 | 47.3% |
| 40 | Ramon De Jesus | 131 | 9.49 | 48.1% |
| 41 | Roberto Ortiz | 131 | 8.59 | 47.3% |
| 42 | Andy Fletcher | 130 | 9.87 | 54.6% |
| 43 | D.J. Reyburn | 130 | 8.38 | 46.9% |
| 44 | Laz Diaz | 130 | 8.50 | 43.9% |
| 45 | Todd Tichenor | 130 | 8.90 | 45.4% |
| 46 | Malachi Moore | 129 | 9.29 | 49.6% |
| 47 | Ryan Additon | 129 | 9.26 | 52.7% |
| 48 | Alex Tosi | 128 | 8.84 | 46.9% |
| 49 | Jeremie Rehak | 127 | 9.06 | 50.4% |
| 50 | Manny Gonzalez | 127 | 8.76 | 47.2% |
| 51 | Charlie Ramos | 126 | 8.50 | 42.9% |
| 52 | Chris Guccione | 126 | 9.58 | 54.8% |
| 53 | Marvin Hudson | 125 | 8.62 | 46.4% |
| 54 | Cory Blaser | 124 | 7.82 | 41.9% |
| 55 | Nate Tomlinson | 124 | 9.39 | 57.3% |
| 56 | Will Little | 124 | 8.86 | 48.4% |
| 57 | Bruce Dreckman | 123 | 8.78 | 52.8% |
| 58 | Phil Cuzzi | 121 | 7.97 | 38.0% |
| 59 | Brennan Miller | 118 | 7.86 | 39.0% |
| 60 | Mark Wegner | 118 | 9.91 | 56.8% |
| 61 | Mike Estabrook | 118 | 8.93 | 50.8% |
| 62 | Shane Livensparger | 118 | 8.75 | 51.7% |
| 63 | Brian O'Nora | 117 | 8.86 | 48.7% |
| 64 | Chad Whitson | 116 | 8.95 | 50.9% |
| 65 | Jim Wolf | 116 | 8.87 | 54.3% |
| 66 | CB Bucknor | 115 | 8.44 | 47.8% |
| 67 | Hunter Wendelstedt | 107 | 8.96 | 54.2% |
| 68 | Emil Jimenez | 105 | 9.30 | 53.3% |
| 69 | Alex MacKay | 99 | 8.07 | 39.4% |
| 70 | Chris Conroy | 99 | 8.41 | 48.5% |
| 71 | Rob Drake | 99 | 8.71 | 50.5% |
| 72 | Scott Barry | 98 | 8.98 | 42.9% |
| 73 | Brian Walsh | 93 | 9.27 | 54.8% |
| 74 | Mark Carlson | 90 | 8.86 | 48.9% |
| 75 | Tom Hanahan | 90 | 9.39 | 60.0% |
| 76 | Paul Clemons | 89 | 8.45 | 44.9% |
| 77 | Derek Thomas | 82 | 9.33 | 52.4% |
| 78 | John Bacon | 82 | 8.02 | 43.9% |
| 79 | Ron Kulpa | 79 | 8.57 | 44.3% |
| 80 | Tony Randazzo | 75 | 8.41 | 45.3% |
| 81 | Edwin Jimenez | 72 | 8.74 | 41.7% |
| 82 | Brian Knight | 70 | 8.59 | 47.1% |
| 83 | Brock Ballou | 70 | 8.96 | 50.0% |
| 84 | Jeremy Riggs | 69 | 8.41 | 43.5% |
| 85 | Larry Vanover | 65 | 8.21 | 44.6% |
| 86 | Pat Hoberg | 58 | 9.24 | 51.7% |
| 87 | Jeff Nelson | 56 | 9.89 | 58.9% |
| 88 | Jacob Metz | 51 | 7.69 | 43.1% |
| 89 | Austin Jones | 49 | 8.02 | 34.7% |
| 90 | Angel Hernandez | 45 | 9.56 | 48.9% |
| 91 | James Jean | 45 | 9.69 | 57.8% |
| 92 | Paul Emmel | 38 | 8.87 | 47.4% |
| 93 | Jonathan Parra | 35 | 8.26 | 51.4% |
| 94 | Willie Traynor | 34 | 9.77 | 52.9% |
| 95 | Jerry Layne | 32 | 9.47 | 56.2% |
Method: built from the finished MLB games in our own model database (2017 onwards), using the recorded home-plate assignment for each game. "Avg total runs" is the average combined final score in that umpire's games; "Over 8.5 %" is the share of his games with 9+ total runs. Umpires with fewer than 30 plate games are excluded as too thin to report.
At the margins, yes. The strike zone is called by a human, and zone size correlates with walks, strikeouts and ultimately runs. But the effect is small compared to pitchers, lineups, weather and park — an umpire is a minor adjustment, not a handicapping shortcut.
Not on its own. Sportsbooks see the same public data, and a single season of plate games is a noisy sample — an umpire at 55% overs may just have caught high-scoring matchups. We feed umpire tendencies into our model as one small input alongside dozens of stronger signals.
From our own game database: finished MLB games since 2017 with the home-plate umpire assignment recorded per game. It refreshes automatically as new games settle, so the table stays current through the season.