Umpires have been one of the biggest problems in MLB for a while now, and over the years, it feels like they've only gotten worse. 📩 Business inquiries: avgbaseball@yahoo.com
The issue i have with modern day umpires is not they make a bad call here and there, it's more or less that when they get called out, and proven wrong they either double down, or triple down with an absolutely inflated ego. They hate admitting when they make a mistake.
I believe either the league or the union encourages them to do so. I don't believe they ever want to be so bad. That said - Angel Hernandez is too bad he needs to be fired. He is the poster child of what's wrong with unions
I know what you mean. I don't like it when they turn the game into an Ump Show. That said, if the play isn't reviewable, I kinda understand why they can't change their minds after being chewed out. They need to be decisive, which obviously is frustrating because they mess up a lot.
All Umpires in the union should take after Pat Hoberg. He is willing to admit mistakes, overturn his own calls and is accurate nearly 100% of the time when behind the plate.
I don't ever wanna hear players getting thrown out bc of a horrible "ball/strike" call as "entertainment value". There's too much on the line. When you can't trust your own eye as a hitter, it can have a horrific tsunami effect in baseball. A ball should be a ball, and a strike should be a strike. Just like a HR is a HR, and a foul ball is a foul ball. There's nothing a fan or player can do that can "trick" or "influence" umpires to call a HR a foul, or a foul a HR. Balls and strikes ARE baseball. And they should never be "subjective" calls, esp in today's insane game of so much heat coming from the mound. But that's just my opinion.
This is the most valid argument I’ve heard for automated umpiring. Part of me feels like a human ump and all the faults they carry with them are part of the game, but your point that it can have a cascading effect on player confidence is valid.
@@jphjphjph there are still a lot of things all the Umpires are needed for. I just truly believe that hitting would def get better if a player's strike zone is *always* their strike zone, every single time.
It should be simple, but the crooked as hell Umpire's Union makes it complex. Hold the outliers accountable. Reward the high performing umpires like Hoberg with high leverage games.
Schwarber acted like a cry baby, that ball was close enough, he should’ve been protecting the plate. The Umpires don’t see the strike zone lines that we see on TV
We have cameras and ai now. The umps shouldn't be affecting the game the way they do. And now with online sports betting being so big (and the nba, ncaa, and nfl obviously seeing the effect of crooked refs) its a matter of time before they get even worse w their calls.
As an umpire myself I wise there was a system in place to rotate out umpires. There are about 74-76 umpires in a given year and only 1-2 are replaced but only do to retirement. Once you are in you are safe as long as you don't do something off the field. The issue is the umpire repot cards that the MLB use are to lenient. I would love to see a system where say the bottom 4-5 umpires from the year are dropped back to the miners and then pull up the top umpires from the miners. There are lots of really good umpires in the minors but they're stuck there because of the system that's in place where they just have to wait until someone retires and hope they get picked.
Major league umpires and school teachers are the only two professions that come to mind where there is no accountability for being bad at your job. Theur is one common denoninator, unions.
The problem isn't really that they make bad calls, its that they refuse to take any challenge to their calls. They just throw people out whenever someone calls out a stupid decision.
One of the notable changes is that thanks to those pending robo-umps, players can now see and assess tons of pitches assessed as balls and strikes. Yeah, everyone can tell a pitch 6" out of the zone. But batters are now more correct, and more confident they're correct, than ever before, because they are getting to see pitches from a pitching machine to mimic pitchers they're likely to see, and fine tuning their sense of the correct strike zone.
One idea I've heard that brings robo-umps into the game but also keeps the humanity and entertainment was the challenge system. Each batter gets 3 challenges per game, initiated by tapping their helmet with both hands after a pitch. The pitch will then be displayed on the big screen showing if it's a strike or ball. If the ump made an incorrect call, the batter keeps his challenge.
6:00 ... coincidentally... Joe West retired in 2021, who before his retirement was mentioned in the same breath as Angel as the WORST plate ump every year.
I hate this idea that it comes down to "one blown call", as if the teams hadn't been playing for 9 innings already and failed to capitalize on any advantage that had or could've had early on.
I believe that the REASON that they are more accurate now is BECAUSE of replay, not that the umps are any better! Replay overturns bad calls and according to their stats, they are then CORRECT.
Angel Hernandez is notorious. With him you have to just know it’s going to be a loosely called game and you better protect the plate same as little league
I used to defend the umpires and be against automating the strike zone. Thought it was a bad idea. I can’t defend them anymore. They have been awful. Truth is I think automating the strike zone is necessary now.
I would love to see a graph of some kind showing accuracy vs age. How accurate are all 30 yr old umpires? All 40 year olds? Etc. I feel like the newer umpires, perhaps because they grew up seeing a strike zone on TV, are much better than some of the veteran umpires.
Here's a stat I found about that: The 10 best performing umpires are 33 years old on average, with a bad call rate of 8.94% The 10 worst performing umpires are 56 years old on average, with a 13.96% bad call rate
Very good video….. However, I have to laugh in that I wrote my senior thesis on this very subject 40 years ago…. Barcode technology had just been employed by a few supermarkets and my thesis was that put a barcode on the ball and aim a couple of cameras at the batter and then have an operator adjust the camera for each individual batter’s strike zone….. When I’ve suggested this to others over the years I usually get a “deer in the headlights” stare from the person….. Wish I had copyrighted the idea🤦
I think it would work if we maintain umpire calls, but had an automatic system that the batter and pitcher can use once per at bat to challenge a call. Players can maintain their challenge if the call is overturned. We know these calls can be made instant, and they can be displayed on the scoreboard for everyone in the ballpark to see. This can all be done within 5 seconds or so, so it wont end up lengthening game time. Alternatively you can make each batting position only have one challenge per game, and the pitchers get 1 per inning to make it fair (9 challenges on each side).
