The "Worst" Umpire Ever Isn’t Actually Bad

there are over 60 active petitions organized by different people all trying to get him fired Chipper Jones refuses to watch any MLB game that is umpired by him Bryce Harper screamed in his face called him garbage and threw his helmet into the crowd because of him Pedro Martinez wanted him fired CCE zathia wanted him fired in the middle of a series and MLB themselves don't even like him after he sued the league for discriminating against him based on his race earlier this season he called this a strike wa the very next pitch and oh my goodness then immediately after that you have got to be kidding me what in the world this pitch was 6.78 in outside the worst Miss in the history of umpire auditor who's been tracking calls since 2014 and the Baseball World Went Crazy Angel Hernandez my God apparently they can't do anything about it he sued MLB MLB they're not touching him Angel hernandz you Stak but what about the other 18 umpires Who currently rank worse than Angel Hernandez well people are mad at them too this umpire screamed at a player to get off the field the player he screamed at was injured a manager got ejected for arguing with an Umpire even though he wasn't even the person who said said it it was a fan this was called a strike this was called a ball and after a 3-hour rain delay this was called a strike to end the game not even close you got to be kidding me and all of these incidents happened in only 1 month from watching on TV you should have a good idea on what the strike zone is based on the Box on screen when umpires miss a call by an inch it is obvious but try making these calls with no box from the umpire's point of view was this a ball or a strike if you said strike you were right right down the middle what about this pitch if you said strike you were right again right on the outside corner what about this pitch if you said strike bad news you just made one of the worst calls of the season this ball is 3.48 in off the plate out of over 27,000 calls on lefties in the month of May 2023 you just made the 11 th worst call of the month it was worse than 99.9995% of calls that month what about this pitch if you said ball you were wrong this hit the outside corner what about this well according to the Cardinals broadcast it was a ball according to the Mets broadcast it was a strike however according to mlb.com it was actually a ball unfortunately according to baseball vont it was really a strike and according to the Umpire it was a ball the difference between making a good call and making one of the worst calls ever is only a few inches and balls that look like balls on TV are sometimes actually strikes which is what made what Pat hoberg did so impressive in 2022 he called a perfect game out of over 18,000 games tracked he is the only umpire in history to achieve this he made 129 balls and strike calls and every single one of them was correct this pitch was 24 Ines off the plate he correctly called it a ball this pitch was almost identical he correctly called it a strike one ball is a strike the other is a ball they were 1.24 in apart and he called them both right when a pitch is borderline that means it landed in the Shadow Zone on average umpires missed nine of these calls in the shadow zone every game hoberg Saw 44 borderline pitches in the shadow zone and called all 44 correct he called this a strike the automated Zone on screen thought it was a ball turns out it actually scraped the corner meaning Pat hoberg was actually more accurate than the robot calling the game right now he's known as the Undisputed most accurate umpire in baseball but some people still believe he is quote horse that's what Alex cor told him during this freak out after after this pitch the Red Sox started talking trash to hoberg from The Dugout he ended up ejecting Alex Verdugo who was upset about this call earlier in the game according to Alex Kora the Red Sox were upset about this strike three call in the third then got even more upset when Justin Turner got called out again on this pitch they finally boiled over in the seventh they were trying to pitch Alex bregman outside they hit the corner on the first pitch hit it on the second Pitch then threw four straight balls Kora thinking at least one of these was a strike screamed at him from The Dugout and got into his face called him terrible started kicking the dirt to show he was missing calls in the outside corner got ejected and left extremely upset but looking back at the tape every single call hoberg made that upset the Red Sox was 100% accurate even this pitch that the TV thought was a ball the actual Strike Zone had as a strike meaning hoberg was more accurate than a literal robot and still got accused of being a terrible umpire when it comes to officiating opinions get skewed based on the amount of controversial calls this season alone it seems like MLB umping is worse than ever yet likely they're about to have their most accurate season in history for the 17th year in a row even Angel Hernandez himself has become increasingly more accurate every season and believe it or not he's not even close to being the worst ire in baseball yet when you ask who's the worst umpire in baseball everyone will almost always say can't get in oh no no he was safe at no no and another blown call by Hernandez Angel Hernandez's poor reputation dates back decades most likely because of incidents like these perhaps the first controversial call in his young career Angel Hernandez called this Runner safe in the bottom of the 11th inning of a tie game the Braves won the game and the Mets got pissed things got physical Bobby Valentine lost his mind Mike Piaza stuck the ball in Angel's face then spiked It On The Ground saying after the game it was the worst call he'd ever seen in his entire 20year baseball career a few years later Mariano Duncan got suspended for a similar freak out angel had called multiple check swings