How many MLB umpires do you think you could name? I bet it’s more than you think. Balkin’ Bob Davidson might be the first one to jump to mind. Perhaps Cowboy Joe West stands out for his over-the-top theatrics. Or it could be Phil Cuzzi or Laz Diaz or Angel Hernandez for their perceived terribleness. But my guess is that Brian Gorman is not one of the first 20 names that roll off your tongue if you start naming umpires.
I could not tell you much about Brian Gorman. About the only thing I can tell you is that his dad, Tom, was an umpire for many years. But a quick look at the record shows the Mets have not won a game in which Gorman has been behind the plate in the past five years, including an 0-2 record here in 2012.
That’s only six games, so perhaps it is a small sample issue. Since 2004, the Mets are 4-11 (.267) with Gorman calling balls and strikes. Since becoming an MLB ump in 1993, the Mets are 18-30 (.375) with Gorman behind the dish.
The Mets are 1517-1527 (.498) since 1993, so they are significantly worse with Gorman handling the duties behind the plate.
There has been very little public information about how “good” an umpire is. In a 2007 post at Baseball Prospectus, Dan Fox compared how accurate the umpires were in calling balls and strikes. Gorman ranked 41st out of 56 umpires in the survey. To be fair, there was not a huge discrepancy between the best (Eric Cooper, Tim McClelland at .936) and the worst (Brian Runge at .868). Gorman had an .896 accuracy according to this article.
Dan Brooks, from Brooksbaseball.net, has information from every umpire in the PITCHf/x era. Here is the card for Gorman
http://www.brooksbaseball.net/umpire_cards/ump_cards.php?umpire=24#tab1
If you go to the page directly, you can select all kinds of splits, including balls/strikes and LHP/RHP, among many others. Brooks stresses that umpires are really good and that “If you use these data to rip umpires, consider yourself an idiot.”
I’m not sure what to make of it but it’s hard to ignore. Gorman was born in Queens so maybe he’s making sure to avoid any bias charges. Regardless, this is an area that deserves more investigation. Because if Gorman “hates” the Mets, there must be umpires who “love” the team. So, who do you like to see behind the plate?