Angel Hernandez makes MLB's worst call in four years

hello and welcome to Jimmy's three

things today on the show we're going to

see how far back in time we have to go

to find a call worse than the one Angel

Hernandez made in the Astros Rangers

game we have an interesting kind of odd

update from an athletic article about

the minor league system and what's going

on over there all the minor leagues are

being bought up by one company and then

a little insight into my hobby which is

finding twin pitches I found a good one

the other day in a session where I was

searching for twin pitches I'm going to

take a sip of my coffee and then we will

start all right thank you very much for

joining as I said it's Jimmy's three

things and we are with the Dan Patrick

Network now so if you're tuning in on

that new RSS feed iHeart podcast thank

you very much for joining my name is

Jimmy this is uh a talking baseball uh

episode there's a a series that I run on

the talking baseball Youtube channel so

if you want any of the visuals you can

head there or you can listen on the

podcast once a week deep Dives or

shallow Dives whatever I want to do

three topics that I think I'm interested

in and I want to spend some time I

fiddle around on my computer so you can

see my screen you can see my searching

and then I talk out loud and it's kind

of just like you guys were all here

together little intimate session I'm

very bad at math that's something you

need to know and sometimes I talk fast

and I I mess up my words I'm not you

know a professional I'm not uh Conan on

hot ones that was incredible he did

anyway let's get into it the first one

so over the weekend we had these three

missed calls by Angel Hernandez in the

Texas and uh Astros game that were

incredible uh just absolutely incredible

M calls three in a row and one at

bat outside righty pitcher righty batter

outside pitch with break got the first

call gets the second call says I guess

I'll just stay out there boom gets the

third that third one is incredibly

outside actually thanks to umpire

auditor we know that it was 6.78 in

outside uh which is the largest Miss in

umpire auditor

history unbelievable shout out to mattye

mass who does the morning show with me

someone uh or I'll shout them out Adam

Samuel said I need someone to Overlay

Anthony Rizzo in the Batters box for

that last pitch because I'm convinced

that last pitch would have hit him and

Angel called it a strike and mattye mass

um producer here uh well he's more than

a producer but he produces the morning

show and is uh does a lot for us uh made

the edit on Twitter and uh it was close

might have hit him I think Rizzo stood

closer to that at times and gotten hit

by a pitch get the Fram Brett bat maybe

maybe that's one he took but uh so just

a bad call so I wanted to go to baseball

Savant and see if that's the worst call

call uh on a ball on that side of the

plate that far off the plate this

season so first I tried to find if we

have the coordinates uh for plate X and

plate Z that's what they use and someone

on Reddit uh Jay remky three years ago

said um what are the plate coordinates

for the strike zone and then he says I

sampled data from statcast only included

pitches in the zone and found the

coordinates to be the following so he

has if the pitches um

more than .8 and less than

8 that's off the Zone left and right so

I guess that means from the dead center

of the plate we're

going an eighth of

a I don't know point8 away both

sides so I did that so what I did was I

went to baseball Savant okay which I use

a lot and I

searched for all called strikes

in the season 2024 on pitches that were

greater than or equal

to

83 and what I did was I just took one

pitcher at first to make sure I was on

the right path and I I typed in Marcus

strowman so he has1 pitches and then if

I pitch chart it because it's less data

so the pitch chart will populate quicker

you can see in the pitch chart that yes

okay we have the line we're looking at

all all pitches off the plate if you're

a righty batter it's away from you so

now I'm going to cancel it and not make

it so it can be any picture at all and

search and we're going to change the

included stats of the search to include

plate X so we can toggle it by that

um and then we're going to group the

results by player and event someone in

the comments last week let me know that

that's how you do it so they don't take

the average so when we find the highest

and lowest hit ball when we come back to

that I know a better way to do it now

thanks to that person in the comments I

forget who you were so this is

populating all of them and because I

changed the parameters it took away the

plate X so let me put that back in here

and I that umpire auditor says that

that's the most outside pitch called a

strike

um and here it is JP France the

pitcher and it was this has as 1.4 so I

don't know I don't know what 1.4 is I

don't know what that measurement is but

yeah there there it is that's the angel

be happy with that especially with the B

loed one

out Bases Loaded one out so that's the

that's the most this season by a good

amount the next is oh look this is the

same game so the second one comes from a

different game but then the third and

the fourth come from the same game that

Angel Hernandez made all those calls but

a different at bats because Dane Dunning

the pitcher uh for the Rangers saw what

Angel was doing and was

like I'll do that so in the bottom oh

actually he got one first in the third

inning so here's Angel again in the same

game to Altuve this wasn't that Viral

bat this at bat this was a different one

oh and we're toggling and we're waiting

and it's loading I'll just load another

one while we here and then this was the

fifth

inning here's Jose alve with a one

oh it's good to have you back in the

booth I know you watch every game so

Angel has want to know the count to Yer

Diaz so Angel has won three of the top

four this season off the plate that way

and

then here's one uh Ronald Blanco also

Texas Houston series so

someone Alo also Wyatt Langford isn't

that the JP France one is white Langford

okay that's interesting so same

stadium or no was this did they play

like a home and away like two

games three Innings tonight nine innings

yeah this is different Stadium different

Stadium but same two

teams same batter though do wonder if

there's any of him reacting I did a

whole breakdown on this on like some

batters some umps call it on not the

pitch just all the surroundings like the

old school umps um and like he throws