swings the Dodgers didn't think they were swings so Mariano Duncan charged out of the Dugout screamed at Angel and eventually threw his hat at him Angel ended up picking up the hat and giving it away to a lucky fan the next game Duncan came onto the field with his hat taped to his head but this is the incident that really put Angel Hernandez on the map and don't worry I'll have a I'll have some speaks for that home PL umpire after the game this is Steve McMichael former tackle for the Chicago Bears he was in attendance when Angel made this call at home Cubs fans thinking the runner was safe were upset mck Michael happened to be tasked with singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh inning stretch and before he started he called out Angel Hernandez booed him and told the crowd he would talk to him after the game Hernandez obviously upset by this stared down McMichael from the field and when McMichael finished singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game he was ejected from the game even though Hernandez's partner Randy Marsh was the one who ejected McMichael for saying this this clip has become infamous it's racked up millions of views and most people to this day think Angel was the one who ejected him it's hard to blame them for thinking this because it looks like Angel also probably wanted to eject McMichael back then Hernandez wasn't known for being a bad umpire the public didn't even know who he was however within baseball players had already ranked him 31st out of 36 NL umpires in 1999 in 2006 players voted him the third worst umpire in the league in an Umpire Scouting Report published in 2010 he was already known as quote one of the most vilified umpires in Major League Baseball but this is just based on players opinions MLB seemed to think he was an average to an above average umpire in 1999 57 out of 68 umpires resigned at the same time essentially going on strike but it backfired M Mo used this as an opportunity to just accept the resignations of all the umpires who they thought were bad umpires MLB fired 32% of umpires Angel Hernandez wasn't one of them MLB decid Ed he was good enough and kept him around from 1997 to 2017 MLB selected him to umpire nine divisional series seven League Championship Series three All-Star games and two World Series umpires are selected for these games based on Merit so MLB clearly thought Angel Hernandez was an above average umpire the players did not but what did the data say angel was nowhere close to the villain he has become in the Public's eyes today but by 2008 there was already an anti- Angel Hernandez website and there was enough hate against him for fangraphs to address his poor reputation writing quote if everyone thinks that Hernandez is a poor umpire then we now should be able to verify or refute this they analyzed his Strike Zone in 2008 using an early version of pitch tracking called pitch FX that analyzed each and every ball and strike call he made in 2008 and found despite his reputation he quote grades out as an above average umpire no matter how you slice it Hernandez is a quality umpire among an already amazing group so the data said he was good the league thought he was good was giving him great posies and assignments and fans really didn't know who he was but in 2013 this one play may have changed all of that but before we get to that a quick word from today's sponsor we all wish we could have things both ways we want an ace pitcher who could also hit bombs we want an ace starter who throws 100 and never gets Tommy John and we want nice sharp looking clothes that are also comfortable to wear well actually Mac Welden makes those they make Timeless apparel but use Modern Performance Fabrics they look like regular clothes but they feel like the softest most comfortable thing you've ever worn the t-shirt and sweatshirts I have from Mech Welden get worn multiple times a week because they're that good they make clothes for home clothes for gym clothes for work for the golf course and even some of the most comfortable 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they have made a huge mistake but moments later after watching the replay in a video room Angel Hernandez decided this was a double a double are you kidding me no idea what replay they saw the game tying home run didn't count the Athletics manager lost to mind Angel ejected him the A's went on to lose and this call ended up being a massive deal the Athletics players went to Twitter immediately calling out Hernandez for the Miss call it became a top story and sparked debate across baseball about instant replay which was still only a few years old at the time writer Peter gammons believed that Angel Hernandez like many other umpires didn't believe in instant replay so to protest the system refuse to reverse the call Angel says this wasn't the case he blamed the angles he was given today when a play is challenged a group of people in a control room in New York decide the call with about a 100 different angles on a 100 different monitors but in 2013 umpires themselves were responsible for viewing calls on a single 19in monitor in a closet next to the clubhouse Angel basically said the angles he was given to make this call weren't clear he couldn't tell with 100% accuracy it was a homer so he had to keep the call the same as it was on the field and this really pissed MLB off Angel was making MLB look bad by blaming the replay equipment they typically do not comment on Miss calls but this time they not only publicly stated that angel got the call wrong but emphasized that he had plenty of good angles and enough evidence to overturn this call on replay That season for the first time in years Angel wasn't selected to up the World Series All-Star game or any playoff game in 2014 once again MLB did not select him 3 years later upset of his lack of playoff assignments and M Mo not promoting him to crew chief he sued MLB for racial discrimination