I don’t even want to address the fake outrage from Baseball Nerds last night over a missed strike call by Angel Hernandez because nothing brings me down to a place I don’t want to be like Baseball Nerds and their never-ending struggle to be so pure and correct 100% of the time in a sport that has become a review-fest full of stoppages and bitching and complaining and constant nitpicking over very minor things that make baseball unbearable these days.
I know, that was a massive opening paragraph, but my absolute disgust with Baseball Nerd has gotten to a level where I’ll actually defend Angel Hernandez over what happened in the 5th inning of a Yankees-Blue Jays game. The catcher moves way inside and out of the strike zone on a 0-1 pitch. The catcher wants it up, in the hitter’s eyes and maybe a hair off the plate. Hernandez follows Gary Sanchez inside to see if the pitch hits the corner. Basic umping 101.
Should've hit his spot. Don't blame Angel Hernandez here https://t.co/ZJyUy2hRmj
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) June 5, 2019
Instead, the Tanaka pitch ends up sending Gary Sanchez across his body and Hernandez has to move his eyes to his right and across Sanchez extending for the ball. I’ve watched enough baseball in my life to know that this is going to be a textbook missed strike call. Of course the Fake Outrage Baseball Nerd Generation knew it was Angel and they hate the guy so it became an instant point of rage instead of Baseball Nerd being honest and knowing that this isn’t uncommon.
Of course it wasn’t outside. This is prodding of Baseball Nerd and his/her holiness over something that will never be holy until they replace the human element to the sport. Hire the robots, put tracking devices in the ball, etc. etc. etc.
Now let’s go to some research on missed calls. Boston University spent money & did some research to come up with the 10 worst MLB umpires based on missed strike/ball calls.
For 2018, Ted Barrett and Joe West were the top poor performers, making 495 and 512 incorrect home plate calls, for an average of 17.7 and 16.5 errors per game, respectively. Such bad call numbers can produce an array of new outcomes. For example, incorrect calls can extend pitch count and impact pitcher rotation and the reliance on relievers. As a starter gets deeper into his pitch count, one or two more balls can change game outcome. Bad calls in favor of batters can extend innings, and increase scoring opportunities.
Interestingly enough, Angel Hernandez, while far from having a breakout year, performed stronger in 2018 than his average over the last 11 seasons. Hernandez is routinely derided by MLB players as one of the worst umpires.
I hate to bring even more evidence into this, but Boston U. even made a nice table for all the nerds to analyze here. Do you see Angel Hernandez here? I don’t. This whole Angel Hernandez is THE WORST is fake outrage.
Now let’s do a Jerry Layne ‘Worst’ Twitter search…so much outrage over the actual worst MLB umpire…crickets:
Now let’s see if the blue checkmarks are outraged over Rob Drake’s missed calls:
Ok, maybe we have to search for Jerry Layne and ‘terrible’ to get more results out of Baseball Nerds:
I know what you’re about to say, what about Ted Barrett, the worst umpire in 2018, and terrible. Look at all the blue checkmark purists calling out Ted in 2018:
Conclusion: Angel Hernandez is an easy target because once the Baseball Nerd Mob gets one name on the top of the head, they fire up the mob and attack. This is pretty typical of people who want to control the narrative instead of doing a Google Search for Boston University research. Go look at an Angel Hernandez worst Twitter search. It’s comical. The mob is going to mob and that’s what went down last night.
My advice is for Triggered Baseball Nerd to pass around the MLB Worst Umpire blame and maybe call out Ted Barrett or Rob Drake from time to time. Act like you’ve done some research on the ‘worst’ subject.
Outside? Outside of what? The pitch caught all plate pic.twitter.com/gyZITokdCl
— Bedlam at the Battery (@IamD36) June 5, 2019
Yet another blue checkmark elitist whiner:
This is always a horrible take.
The umpire's job assignment has nothing to do with the initial positioning of the catcher's glove. Stop enabling them. https://t.co/BlOUVBBGMg
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) June 5, 2019