Angel Hernandez doesn't have any problem . The problem here is that they wouldn't pay him and wouldn't allow Angel to be in any game if he wouldn't do what they asked for him to do in games like not call strikes and balls
Half the issue is watching TV and expecting an accurate placement of the strike zone and the ball on the screen. Fact is, it's almost always wrong in the vertical position. The other issue is people think wayyyy too many strikes are wrong.
The tv stations just need to get rid of the strike zone box if its not gonna be reviewable. That and those boxes arent even accurate half the time lmao
This season was horrible with a lot of bad calls. Im a Giants fan and there were numerous bad calls on us or the other team in the strikezone. Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood are some of the guys i seen that had bad calls against them.
It used to be that you didn't criticize umps for a ball's length low or high, but for inconsistency either way. I would like to see umpires judged not for the calls that miss the zone, but for calling low strikes and then high strikes. If you give the pitcher a borderline low strike, then you should be squeezing the top part of the zone. If you give the pitcher a ball's length outside, then don't give them that call on the inside pitch. Establish your strikezone and call it consistently. That should be the barometer for umpire performance, not the graphic box.
Your example with the Blue Jays at 3:33 has an error. Down by 2 in the bottom of the 9th with 1 man on base means the batter is the TYING run, not the WINNING run as you claim. doesn't mean if he gets on the next guy doesn't get out, or if he homers, the game is not over and the Yankees have a chance to counter assuming the next batter gets out. Doesn't change the point of the video, just that the batter is a tying not winning run at the plate.
Modern umpires have enormous egos and oretty much can get away with any bad behavior. This was clear when Madison Bumgarner was ejected from an umpire that was indoecting his hand and was staring him down rather than inspecting for spider tack. Anything that Angel Hernandez do at any point.
What’s crazy is that there is 100s of millions of dollars at stake to leave up to one guys perception of a strike, which also opens things up to corruption and bribery of that person. My entertainment comes from good baseball, not waiting for a fight because of bad calls. Computerized balls/strikes should be used immediately…this isn’t little league.
I don't know why MLB even negotiates with the umpires' union. There are significantly fewer than 100 MLB umpires, and my understanding is there's a log jam of qualified umpires in the minors due to lack of umpire turnover at the Major League level. And even if that poses a problem, there are countless good college umpires. This problem only exists because they allow it to.
I am in my mid 50’s and have been an avid sports fan of all baseball & football from youth to professional level. And sadly officiating has gotten significantly worse (just from my experience). A pretty good indicator is when you have video evidence that a call was missed, the official doesn’t want to know it. In my personal opinion loook at the video,why would you not want to know you messed up? Admit you made a mistake and learn from it? I have no issue with someone videoing my calls and showing me the video mid inning and if I make a mistake I say I made a mistake.
It is the demonstrably terrible ones like Angel Hernandez getting away with it over and over and over and still getting the call to come into work tomorrow that baseball fans hate. 90% of umps call a good enough game but the fact that this guy has been KNOWN to be awful for YEARS and still has a job that fans can't stand.
“In history” Umpires have been killed for the wrong call like 100 years ago😂 I think they were more hated back then. Umpires need police escorts to train stations so crowds wouldn’t get them!
I'm tired of hearing about an umpires "zone". There's only one strike zone. You don't get to redefine it. Also, umpires might be getting better on an average, but why did we have so many of the worst graded umpires calling the playoffs?
MLB needs to develop and require a psychological fitness for duty test for umpires and subject EVERYTHING to instant replay. There is no doubt that some umpires are shady lol
Why can't the Union be ok with sending MLB umps back down to triple A just like they do with underperforming players? This would be a great way for them (the umps) to get better. There also needs to be a system where the worst guys can actually get fired (I'm talking about you, Angel) to give the young guys a shot at the show. Bad umps with 35 years in the game need to be a thing of the past.
I dont think umps should get 2 inches of leeway on all sides of the zone. The zone is concretely defined on the sides since its relative to the plate. Umps shouldnt get 2 inches for those calss. Since the top and bottom of the zone arent as concrete, maybe 2 inches makes sense
Its ultra simple.... The unecesaary umpires union is the problem. The MLB can't fire bad umps. If they are at 94% accuracy now... They woukd be at like 97%+ if they could just demote or fire the bottom performing umps every year and set an age limit. The fact that umps like Angel Hernandez can keep their job is causing almost all of the issues.
Want to see umpires put their thumbs on the scale? Go back and watch the most recent playoffs. Some teams got calls on corners and off the plate while their opponents had to throw the whole ball over the plate. One team could square balls up and the other would be getting jammed and hitting balls off the end of the bat.
Watched the first 10 seconds but just want to say, 10 calls missed isnt much You watch close to 300 pitches, so right there that's 3% then when you take into account potential swings if a ball is fair or foul, if a play was safe, if there was a balk, if the pitch was delivered in time, making an infield fly call properly (even when the fans dont think its right) 10 failed calls isnt bad
the speed of the game has passed the human eye's capability....enact the challenge rule first...if this works, stay with it...if it needs more, go to the robo umps.....games are too important to be decided by a bad call...I went to a AAA game and challenges, 5 of them, took 10 seconds of game time to decide the right call...so less than a minute was used to get the right call...3 were correct and 2 were wrong....a 2 strike count changes the whole at bat as opposed to a 1 strike count...get it right guys...make the fans AND the players happy
Heres the perfect solution that keeps the accuracy and keeps the emotion. Instead of players tapping their heads on a bad call they actually have to argue with the ump over the call which then draws review. Tons of argument moments and accuracy at the same time. It the umps are too soft for this then there will be others who take their place. If players get it wrong then they get ejected! Maybe if an ump gets it wrong 3 times he gets ejected. Boom! excitement!
