Tag: Bad umpires

College umpire oddly pushes ECU’s Bryson Worrell to stop him from admiring a huge HR

You cannot put your hands on a player like that.

It turns out that MLB umpires aren’t the only umpiring group that needs a reality check in 2022. College umpires aren’t faring much better either.

The East Carolina Pirates are in search of their first men’s College World Series berth in program history, and Monday’s regional-clinching 13-4 win over Coastal Carolina put them on track to potentially end that drought. No moment seemed bigger than Bryson Worrell’s three-run home run in the seventh inning, but of course, an umpire had to step in and make it about himself.

After Worrell — with a green light on 3-0 — crushed a pitch over the right-field wall, he stood and admired the ball before flipping his bat. But as he was doing so, home plate umpire Perry Costello jumped to his feet and pushed Worrell to start running.

And another look:

There’s really no reason for that, and an umpire should never be going out of his way to place his hands on a player. If Worrell had done something similar to an umpire, he would have been ejected immediately (and possibly suspended). Costello knows that, and the NCAA should not let this ump work into the Super Regional. It’s a game — let Worrell enjoy the moment.

Baseball fans also weren’t pleased with how Costello conducted himself there.

Umpire Vic Carapazza needlessly caused a scene and ejected Ryan Pressly with two outs in the 9th inning

Enough is enough, MLB.

MLB umpires have been under plenty of scrutiny this season from fans after what has seemed like a steady stream of incompetent performances behind the plate. But even when umpires have a solid game calling balls and strikes, they find ways to needlessly inflict their presence on the game.

It doesn’t get much worse than what we saw on Sunday from umpire Vic Carapazza.

With just one out remaining in the game and Astros closer Ryan Pressly on the mound, Carapazza stopped play to issue a warning when Pressly missed his spot a bit inside to Kansas City’s Michael A. Taylor. While the pitch didn’t come close to hitting Taylor, Carapazza seemed to think Pressly was retaliating for a Yordan Alvarez hit by pitch rather than just trying to get the final out.

The entire scene was ridiculous.

The umpires convened and issued warnings to both benches. And when Pressly tried to argue his case to Carapazza, the umpire ejected Pressly. Again, there was just one out remaining in the game. There was no reason for Pressly to throw at Taylor in the middle of the at-bat. But Carapazza just couldn’t help himself because MLB’s umpiring problem is out of control.

The Astros had to bring in Phil Maton on minimal warmup and then Rafael Montero to get that final out.

Pressly was understandably upset after the game and voiced his displeasure with the umpiring decision. He said via The Houston Chronicle:

“I guess we’re not allowed to pitch inside in the big leagues anymore. I’m human. I will miss inside. To warn me after something like that and to throw me out after questioning it, you have to be better than that.”

MLB fans also had similar thoughts on the whole ordeal.

Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt made easily the worst strikeout call we’ll see this MLB season

Oh my …

We’re getting to the point where MLB umpires are embarrassing themselves on a daily basis. It’s been that bad this season, and Tuesday was no exception.

One day after Diamondbacks catcher JosĂ© Herrera had to physically stop umpire John Libka from confronting Zac Gallen on the mound (leading to Torey Lovullo’s ejection), we had Hunter Wendelstedt giving us the worst strikeout call we’ll see this MLB season. In a league that still employs Angel Hernandez as an umpire, it’s saying something.

During Tuesday’s game between the Twins and Tigers, Wendelstedt called Eric Haase out on a pitch that was closer to hitting the dirt than it was to catching the strike zone.

So much about that call was absurd. The call came in late — almost as if he made the call because Haase started making his way to first base. The pitch wasn’t even framed well by Gary Sanchez. On top of that, Wendelstedt had words for Haase after making the embarrassing call. It was the kind of miss that makes a great case for robot umps.

MLB fans couldn’t believe an umpire actually called that pitch a strike.

Noah Syndergaard had a classic reaction to Angel Hernandez’s brutal game behind the plate

So good.

