"I have no idea what replay they saw?"- Tom Hamilton
When the announcer for the opposing team says their team benefited from a bad call, then you know it was a bad call. And yes Tom Hamilton also said he wasn't surprised that Angel Hernandez made that call.
Now this morning I heard ESPN reporter Jayson Stark say that Hernandez and the other umpires do not see the same replay as we see on TV. You know how when NFL and NBA refs review a play they use the TV stations feed their at the stadium or arena? Well according to Stark, MLB umpires use the replay coming from a feed in New York. Which if true, is probably the most baseball thing ever. Of course they can't even get what limited amount of replay they have correct.
I have another theory though. On Monday night Jarrod Parker drilled Mark Reynolds with a pitch. This was after Parker gave up back-to-back home runs. So Hernandez issued a warning. As you can imagine this didn't sit well with either team. Later on in the game after Parker was removed you could see Hernandez trying to goad A's manager Bob Melvin into a argument. He was actually chirping at Melvin while he was at the mound to make the change. Melvin to his credit didn't take the bait. What I'm trying to say is I believe Hernandez purposely called that play above in the video a double to goad Melvin into another argument. Now before you say, "Keith put down the tinfoil hat", would it really surprise you if this was the case? I mean we are talking about Angel Hernandez here.
Since Selig is gutless, remember he didn't make the Tigers and Twins replay over to get the Armando Galarraga play correct, I doubt baseball will do anything about this except pretend it never happened and hope everything blows over.
I honestly wouldn't put it past Hernandez to pull something like that. He's the first umpire with West as 2nd that need to go.
ReplyDelete2 things here:
ReplyDelete1. Having people watching in New York is pretty similar to the NHL model where all the replay calls are made in Toronto, which works well.
2. IIRC, the umps don't see the replays in slow mo, they have to watch the replays at live speed. And that ball last night was very tough to call at regular speed.
But still, fuck Angel Hernandez.
The problem is Kris the way I understand it, people in New York aren't directing Hernandez like they do in hockey. He's just using their video feed and making the decision himself.
DeleteThat's right from what I've read. The bigger problem is not having access to multiple angles & the ability to slow down & zoom in on replays.
DeleteThis is sort of an ancillary concern with replay in baseball (and hopefully you'll forgive me for being a bit of a Contrarian on this), but could balls and strikes be something that would ever be feasible under video review? When it is something obvious--like Joe Nathan "strike out" to end a game against the Rangers last month--it would be very useful, but if replay were ever put into use the way it has been in hockey and football, I could see that being very controversial.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the best solution is just add a 5th umpire to all of these crews. The guy who does home plate then goes upstairs the next day and just makes calls automatically. No challenges or staring at small TV's. Of course, that would be 15-17 new umpires at 150k per, and no way does Bud or the owners do that.
DeleteI still remember the days when Angel Hernandez and Joe West were on the same crew...
ReplyDelete