and based on Google Trends this is around the time Angel Hernandez became Infamous it seemed like every time there was an issue involving an Umpire Angel was involved he ejected Ian Kinsler after he was arguing balls and Strikes Kinsler after the game said Angel is always messing with games blatantly and should quote find a new job this wouldn't have been a big deal whatsoever except when MLB decided to find Kinsler instead of suspend him umpires across baseball decided to ban together and wear white wristbands to protest quote growing umpire abuse the public unsympathetic to umpire abuse saw this as somewhat of a joke MLB made the Empire stop wearing the wristbands and even though it wasn't Angel's idea since it was his call who spurred the protest he took most of the public heat a year later with his discrimination lawsuit still in court Angel was selected to umpire the playoffs in a closed play at first he made this call the Red Sox challenged and the call was reversed the next inning he made this call the Yankees challenged and it turns out Angel was wrong again later in the game he made this call and the Yan he's challenged again and once again Angel Hernandez was wrong he became just the fourth umpire in MLB history to have three calls overturned in one game it happening in the playoffs made things even worse we all know how bad Angel Hernandez is Pedro Martinez came out saying MLB needed to do something and that angel was quote as bad as it gets Angel was behind the plate the next game and CC Sabathia not pleased with his Zone called him out publicly saying that he should not be umpiring playoff games this particular gentleman has sued baseball for discrimination because he says they would not make him recru Chief because he was Latino this doesn't help no by this point he had been in enough incidents and enough players had come out against him for fans to also believe he was the worst umpire in baseball Angel Hernandez you stin and I don't like you this is the Philly Captain who camped near the player's parking lot just to confront angel Hernandez after this notorious game in 2022 he called this strike three on Omar navarez he called this pitch a ball and with the Bases Loaded in a tie game he called this a strike against Jean zura then in the bottom of the ninth down by one in a 3-2 count he called Kyle schwarber out on this pitch schwarber threw his Bat threw his helmet got an angel's face told him he missed Call's outside missed Call's inside missed them high missed them for the Brewers missed them for the Phillies and was overall terrible Angel Hernandez plus all these rules equals unwatchable equals click why would I want to sit there and watch that according to umpire scorecard an automated Twitter account who tracks umpires Angel Hernandez missed 16 calls on called strikes he was wrong 23% of the time was this the worst umpired game in MLB that year nope not even close yet this tweet got 23,000 likes and this briefly became the number one story in baseball here's why Angel Hernandez has not won any part of his lawsuit a leag baseball doesn't care what color he is or where he's from they care that he sucks when he returned to Philly the next season Angel Hernandez you stink this was after he said Bryce Harper swung at this pitch Harper didn't think he swung he confronted an angel after the game saying with Angel it's quote the same story every year and once again this call became a story around baseball absolute check swing I mean there's no way he went through how many times is baseball going to let this man screw it up what made this even worse for Angel was all of these incidents happened while he was actively suing MLB for racial discrimination chances are the first time you heard about Angel Hernandez was because of one of these highly publicized bad calls you watch the bad call and red a players say he was the worst umpire ever you concluded he's probably a pretty bad umpire then immediately read he was accusing MLB for not promoting him because he was Latino most people made the conclusion that Angel Hernandez wasn't being punished based on race but because he was a bad umpire and the courts agreed Angel eventually lost the suit in which MLB had to publicly back him to prove they weren't discriminating against him according to MLB Angel messing up this call and blaming the replay system instead of taking responsibility is why he stopped getting posies and assignments in 2013 they even claimed he was likely going to be selected for the World Series in 2018 until he messed up these calls in the ALDS that year they also exposed him in the lawsuit for getting Homer Bailey to sign 11 autographs for him after he umpired a game where Bailey threw a no hitter Angel says that that was common practice amongst umpires at the time but it's also somewhat of a conflict of interest this becoming public added even more fuel to the fire by the time the lawsuit concluded in 2023 Angel Hernandez had become the only umpire who gets booed when their name is announced before game Ang fans are constantly heckling him like this guy come on hey minut what is it what is it with you you want to get on ESPN Tonight I ain't going to do it their backlash was so bad the Umpire Union had to make a tweet saying they quote stand behind Angel Hernandez umpire Ted Barrett felt so bad for Angel he felt the need to go to Instagram calling him quote one of the kindest men he knows if he posted every kind thing Angel did he could make a new post every day for the rest of his life and that he even saw him save a woman from quote doing something tragic but the knock on Angel Hernandez was never that he was a bad person it was that he was a bad umpire however he's not even close to as bad as what people make him out to be according to the Washington Post in 2022 he ranked 54 out of 68 umpires meaning he wasn't even in the bottom 20% Boston University took 11 years of data and released a study