MLB umpire Angel Hernandez had a night to forget behind the plate during Sunday’s nationally televised matchup between the Phillies and Brewers. All night, his strike zone was all over the place. He called strikes above the zone, below the zone, outside and 6.5 inches inside. It was that bad.

And as that brutal night boiled over in Kyle Schwarber’s outburst and ejection, Angels pitcher Noah Syndergaard was watching the game from afar like the rest of us. He wasn’t exactly ready to join the chorus of fans calling for Hernandez’s dismissal, though.

Spoken like a true pitcher, Syndergaard hilariously came in with the best back-handed endorsement of Hernandez’s strike zone.

Of course, Hernandez has also been known to call would-be strikes as balls (which would hurt the pitcher). But on Sunday, Hernandez was outrageously favoring pitchers with his missed calls. He called 11 strikes that were true balls.

Pretty bad!

Still, while everyone was melting down about Hernandez’s abysmal performance, fans did appreciate how Syndergaard managed to lighten up the mood.

Stats show that Angel Hernandez truly had a horrific night even before Kyle Schwarber’s outburst

MLB needs to do something about this.

MLB fans saw the real Angel Hernandez on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, and oh man, it wasn’t pretty.

Just a few days after the much-maligned umpire put together a solid performance calling balls and strikes behind the plate in Boston, Hernandez had the home plate assignment for the Brewers-Phillies game in Philadelphia on Sunday. That game alone could serve as a case to remove Hernandez from the MLB umpiring ranks.

It was that abysmal.

By now, you’ve probably seen videos of Kyle Schwarber losing his cool at Hernandez after getting rung up on a clear, would-be walk. Schwarber could be seen telling Hernandez that he was making awful calls all over the place for both teams. And the Phillies outfielder was spot on.

According to Umpire Auditor, Hernandez was the worst-performing umpire of the night, missing calls on 19 (!!!) taken pitches and only calling 85.3 percent correctly.

He called this pitch, which missed the strike zone by 6.47 inches, a strike on Jean Segura.

Umpire Scorecards came in with a slightly better review of Hernandez’s performance, but it was still awful. They had him at an overall accuracy of 88 percent with 16 missed calls on taken pitches. But his inability to identify strikes was alarming. He called 11 true balls for strikes — a 77 percent accuracy rate.

While it’s an incredibly difficult job to call balls and strikes for MLB pitching, Hernandez is among the worst in the sport. A one-off respectable performance isn’t enough to wipe away years of incompetence. Sunday should have been a wake-up call for MLB and the umpiring union, but they’ve tolerated Hernandez’s embarrassing career for this long. It doesn’t seem like that’s about to change.

Still, MLB fans had seen enough, and they were awfully vocal about it on Sunday.

The 10 worst strikeout calls of the 2021 MLB season make an undeniable case for robot umps

This can’t continue, MLB.

It is by no means an easy job to be a big-league umpire. In an era where Major League pitchers are throwing harder and with more movement than ever before, the task of calling balls and strikes consistently with any accuracy is beyond difficult.

And all that makes MLB’s refusal to embrace technology and institute an automated strike zone all the more puzzling. The technology is available to make the correct calls behind the plate. It’s even being tested in the minor leagues, but Major League Baseball likely remains years away from a serious conversation about robot umps.

In the meantime, baseball fans are stuck with mediocrity, and frankly, it impacts games.

Advanced data analytics firm Aimpoint Digital set out to show just how bad the umpiring has been in Major League Baseball this season and analyzed nearly 710,000 pitches from 2021. The study showed that some umpires particularly struggled in the most important moments of games (2 outs, runners in scoring position or games within three runs). Jerry Layne and Mike Muchlinski performed the worst this season and got worse as the season continued. Angel Hernandez astonishingly avoided the bottom 10.

The study also broke down bad umpiring into specific missed calls, and that’s where we were able to see the 10 worst strikeout calls from the regular season. Buckle up because it gets really bad.