The fact that even some of the coaches and players think "it's kind of entertaining to watch a guy argue" is baffling to me. Absolutely no fan is watching baseball, waiting for the game to come to a complete stop, just for a manager to throw a hissy fit that would put some toddlers to shame. Both sides need to grow up and take some accountability, it's appalling that these grown ass men, making millions upon millions of dollars still act like schoolchildren.
Great vid, btw. My issue with the automated zone isn't just the sterilization of the game through lack of human error. To me, that's the least of it. I honestly don't think the automated zone takes into account just how good these hitters are. If I know there's an automated zone and I can pick up the spin from a pitcher's hand, I'm spitting on every single breaking pitch. Most breaking pitches will not be in the zone. As long as I can pick that up, I'm laying off. If I can do that, chances are I'll work a 2-0, 2-1, or 3-1 count. It's difficult for me to imagine an automated zone that doesn't result in a walk for every other hitter. Do you have any information on how the automated zone has affected walk numbers in the places it's been implemented? Granted, Major League play is a level beyond that, but I would still think there must have been some effect.
Here's the thing, more actual strikes thrown means more bats on balls and runners on base. That is what they want. The MLB wants higher scoring games. That's why they have the pitch clock, bigger bases and all the other new rules this year.
@Caderic but it hasn't worked. Offense is down and MLB is embarrassed. That's why they're barely handing out errors anymore. I saw Harper hit an in the park HR this year that would have been a clear triple + error any other season. MLB has never understood what puts asses in seats. It's not 15-11 games, but 4-3 games. That's when you have tension. Clean, well-played games where both pitching and hitting excel. If every other batter is taking a walk, you're going to get sloppy baseball. Why put a running play on? Why risk an out when it's so easy to get men on base? More offense is not going to lead to more viewership, but better baseball will.
@@Gestr3482 I agree. I HATE, absolutely HATE the pitch clock. So much my wife is tired of hearing me gripe about it. (And don't get going on the Rangers new ballpark. I hate it even more.) But last I saw, MLB attendance and viewership were both up. Will it last I don't know, and frankly, I don't really care. I am not there because everyone else is. I have plenty of Rangers stuff from years that they sucked! Do I want there to be more fans? Absolutely. What I don't want is fickle fans that are there because of, in my opinion, horrible changes. Because that increase will wear-off quickly. What they need is an actual umpire accountability system. You don't produce, you get sent back to AA or AAA, just like the players. And out right fire Angle and Joe! ...and maybe a couple of others. So I agree, the changes, are NOT an improvement. At best, the changes are inconsequential. At worst, (and the reality of it is) they are detrimental to the game. It only give temporary gains, and alienates the long time fans. Side note, I also hate instant replay in baseball. Just hold the umpires to high standards. Hell, any standard other than just getting called up from AAA.
@Caderic I take a slightly different view of the pitch clock. In my opinion, fans have already accepted the most catastrophic change, which was the DH. Not only does it slow the game due to every count being a deep count, but it also led to a ton of bullpen changes. Bench doesn't really matter with a DH, so AL managers started carrying an extra arm, and eventually you started to see more bullpen substitutions. Then fast forward to a few years ago, you get the 3 batter minimum. That's the rule that I hate, by the way - for the same reason I'm wary of the roboump...too many damn walks. It used to be that if you couldn't throw strikes out of the pen, you'd get yanked after two batters at most. Now, you've got righties pitching to lefties out of the pen and vice versa, so there are tons of walks. Anyway, I accept the pitch clock, because fans have already accepted the rule change that slowed the game to a crawl, which was the DH. NL baseball when I grew up was the fastest game in sports. That changed dramatically. There's no reason for a game with 9 total runs to take 4 hours. I feel something had to be done. And, like I said, we've already accepted the DH. So, we have to accept the correction. In fact, I'd like to see them put in another change to get starters working deeper into games again. This yanking starters after 75 pitches is becoming obscene. I'd like MLB to put another rule in that says you lose your DH as soon as the starter is removed from the game. It'd be a treat to see some double-switches again! Bottom line is, all this shit comes from the DH. There's no 'the way it used to be' anymore, unless you're talking about pre-DH vs post-DH. I appreciate your view, and you defend it well, but in my opinion your complaint is a half century late.
@@Gestr3482 Well, I also agree with you there. Maybe not to the extent as you, but I think if you're on the field, your in the batter's box. I also think pitchers can, and should go deeper into the game. That is and was Nolan Ryan's thoughts, and that's what he did with the Rangers in the late 2000s, before the JA John Daniels ran him off. (The board made a horrible decision by keeping Daniel, not Nolan Ryan.) But because of what Nolan was doing with the pitching, pitch count to a back seat to pitchers performance. They got the starters gping well into the 7th, or farther on a consisten basis. That meant the bull pin was used less, so they pulled one of their relief guys, and made home a starter. That gave all the starters an extra day to rest, which only helped the plan anyway. All that to say, yeah, pitchers should go deeper into the game, and if a catcher has to bat, a pitcher should have to bat every bit as much.
