January 1, MLB Umpire’s Catastrophic Night Exposes MASSIVE Problem With Baseball’s Future

Wyatt’s Take

• Home plate umpire Bill Miller went 0-for-8 on robot ump challenges in a single game — every single call he made got overturned by technology
• The embarrassing performance raises serious questions about umpire competence and whether MLB’s automated ball-strike system is exposing what we’ve known all along
• This is what happens when you rely on human judgment instead of getting it right — technology doesn’t lie, and Miller’s night proves the old guard might not be cutting it anymore

The Cincinnati Reds walked out of Wrigley Field Friday night with a 10-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs. But the real story wasn’t the final score.

It was home plate umpire Bill Miller’s historically bad performance behind the plate. Miller went a perfect 0-for-8 on automated ball-strike system challenges.

That means every single call he made that got challenged was wrong. Every. Single. One.

The Cubs won five challenges against Miller’s calls. The Reds won three. Eight opportunities for Miller to get it right, and he failed all eight times.

The first overturned call came early in the game. Miller ruled a fastball from Reds pitcher Rhett Lowder a ball.

The ABS challenge showed the pitch was actually in the strike zone. It went downhill from there.

Seven more calls got successfully challenged before the final out. Of the eight disputed pitches, Miller had only called two of them strikes initially.

Cubs catcher Carson Kelly challenged four pitches. Reds catcher Jose Trevino successfully challenged two. Cincinnati’s Sal Stewart and Chicago outfielder Seiya Suzuki each won challenges from the batter’s box.

Interestingly, Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson didn’t challenge a single call Friday. He leads all of baseball with 88 successful challenge overturns in 124 attempts this season.

This isn’t Miller’s first controversy with the automated system. Last month during a Reds game, Cincinnati infielder Edwin Arroyo collided with Miller while trying to field a ground ball in the seventh inning.

The collision prevented the Reds from recording the third out. The inning continued, and the visiting team paid the price.

Hot mics caught Reds reliever Caleb Ferguson unleashing an expletive-filled rant at Miller over his involvement in the play. Ferguson later apologized publicly.

“It’s just a very unprofessional thing on my part. I know these things happen in the game, but I don’t like that I was kind of the centerpiece of what was going on.”

According to TapToChallenge.com, which tracks the automated ball-strike system, Miller’s 0-for-8 performance appears to be the worst by any umpire since MLB introduced the challenge system at the start of the 2026 season.

Miller now has 70 overturned calls this season. That ranks ninth among all MLB umpires.

Hunter Wendelstedt leads the league in overturned calls. Dan Iassogna, Malachi Moore, Lance Barrett and Manny Gonzalez round out the top five.

Wyatt Matters

For decades, hardworking Americans watching baseball have screamed at their TVs about blown calls. We’ve watched umpires cost teams games with bad strike zones and ego-driven decisions. Now technology is exposing what we always knew — the human element isn’t always a good thing when you can get it right with precision. Miller’s embarrassing night is a reminder that accountability matters, whether you’re behind a plate or behind a desk. When the robots are doing a better job than the veterans, maybe it’s time to admit the old way wasn’t working as well as we thought.