[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

Yeah, here it is:

I'm all aboard the robo-umps train. If Umps want to read out the robo calls and still do their ring em' up poses and their unions negotiate that they get paid the same to do so, then more power to them.

But until then, making a game plan that incorporates an umps tendencies will always be a part of a competent team's game plan. Indeed, before the Game 6 game, Toronto fans were stoked because David Price was undefeated in his last six starts with Jeff Nelson and had a reputation for using his cutter to manipulate the edges of Nelson's strikezone.

Misc: Jeff Nelson has worked home plate for 7 David Price games, David Price has won his last 6 starts with Nelson behind home plate.

— Brandon H. (@BHIndepMO) October 23, 2015

David Price's career record when Jeff Nelson is HP ump: 6-1, 2.07 ERA, most Ws with any umpire

— Blair Kerkhoff (@BlairKerkhoff) October 24, 2015

Nelson's standard strike zone was notable enough to be mentioned in multiple articles, one by a Jays fan site. Apologies in advance for using baseball savant, Brooks Baseball was down.

Originally Posted by BlueBirdBanter

Jeff Nelson is the man calling the balls and strikes for Game 6 and he happened to be featured in an InstaGraphs article just a few weeks ago. [...] Takeaways from this? The Royals are stacked with left-handed hitters who will be facing a larger than average zone against David Price tonight.

By the third inning, Nelson and Price were already on the same wavelength. He got Eric Hosmer on the larger than average zone and Price started going back to it all night. Grabbing two inside strikes against Hos when he found himself in the third inning.





Price also used the outside part of the zone against righties to get calls out of the zone.





Price even was the first who started getting those outside the plate calls against lefties. Getting Moose on an outside call in the 4th.



Herrera also ended up getting a same call on the outside part of the plate against Goins later in the game (another lefty) and after that, Sal started calling for pitches in the exact same spot for lefties against Davis, and it paid off.



I'll never argue these weren't bad calls, but Nelson's strike zone issues were well known before the game, and Price used it to his advantage to find himself after a shaky start -- and the Royals used it to help seal the 2015 ALCS.

Three years later, Price would be 8-2 with Nelson after his decisive Game 2 outing with Nelson behind the plate in the 2018 World Series.

In short, roboumps 4 lyfe.