The strike zone box wasn’t even a thing till some tears back so this is super easy for people watching tv to criticize but I’m real time it’s not easy to be 100% correct. It’s not fair or realistic
I've 2 thoughts for this video... In general, as video replay becomes more and more ubiquitous in every sport, we are losing a foundational philosophy of umpiring... It ain't nothin til I call it. ...in theory, the ball is neither a strike or ball and a runner neither safe nor out until the umpire (the person paid to decide) declares it to be so... Mistakes happen as far as replay is concerned, but under that philosophy, it doesn't matter what the replay shows, what matters is what the umpire calls... I recognize that this system has never been perfect, but it always worked bc we accepted it... High quality and rule sanctioned replay has put the umpire profession into a very odd space and I'm not exactly sure how to best deal with it... ...and on a second thought, I'd like to point out that the rather infamous footage of Bryce Harper's check swing strike call by angel Hernandez can not be described as obviously wrong... The check swing is one of the very few moments that are truly a judgement call... There is no standard as to what is or is not a swinging strike call other than, did the umpire adjudge the batter to have made an offer at the pitch... You can disagree all you want with the call, but only Hernandez's judgement matters for the call and he said it was an offer... So it was... And nothing you can point out about it changes the situation bc the umpire said, in my judgement that was an offer... He's simply not wrong bc there is no wrong or right to that question... Only a judgement call...
Checked swings need to have an actual definition outside of whatever the ump ate for breakfast that morning, but what made Harper's particularly annoying wasn't just that it's so blatently not a check swing in the clip they showed. It's the fact that the exact same check swing happened earlier in the at bat, and was called a ball. You can put them side by side, it was the same movement.
After every season they should rank the umpires based on accuracy, ejections, etc and send the lowest 25-50% back to umpire school and if you get sent down 2-3 years in a row then you are fired.
same as football, the placement of the ball really does matter and a game week 7 or 8 this year the ball was spotted to what looked to be a 1st then the guys come out to measure and you see the ref then move the ball almost a whole yard back making it a missed 1st down. hmmmmm
Im more of a hockey fan, but there are a lot of similar issues there too. There is a whole aspect of game management part of the game that is lost by having robot refs. The calls are also subjective to some level. So its harder to have automated game calling. But I had an idea that might actually work better for baseball. Put go pros or something to show the umps perspective. Instead of using the box they show on screen, you could see literally what the ump sees and use that for replays. That way you can still keep the technical skills like framing and still use the umps while giving them an extra tool to make decisions, and instead of having a machine make the call, have another off field ump who can help with on field decisions.
Why don’t the umpires get their PAY docked for every bad call? Seems like a good idea to me…🤔. Like all employees who have a job, they have to have ACCOUNTABILITY!
Personally. I would hate to watch/play a game with an automated ump. It's apart of the game for human error. A big part of baseball is learning an umps strikezone. They might now be good but almost ever ump is semi-consistant
The catchers are just as guilty as the trash umps for bad calls, just watch them slide their glove into the strike-zone after catching the ball to fool the umps.
The issue i have with modern day umpires is not they make a bad call here and there, it's more or less that when they get called out, and proven wrong they either double down, or triple down with an absolutely inflated ego. They hate admitting when they make a mistake.
I believe either the league or the union encourages them to do so. I don't believe they ever want to be so bad. That said - Angel Hernandez is too bad he needs to be fired. He is the poster child of what's wrong with unions
@@JackieDaytona1776I second this, I used to referee soccer for kids and they would encourage to have confidence in our calls even when we’re wrong
I know what you mean. I don't like it when they turn the game into an Ump Show. That said, if the play isn't reviewable, I kinda understand why they can't change their minds after being chewed out. They need to be decisive, which obviously is frustrating because they mess up a lot.
See but you can have confidence without behaving like an egotistical maniac.
All Umpires in the union should take after Pat Hoberg. He is willing to admit mistakes, overturn his own calls and is accurate nearly 100% of the time when behind the plate.
I don't ever wanna hear players getting thrown out bc of a horrible "ball/strike" call as "entertainment value".
There's too much on the line. When you can't trust your own eye as a hitter, it can have a horrific tsunami effect in baseball.
A ball should be a ball, and a strike should be a strike. Just like a HR is a HR, and a foul ball is a foul ball. There's nothing a fan or player can do that can "trick" or "influence" umpires to call a HR a foul, or a foul a HR.
Balls and strikes ARE baseball. And they should never be "subjective" calls, esp in today's insane game of so much heat coming from the mound.
But that's just my opinion.
This is the most valid argument I’ve heard for automated umpiring. Part of me feels like a human ump and all the faults they carry with them are part of the game, but your point that it can have a cascading effect on player confidence is valid.
@@jphjphjph there are still a lot of things all the Umpires are needed for.
I just truly believe that hitting would def get better if a player's strike zone is *always* their strike zone, every single time.
Yes, this is your opinion despite your absolute tone.
I agree. Its like watching hockey only for the fights.
“Gosh, I wish that game had had more arguments,” said nobody ever.
Umps aren’t the problem, its the fact that Angel Hernandez can’t be held accountable
It should be simple, but the crooked as hell Umpire's Union makes it complex. Hold the outliers accountable. Reward the high performing umpires like Hoberg with high leverage games.
That is exactly what they are doing.
I hope you're right, but can't they get rid of Angel Hernandez? @@markeschen
@@markeschen That is exactly not what they're doing because Pat Hoberg was not umping the World Series and Angel Hernandez still has a job.
Baseball has an Umpire UNION problem. When Angel Hernandez can't be fired no matter how terrible he is at umpiring, you've got a Union problem.
Unions are a God thing at the end of the day, but like anything can be used in a crooked way. One Love, why do you think corporations hate unions.
