Minor League Replacement Umps Getting it Wrong?

At Workplace Prof Blog, Law Prof Jeff Hirsch of Tennessee discusses the minor league umpire strike, which I commented on here. Professor Hirsch links to a Knoxville News Sentinel article that asserts that minor league replacement umpires (largely college and high school umps) have been making bad calls at a higher rate than the regular umps. The News Sentinel article goes so far as to imply that prospect Delmon Young, suspended for throwing a bat at an umpire, did so (at least in some part) because of bad calls by replacements. With all due respect to the News Sentinel, the few anecdotes cited hardly seem to support the proposition that replacement umps are making more bad calls. It's entirely possible the regular umps make just as many bad calls; we just were not watching them as closely.

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