Fans crushed MLB umpire Joe West after his horrible missed call changed the Yankees-Red Sox game

That call could change the playoff race.

The Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays are in a dead heat for the American League wild card spots. And if Boston ends up missing out on a postseason appearance, it’ll be tough to overlook the horrible night that umpire Joe West had on Sunday.

He very well may have impacted an entire playoff race.

The Red Sox took the lead in the seventh inning after Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo dropped a fly ball in left field. With the two teams tied in the standings, this game had major postseason implications, and the Red Sox had all the momentum — briefly.

The game would swing in the top of the eighth when Aaron Judge should have been called out on a caught foul-tip third strike. Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez caught the ball and as he was reaching for it in his glove on the transfer, the ball fell out.

West just straight-up missed the call, giving Judge new life.

Yankees No. 1 prospect Anthony Volpe got ejected right as he crossed home plate on a HR

That’s a new one.

It’s been an interesting weekend for home run trots across the minor leagues.

On Friday, newly promoted Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Henry Ramos got ejected when he tossed his helmet at an opponent to start a brawl during his game with the Reno Aces. He’d get called up to the big-league club two days later.

On Sunday, it was New York Yankees No. 1 prospect Anthony Volpe’s turn to get in on the home-run trot shenanigans — though I’d probably pin this incident on an oversensitive umpire.

During the fourth inning of the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades’ game against the Greensboro Grasshoppers, Volpe extended Hudson Valley’s lead with an opposite-field, 3-run home run. But keep an eye on the umpire as Volpe crossed home plate.

With zero hesitation, home plate umpire Tyler Witte ejected Volpe for something he said while rounding third. It’s unclear what Volpe said — or what he was upset about given that the calls went his way during the at-bat — but Witte had an active game tossing players. Left fielder Elijah Dunham was ejected by Witte an inning earlier after a groundout.

Despite losing the best prospect in the Yankees organization for half the game, the Renegades broke out a ridiculous 14-run ninth inning (with two grand slams!) to win, 23-4.

Astros fans ripped umpire Joe West after his dreadful strike call ended a 9th-inning rally

Robot umps now.

When the MLB world collectively complains about an umpire, they’re usually talking about Angel Hernandez — who is dreadfully bad. But longtime MLB umpire Joe West isn’t too far behind.

The Houston Astros certainly have reason to be upset.

The Padres and Astros played a wild game on Sunday — which included Manny Machado making a catch in deep right field — that ended on a walk-off home run by Jake Cronenworth. But in the top half of the ninth inning, the Astros had a golden opportunity to take a late lead. West just didn’t let that happen.

West already had a shaky start to the inning when he called a pair of strikes on pitches well off the plate with Yuli Gurriel hitting. Gurriel was visibly frustrated. But later in the inning, Aledmys Diaz faced an 0-2 count with runners at the corners and two outs.

Fans crushed MLB umpire Marty Foster over his jaw-droppingly bad interference call

This needs to stop, MLB.

At this point, Major League Baseball might be better offer just getting rid of all its current umpires and replacing them with a combination of robots and competent people. It’s getting out of hand right now.

The Milwaukee Brewers — especially bench coach Pat Murphy — were furious with first base umpire Marty Foster on Wednesday after he ruled interference on a routine groundout to the pitcher.

According to Foster, Brewers pitcher Zack Godley impeded the path of Marlins second baseman Isan Diaz on his way to first. Foster seemingly did not take into account that Diaz was running on the infield grass, not within 10 feet of Godley and not impeded at all by the time the play was made.

That’s a call you won’t even see Little League umpires make in that situation. It made no sense. Murphy was ejected for arguing the call, and the Brewers continued to give Foster words as the game went on.

MLB fans on Twitter proceeded to roast Foster for that inexplicable call. It was so bad.

This needs to stop, MLB.

https://youtu.be/DFtlwTh8aXQ