I love that Schwarber clip. Even Hader walking away knew that was not a strike.
Schwarber acted like a cry baby, that ball was close enough, he should’ve been protecting the plate. The Umpires don’t see the strike zone lines that we see on TV
@@snowman9642 hi angel, did ur grandson teach u how to use a computer?
@@letsmakeit110what? Make some sense.
The 3 people who flagged this must have eyes just as bad as Hernandez.
I think umpires generally deserve a break but jfc angel hernandez needs to go
The thing is, the fans pay to see the players not the umps.
🙄
Not according to this dope.😂😂😂
We have cameras and ai now. The umps shouldn't be affecting the game the way they do. And now with online sports betting being so big (and the nba, ncaa, and nfl obviously seeing the effect of crooked refs) its a matter of time before they get even worse w their calls.
As an umpire myself I wise there was a system in place to rotate out umpires. There are about 74-76 umpires in a given year and only 1-2 are replaced but only do to retirement. Once you are in you are safe as long as you don't do something off the field. The issue is the umpire repot cards that the MLB use are to lenient. I would love to see a system where say the bottom 4-5 umpires from the year are dropped back to the miners and then pull up the top umpires from the miners. There are lots of really good umpires in the minors but they're stuck there because of the system that's in place where they just have to wait until someone retires and hope they get picked.
Major league umpires and school teachers are the only two professions that come to mind where there is no accountability for being bad at your job. Theur is one common denoninator, unions.
The problem isn't really that they make bad calls, its that they refuse to take any challenge to their calls. They just throw people out whenever someone calls out a stupid decision.
We need to bring the challenge system for balls and strikes
Sure. The umpires are missing dozens of calls per game, so let's let one dugout slow down the game to get two or three of those calls right.
Maybe just those ball/strike calls which lead to an out our walk.
One of the notable changes is that thanks to those pending robo-umps, players can now see and assess tons of pitches assessed as balls and strikes. Yeah, everyone can tell a pitch 6" out of the zone. But batters are now more correct, and more confident they're correct, than ever before, because they are getting to see pitches from a pitching machine to mimic pitchers they're likely to see, and fine tuning their sense of the correct strike zone.
One idea I've heard that brings robo-umps into the game but also keeps the humanity and entertainment was the challenge system. Each batter gets 3 challenges per game, initiated by tapping their helmet with both hands after a pitch. The pitch will then be displayed on the big screen showing if it's a strike or ball. If the ump made an incorrect call, the batter keeps his challenge.
When you are terrible at your job, but have a union to protect you from accountability. Bad cops and bad umpires have figured out the racket.
6:00 ... coincidentally... Joe West retired in 2021, who before his retirement was mentioned in the same breath as Angel as the WORST plate ump every year.
I hate this idea that it comes down to "one blown call", as if the teams hadn't been playing for 9 innings already and failed to capitalize on any advantage that had or could've had early on.
I can’t imagine what other sports would be like if those umpires had the egos of baseball umpires
I personally think they should just use the robot umpires as pitching challenges, they can give each team like 5 strike or ball challenges
I believe that the REASON that they are more accurate now is BECAUSE of replay, not that the umps are any better! Replay overturns bad calls and according to their stats, they are then CORRECT.
Angel Hernandez is notorious. With him you have to just know it’s going to be a loosely called game and you better protect the plate same as little league
Which is actually bad for the player.
I used to defend the umpires and be against automating the strike zone. Thought it was a bad idea. I can’t defend them anymore. They have been awful. Truth is I think automating the strike zone is necessary now.
It didn’t take one minute to mention Angel Hernandez. And I’ve never heard of Pat Hoborg at the end of video.
Balls and strikes aren't the only issue for bad umps like Hernandez. Sometimes ups will throw players out for just shaking their heads.
I would love to see a graph of some kind showing accuracy vs age. How accurate are all 30 yr old umpires? All 40 year olds? Etc. I feel like the newer umpires, perhaps because they grew up seeing a strike zone on TV, are much better than some of the veteran umpires.
Here's a stat I found about that:
The 10 best performing umpires are 33 years old on average, with a bad call rate of 8.94%
The 10 worst performing umpires are 56 years old on average, with a 13.96% bad call rate
Foolish baseball did a video on Umpiring a while back and he showed the top and bottom 10 umpires to that point with their names and ages.
Very good video…..
However, I have to laugh in that I wrote my senior thesis on this very subject 40 years ago….
Barcode technology had just been employed by a few supermarkets and my thesis was that put a barcode on the ball and aim a couple of cameras at the batter and then have an operator adjust the camera for each individual batter’s strike zone…..
When I’ve suggested this to others over the years I usually get a “deer in the headlights” stare from the person…..
Wish I had copyrighted the idea🤦
I think it would work if we maintain umpire calls, but had an automatic system that the batter and pitcher can use once per at bat to challenge a call. Players can maintain their challenge if the call is overturned. We know these calls can be made instant, and they can be displayed on the scoreboard for everyone in the ballpark to see. This can all be done within 5 seconds or so, so it wont end up lengthening game time. Alternatively you can make each batting position only have one challenge per game, and the pitchers get 1 per inning to make it fair (9 challenges on each side).
Angel Hernandez doesn't have any problem . The problem here is that they wouldn't pay him and wouldn't allow Angel to be in any game if he wouldn't do what they asked for him to do in games like not call strikes and balls
Baseball: Game of Inches
MLB: Let’s give our Umpires 2 inches of wiggle room
Some calls are being missed 6 to 8in. off the plate.
