Umpiring Quality

[J-Dog Dungan]

And I thought the NFL replacement refs were bad. Seriously, what is up with the quality of the MLB umpires over the last month? Two badly missed calls within the last three days, and even before that umpires were getting bad. That ump in Tampa forced an argument and then ejected several players. CC screamed the f-bomb at a younger umpire because the ump yelled something first. Then, there was Hirschbeck who tossed Bryce Harper all the way from the 3rd base bag and was really seeming to want to toss him, as he was definitely what I would call aggravating towards Harper.

[joeboo_22]

Some of it is human error, some of it just happens, but much of it is on MLB, they don't punish these umps enough for some of the bad calls. The replay should be a nerve center like hockey and college football where someone that didn't make the original play is making the review. Because no one wants to admit a mistake. The play in Houston is just one of those brain farts where your not really sure what the rule is and it never really happens so they weren't sure.

[ThePuck]

The weird thing is, they suspended and fined the crew chief that didn't know the rule that states a pitcher has to pitch to at least one batter. They also fined the rest of the umpires. All this even though the ruling didn't effect the game results. Yet they did nothing to Angel Hernandez who didn't change the double to a home run after reviewing it, even though it clearly was. That call DID effect the result of the game.

[spideyo]

Didn't Angel Hernandez once throw out a guy who was singing "Take me out to the ballgame"?

[snepp]

Didn't Angel Hernandez once throw out a guy who was singing "Take me out to the ballgame"?

 

[video=youtube;6htcE_vvZxg]

[gil4]

The weird thing is, they suspended and fined the crew chief that didn't know the rule that states a pitcher has to pitch to at least one batter. They also fined the rest of the umpires. All this even though the ruling didn't effect the game results. Yet they did nothing to Angel Hernandez who didn't change the double to a home run after reviewing it, even though it clearly was. That call DID effect the result of the game.

 

The Angels did MLB a big favor by coming back to win that game, because that protest would have been upheld, and they would have had to replay the game from that point. I was shocked an umpire at any level didn't now that rule. As a player in little league I knew that rule.

 

As for the botched replay review, I know there is a tendency to see what you are expecting to see. I don't know what angles they saw or the quality of hte pictures they saw, but I would question their ablility to make calls in real time if they can't get them right after multiple views in slow-mo. But it's still a judgement call, and if they start fining guys for missing judgement calls nobody will be able to afford to umpire.