analyzing the skill of umpires they compiled a list of the 10 best umps as well as the worst 10 umps Angel Hernandez did not make that list and if you trust umpires scorecard.org Jo Hernandez in terms of accuracy they track every single pitch and judge whether the call was right they've analyed 6.2 million pitches since they began tracking in 2015 since then there are 33 umpires worse than Angel Hernandez so essentially During the period where Angel Hernandez had the reputation as being the hands- down worst ump in baseball he was actually better than 28% of umpires these scores are based on a system where a computer takes what an Umpire called in a game that matches it up with the kzone data and determines whether the call was correct or not MLB does this exact same things themselves for for every single game they create an Umpire report and send that report to each umpire the report grades then gives them a score goes over their Mis calls and tells them what they can do better next time on this Infamous game against the Phillies which was called the worst called game of the season the MLB umpire report claimed Angel Hernandez was 96% accurate the Umpire scorecard said it was 88% accurate it's not always obvious which one of these reports is more accurate but the strike zone on TV is even less accurate this pitch looks 3 in high it was actually a strike this pitch also looks High turns out it scraped the top of the zone you can watch the same game on two different broadcasts and often see two completely different size strike zones and this Strike Zone was 40 ft tall according to the rule book the strike zone is quote the area over home plate from the midpoint between the batter's shoulders and the top of the uniform pants and the bottom of the zone is just below the kneecap but this is not the actual Strike Zone Mo goes against their own rule book and when grining umps sets the top of the strike zone at wherever their belt line is when they set up in the batter's box all the way down to the hollow of the back of their knee they also add 2 in on both sides of the plate as a buffer zone so if the ball is an inch outside and the Umpire calls it a strike B considers that acceptable and doesn't count it as a mistake that is the reason Angel Hernandez scored 96% in the eyes of MLB many people saw this 96% accuracy score after this poor game and concluded MLB is way too easy on umps grading them on a strike zone that is way too big so they can be as bad as they want and never be fired but that's not the case MLB's reports are essentially grading on a curve a 96% on up scorecards who grades without MLB's buffer zone would make you the third most accurate ump in baseball but with MLB's grading system 96% makes you the worst umpire in baseball every umpire from Rookie ball to ml gets graded by this system just to make it to rookie ball you first have to go to umpire school if you finish at the top of your class then you get selected to go to rookie ball every umpire is evaluated at the end of the year if you have an elite evaluation and compared to the other umson rookie ball you get promoted to Lowa if you have an elite evaluation compared to other Lowa umpires you get to go to High a if you get another Elite evaluation you get to go to double a and that process continues all the way to the major leagues however if at any point during this process you don't get an elite evaluation and fail to finish at the top of your league and accuracy 3 years in a row you either have to go back to umpire school and start all the way over from Rookie ball or retire each umpire school class has around 150 students on average only one ump out of this class makes it to the major leagues meaning you have a 67 chance to make it to the majors it takes you at least 10 years of being in the miners where you get paid between 122 to 225,000 a year and you only have A6 chance to make it players who get drafted have a 177% chance to make the majors meaning depending on how you look at it becoming a Major League umpire is actually harder than becoming a player many people believe the Umpire Union makes it so that firing umpires is impossible in reality M Mo ums are also evaluated if their score drops below a certain level they enter a probation period where if their scores don't improve during that period they get fired ums can also get suspended for messing up calls on the field and it happens every year however unlike mob players this isn't public information so we really don't know how often getting fired also happens but is rare because sense umps have to prove they have Elite accuracy through every single level of the miners pretty much any ump who ends up becoming a full-time Major League up has no problem staying above the accuracy threshold set by MLB this frustrates people because ums like Angel Hernandez who the public thinks suck never get fired however the system is is actually working surprisingly well M Mo got the technology that made this evaluation process possible in 2008 in the 15 years since umpire accuracy has improved every single season in 2008 they missed 6.8% of calls on the margins today that number has been cut in half to only 3.2% their accuracy went from 81.3% to 92 .4% so it may seem like there's more Miss balls and strike calls than ever but that's probably just because there's a box on screen that makes misses obvious in reality since 2008 incorrect calls have been cut by almost 60% so even an ump like Angel Hernandez who grades below average would be elite at every single level of the miners the balls you see and Miss on TV a lot of times aren't even ball s and if you put him in MLB in 2008 he'd likely be the most accurate ump in baseball angel I love you bro God bless buddy

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 846,647

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Id: 9o4weN6AkPY

Length: 28min 9sec (1689 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024