If I was that bad at my job I wouldn't have it anymore
Your not in the union. 😂
Great breakdown, good video 👏🏾👏🏾
We bother to make grades for umpires every game. They should be paid based on the grade. Lower than 80% your check goes to charity
Half the issue is watching TV and expecting an accurate placement of the strike zone and the ball on the screen. Fact is, it's almost always wrong in the vertical position. The other issue is people think wayyyy too many strikes are wrong.
The tv stations just need to get rid of the strike zone box if its not gonna be reviewable. That and those boxes arent even accurate half the time lmao
This season was horrible with a lot of bad calls. Im a Giants fan and there were numerous bad calls on us or the other team in the strikezone. Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood are some of the guys i seen that had bad calls against them.
It used to be that you didn't criticize umps for a ball's length low or high, but for inconsistency either way. I would like to see umpires judged not for the calls that miss the zone, but for calling low strikes and then high strikes. If you give the pitcher a borderline low strike, then you should be squeezing the top part of the zone. If you give the pitcher a ball's length outside, then don't give them that call on the inside pitch. Establish your strikezone and call it consistently. That should be the barometer for umpire performance, not the graphic box.
Angel is the bull with the big nuts on the field and looks em in the eye, I love it.
Arguments aren't entertaining to me. I want there to be no question of the result on the field.
Your example with the Blue Jays at 3:33 has an error. Down by 2 in the bottom of the 9th with 1 man on base means the batter is the TYING run, not the WINNING run as you claim. doesn't mean if he gets on the next guy doesn't get out, or if he homers, the game is not over and the Yankees have a chance to counter assuming the next batter gets out. Doesn't change the point of the video, just that the batter is a tying not winning run at the plate.
The biggest contribution toward making robot umps is human umps
Modern umpires have enormous egos and oretty much can get away with any bad behavior.
This was clear when Madison Bumgarner was ejected from an umpire that was indoecting his hand and was staring him down rather than inspecting for spider tack. Anything that Angel Hernandez do at any point.
When I see an umpire moving closer to the base to try and make a CLOSE CALL I know he definitely doesn't belong in professional baseball!!
Top tier content my guy!!!!
What’s crazy is that there is 100s of millions of dollars at stake to leave up to one guys perception of a strike, which also opens things up to corruption and bribery of that person. My entertainment comes from good baseball, not waiting for a fight because of bad calls. Computerized balls/strikes should be used immediately…this isn’t little league.
I don't know why MLB even negotiates with the umpires' union. There are significantly fewer than 100 MLB umpires, and my understanding is there's a log jam of qualified umpires in the minors due to lack of umpire turnover at the Major League level. And even if that poses a problem, there are countless good college umpires. This problem only exists because they allow it to.
I am in my mid 50’s and have been an avid sports fan of all baseball & football from youth to professional level. And sadly officiating has gotten significantly worse (just from my experience). A pretty good indicator is when you have video evidence that a call was missed, the official doesn’t want to know it. In my personal opinion loook at the video,why would you not want to know you messed up? Admit you made a mistake and learn from it? I have no issue with someone videoing my calls and showing me the video mid inning and if I make a mistake I say I made a mistake.
It's harder to make it to the leauge as an umpire, there's not many openings per yr.
If umps were graded on their job and demoted to the minors for doing a bad job like players are. There would be more chances of moving to the majors.
There might be a logistical fallacy in assuming that the graphics are 100% correct.
MLB has a serious problem getting ball & strike calls right.
It is the demonstrably terrible ones like Angel Hernandez getting away with it over and over and over and still getting the call to come into work tomorrow that baseball fans hate. 90% of umps call a good enough game but the fact that this guy has been KNOWN to be awful for YEARS and still has a job that fans can't stand.
AI tech can solve most related issues and may eventually replace umpires all together.
“In history” Umpires have been killed for the wrong call like 100 years ago😂 I think they were more hated back then. Umpires need police escorts to train stations so crowds wouldn’t get them!
Angel Hernandez is going to cost umpires their jobs.
This is Angel Hernandez’s world..
We’re just living in it
Yes...and the name of that umpire problem is Angel Hernandez.
I'm tired of hearing about an umpires "zone". There's only one strike zone. You don't get to redefine it.
Also, umpires might be getting better on an average, but why did we have so many of the worst graded umpires calling the playoffs?
How about the call that cost the pitcher a perfect game a few years ago? That's the worst call that i know of or can think of right now.
MLB needs to develop and require a psychological fitness for duty test for umpires and subject EVERYTHING to instant replay. There is no doubt that some umpires are shady lol
I don't want to see the umpires replaced, just the bad umpires like Angel Hernandez etc...
Why can't the Union be ok with sending MLB umps back down to triple A just like they do with underperforming players? This would be a great way for them (the umps) to get better. There also needs to be a system where the worst guys can actually get fired (I'm talking about you, Angel) to give the young guys a shot at the show. Bad umps with 35 years in the game need to be a thing of the past.
I dont think umps should get 2 inches of leeway on all sides of the zone. The zone is concretely defined on the sides since its relative to the plate. Umps shouldnt get 2 inches for those calss. Since the top and bottom of the zone arent as concrete, maybe 2 inches makes sense
Rain is wet.
Sky is blue.
Umps are NOT needed. They should just be there to relay the calls from cameras and ai.
Angel Hernandez misses 10 calls before he pulls into the parking lot
Its ultra simple.... The unecesaary umpires union is the problem. The MLB can't fire bad umps. If they are at 94% accuracy now... They woukd be at like 97%+ if they could just demote or fire the bottom performing umps every year and set an age limit. The fact that umps like Angel Hernandez can keep their job is causing almost all of the issues.
Want to see umpires put their thumbs on the scale? Go back and watch the most recent playoffs. Some teams got calls on corners and off the plate while their opponents had to throw the whole ball over the plate. One team could square balls up and the other would be getting jammed and hitting balls off the end of the bat.
EGO. Thats the issue. Umpires act like they are bigger than the game.
The bad calls are normal but the worst of the worst it's their prima donna attitude. They think fans pay to watch them instead of the players
Watched the first 10 seconds but just want to say, 10 calls missed isnt much
You watch close to 300 pitches, so right there that's 3% then when you take into account potential swings if a ball is fair or foul, if a play was safe, if there was a balk, if the pitch was delivered in time, making an infield fly call properly (even when the fans dont think its right) 10 failed calls isnt bad
Why is your thumbnail of Lourdes Gurriel Jr?
the speed of the game has passed the human eye's capability....enact the challenge rule first...if this works, stay with it...if it needs more, go to the robo umps.....games are too important to be decided by a bad call...I went to a AAA game and challenges, 5 of them, took 10 seconds of game time to decide the right call...so less than a minute was used to get the right call...3 were correct and 2 were wrong....a 2 strike count changes the whole at bat as opposed to a 1 strike count...get it right guys...make the fans AND the players happy
The problem is umps like angle hernandez has been so terrible for years that hes put all umps under a microscope.
No problem. Solution is to have the base coaches call the game. No authority on the field. Good luck!
You can go ahead and implement the robo-ump in MLB, but Angel will still get the calls wrong. He'll find a way....
The robot was wrong I tell ya!
Heres the perfect solution that keeps the accuracy and keeps the emotion. Instead of players tapping their heads on a bad call they actually have to argue with the ump over the call which then draws review. Tons of argument moments and accuracy at the same time. It the umps are too soft for this then there will be others who take their place. If players get it wrong then they get ejected! Maybe if an ump gets it wrong 3 times he gets ejected. Boom! excitement!
Please no. Just get the call right and get back to the game. If I wanted to watch people argue, I'd turn on cable news.
The fact that even some of the coaches and players think "it's kind of entertaining to watch a guy argue" is baffling to me.
Absolutely no fan is watching baseball, waiting for the game to come to a complete stop, just for a manager to throw a hissy fit that would put some toddlers to shame. Both sides need to grow up and take some accountability, it's appalling that these grown ass men, making millions upon millions of dollars still act like schoolchildren.
All we have to do is fire shitty umps. That's it. The problem would be 100% fixed in a season...if that.
Great vid, btw.
My issue with the automated zone isn't just the sterilization of the game through lack of human error. To me, that's the least of it. I honestly don't think the automated zone takes into account just how good these hitters are. If I know there's an automated zone and I can pick up the spin from a pitcher's hand, I'm spitting on every single breaking pitch. Most breaking pitches will not be in the zone. As long as I can pick that up, I'm laying off. If I can do that, chances are I'll work a 2-0, 2-1, or 3-1 count. It's difficult for me to imagine an automated zone that doesn't result in a walk for every other hitter.
Do you have any information on how the automated zone has affected walk numbers in the places it's been implemented? Granted, Major League play is a level beyond that, but I would still think there must have been some effect.
Here's the thing, more actual strikes thrown means more bats on balls and runners on base. That is what they want. The MLB wants higher scoring games. That's why they have the pitch clock, bigger bases and all the other new rules this year.
@Caderic but it hasn't worked. Offense is down and MLB is embarrassed. That's why they're barely handing out errors anymore. I saw Harper hit an in the park HR this year that would have been a clear triple + error any other season. MLB has never understood what puts asses in seats. It's not 15-11 games, but 4-3 games. That's when you have tension. Clean, well-played games where both pitching and hitting excel. If every other batter is taking a walk, you're going to get sloppy baseball. Why put a running play on? Why risk an out when it's so easy to get men on base? More offense is not going to lead to more viewership, but better baseball will.
@@Gestr3482 I agree. I HATE, absolutely HATE the pitch clock. So much my wife is tired of hearing me gripe about it. (And don't get going on the Rangers new ballpark. I hate it even more.) But last I saw, MLB attendance and viewership were both up. Will it last I don't know, and frankly, I don't really care. I am not there because everyone else is. I have plenty of Rangers stuff from years that they sucked!
Do I want there to be more fans? Absolutely. What I don't want is fickle fans that are there because of, in my opinion, horrible changes. Because that increase will wear-off quickly. What they need is an actual umpire accountability system. You don't produce, you get sent back to AA or AAA, just like the players. And out right fire Angle and Joe! ...and maybe a couple of others.
So I agree, the changes, are NOT an improvement. At best, the changes are inconsequential. At worst, (and the reality of it is) they are detrimental to the game. It only give temporary gains, and alienates the long time fans.
Side note, I also hate instant replay in baseball. Just hold the umpires to high standards. Hell, any standard other than just getting called up from AAA.
@Caderic I take a slightly different view of the pitch clock. In my opinion, fans have already accepted the most catastrophic change, which was the DH. Not only does it slow the game due to every count being a deep count, but it also led to a ton of bullpen changes. Bench doesn't really matter with a DH, so AL managers started carrying an extra arm, and eventually you started to see more bullpen substitutions. Then fast forward to a few years ago, you get the 3 batter minimum. That's the rule that I hate, by the way - for the same reason I'm wary of the roboump...too many damn walks. It used to be that if you couldn't throw strikes out of the pen, you'd get yanked after two batters at most. Now, you've got righties pitching to lefties out of the pen and vice versa, so there are tons of walks. Anyway, I accept the pitch clock, because fans have already accepted the rule change that slowed the game to a crawl, which was the DH. NL baseball when I grew up was the fastest game in sports. That changed dramatically. There's no reason for a game with 9 total runs to take 4 hours. I feel something had to be done. And, like I said, we've already accepted the DH. So, we have to accept the correction. In fact, I'd like to see them put in another change to get starters working deeper into games again. This yanking starters after 75 pitches is becoming obscene. I'd like MLB to put another rule in that says you lose your DH as soon as the starter is removed from the game. It'd be a treat to see some double-switches again! Bottom line is, all this shit comes from the DH. There's no 'the way it used to be' anymore, unless you're talking about pre-DH vs post-DH. I appreciate your view, and you defend it well, but in my opinion your complaint is a half century late.
@@Gestr3482 Well, I also agree with you there. Maybe not to the extent as you, but I think if you're on the field, your in the batter's box.
I also think pitchers can, and should go deeper into the game. That is and was Nolan Ryan's thoughts, and that's what he did with the Rangers in the late 2000s, before the JA John Daniels ran him off. (The board made a horrible decision by keeping Daniel, not Nolan Ryan.) But because of what Nolan was doing with the pitching, pitch count to a back seat to pitchers performance. They got the starters gping well into the 7th, or farther on a consisten basis. That meant the bull pin was used less, so they pulled one of their relief guys, and made home a starter. That gave all the starters an extra day to rest, which only helped the plan anyway.
All that to say, yeah, pitchers should go deeper into the game, and if a catcher has to bat, a pitcher should have to bat every bit as much.
They should get rid of framing pitches there is no good argument to keep them in the game
Great video I never thought about the umps arguing entertainment that way!
Why did they put one of the lowest rated umpires in the World Series? He was awful.
The strike zone box wasn’t even a thing till some tears back so this is super easy for people watching tv to criticize but I’m real time it’s not easy to be 100% correct. It’s not fair or realistic
I've 2 thoughts for this video... In general, as video replay becomes more and more ubiquitous in every sport, we are losing a foundational philosophy of umpiring... It ain't nothin til I call it. ...in theory, the ball is neither a strike or ball and a runner neither safe nor out until the umpire (the person paid to decide) declares it to be so... Mistakes happen as far as replay is concerned, but under that philosophy, it doesn't matter what the replay shows, what matters is what the umpire calls... I recognize that this system has never been perfect, but it always worked bc we accepted it... High quality and rule sanctioned replay has put the umpire profession into a very odd space and I'm not exactly sure how to best deal with it... ...and on a second thought, I'd like to point out that the rather infamous footage of Bryce Harper's check swing strike call by angel Hernandez can not be described as obviously wrong... The check swing is one of the very few moments that are truly a judgement call... There is no standard as to what is or is not a swinging strike call other than, did the umpire adjudge the batter to have made an offer at the pitch... You can disagree all you want with the call, but only Hernandez's judgement matters for the call and he said it was an offer... So it was... And nothing you can point out about it changes the situation bc the umpire said, in my judgement that was an offer... He's simply not wrong bc there is no wrong or right to that question... Only a judgement call...
Checked swings need to have an actual definition outside of whatever the ump ate for breakfast that morning, but what made Harper's particularly annoying wasn't just that it's so blatently not a check swing in the clip they showed.
It's the fact that the exact same check swing happened earlier in the at bat, and was called a ball. You can put them side by side, it was the same movement.
Consistently failing is still failing.
It's not just Angel Hernandez, they are two or three more umpires were horrible as he was
After every season they should rank the umpires based on accuracy, ejections, etc and send the lowest 25-50% back to umpire school and if you get sent down 2-3 years in a row then you are fired.
The Bryce harper check swing, is being checked for did he attempt to hit the ball, nothing about breaking your wrists or anything else
same as football, the placement of the ball really does matter and a game week 7 or 8 this year the ball was spotted to what looked to be a 1st then the guys come out to measure and you see the ref then move the ball almost a whole yard back making it a missed 1st down. hmmmmm
They can challenge the spot.
An Umpire. Just 1. His name is Angel Hernandez.
Im more of a hockey fan, but there are a lot of similar issues there too. There is a whole aspect of game management part of the game that is lost by having robot refs. The calls are also subjective to some level. So its harder to have automated game calling.
But I had an idea that might actually work better for baseball. Put go pros or something to show the umps perspective. Instead of using the box they show on screen, you could see literally what the ump sees and use that for replays. That way you can still keep the technical skills like framing and still use the umps while giving them an extra tool to make decisions, and instead of having a machine make the call, have another off field ump who can help with on field decisions.
Automated strike zone is coming so they don’t give a shit. Its kind of like the teacher that’s retiring, they don’t care they will be gone in a year
At the very least postseason assignments should be performance based
Im completely fine with this RNG mechanic being removed.
Angel hernandez is the main hated ump.
Catchers are not helping with all the framing that has been going on…
Why don’t the umpires get their PAY docked for every bad call? Seems like a good idea to me…🤔. Like all employees who have a job, they have to have ACCOUNTABILITY!
Screw human emotion and watching guys argue. I welcome our robo-ump overlords.
If I sucked at my job as much as Angel Hernandez does. I would've been fired years ago, union or not.
Personally. I would hate to watch/play a game with an automated ump. It's apart of the game for human error. A big part of baseball is learning an umps strikezone. They might now be good but almost ever ump is semi-consistant
Hernandez's seeing eye dog could call a better game than Angel.
The catchers are just as guilty as the trash umps for bad calls, just watch them slide their glove into the strike-zone after catching the ball to fool the umps.