his hands at it no I don't know you know

what it is I I did a whole breakdown on

this like if we click on any of

these let's see who this one is

one this is Boston Cole Irvin on the

bump I'm going to guess they're all

righty pitchers righty

batters oh Lefty pitcher wrong instantly

wrong

Pao re second

ton I mean

that's you understand a righty pitcher

because the ball has to come across at

least from the body this one's just

never even there I don't know what that

H's doing

uh okay so let's so it's

1.14 let's go back and include now I'm

going to change this

to um greater than 1 Point Angel hernand

has got three of the top four and the

third one is 1.25 so I'm going to go

1.24 I'm going to see how many years do

we have to go back where he gets beat if

I include 2023 in the search and up it

just so it has to it gives us less info

is Angel still the leader sort by f x

Angel no well he could be the UMP in any

of these games so a lot last year which

obvious obviously is a bigger data size

now what I'm interested in is when I

click these

videos the majority I would guess a

righty pitcher righty batter and the

Umpire is his head is set up way on the

inside corner giving himself a weird

angle and I'm wrong already the first

three are Lefty pitchers so just I've

been wrong every time I've said that but

let's see the Umpire thing see where the

umpire's head is because that's what

starting pitchers have to figure out

these older umpires and it's for safety

so you can't knock it too much they were

taught to put their head on the Inside

Edge no matter where the glove is oh man

that's so off off the

plate oh let's see another one anyway

Angels is still the worst the 1.4 still

beats that one uh let's see if it beats

the next two from last year so how many

years do we have to go back cuz umpire

auditor said in its history so is it

going to be every year it's the worst in

the last 10 years of collecting video of

these instances is that what we're

saying no oh this is the is this

the same ump as the Red Sox series I

think it

is look where his head is no way that

got called a strike in a two-run game in

the bottom of the eighth inning who's

this umpire let's go 2023

May 22nd

Miami Colorado

reference this home plate umpire is

Bruce

drekman I haven't heard that name which

means he's maybe not that bad oh here's

the guy here's CB Buckner he is maybe

the worst at this just awful look at his

head it's not it's nowhere close he

doesn't even like try to tilt his head

to track the ball to get on the same

angle as the ball to move with the

catcher I did a video on uh was it Tay

or was it hoberg who had a perfect game

in the World Series he moves his head

with the catcher so we can see the path

of the ball where it's coming from this

is a breaking ball from a lefty so it

the closest it is to the strike zone is

at the very end and it's still not over

the plate and it looks like Do's not

even looking at it

that's

disappointing all right so if I go to

last year JP France the pitch is still

the the longest um let's just toggle

this to 1.39 so it's only going to give

us and in the stat cast error so I'm

going back to 2015 pitches called that

were across the plate at 1.39 or higher

and were called a strike we'll see if

this pitch by Angel hernandz is is truly

according to Savant the worst in the

last whatever every years oh it doesn't

Okay so there's been oh there's

been no way do these have video or are

these wrong this one says

4.45 I'm going to guess this is early

hit

tracks and not true a game from 2016 and

we have video Steven

pascotti this has to be a blip yeah was

going to ask you so like hit track just

didn't pick that up it was kind of right

down the middle now this next one is 184

could that really be that far off the

plate one off given first and second

nobody out seventh Inn goes after the

first pitch hum blade umpire in the che

ah he might have called that on the

check swing so I don't count that all

right L seino

2016 let's see this one Yankees

two Sandy had four RBI Friday at Dodger

Stadium so I think we can't count

2016 maybe we can count 2017 all the

2016 ones are uh like this the stat cast

is wrong it's it's clearly not picking

it up right 2017 Julio Tyron let's see

what he's got how bad was this

call but dating back to that second game

in New York where the right down the

middle 2021 this is my last hope that

I'm getting out of here um because all

these are just they're just wrong

numbers they should probably change that

on baseball Savon or something although

who else is doing this exercise besides

me not sure about the advanced stats

there with Earl Weaver oh no way but he

no way okay this is the worst one we've

had uh that is

incredible so who is this this is Trey

Mancini is the at the plate Buck farmer

is the pitcher it's a 5-1 game in the

eighth with two on

and this

pitch no way look at the umps head you

can't even see it he's so far off the

plate on the right side oh that's

crazy what umpire is this is he still

umping Baltimore and Detroit Baltimore

Detroit

reference head umpire Ramon De Jesus

he's still uh umpiring oh that

is that is worse than angels

by far that's worse than

Angels how does that happen good for you

Angel he was

worse 2020 this might have accurate

tracking because I believe they switched

all the to Eagle Eye at some point in

2020 or some point they switched all the

Data Tracking stuff uh in the

stadiums this is our guy brawt

pitching I don't know

20 pitch so old school ire are going to

expand the Zone there a little bit

that's just not a strike you know I was

watching last night I'm gonna find out

who this umpire is pit and

KC I was watching the quad box last

night MLB

TV has uh their MLB I don't even know

what they call it but it's like Red Zone

where you can watch four games at once

this umpire in this game was Ed Hickock

so the the bad newss is we're not

running into just one name I think it

would be better if there just one name

but I was I was

watching

um the four games at a time last night

on the MLB Extra Innings or whatever the

hell it's called and at one point Corbin

carrols up and they call a strike just

way high and they call it a strike and

Tory LEL is and dug out like this and

then in the bottom right the pitch at

the same time in the they it might have

been the A's game Sunny gra was pitching

against the a he gets a call that's

below and they call it a strike and it

was like two out of the four games they

were showing the two pitches at the same

time were were called incorrectly and

they were getting frustrated and I was

thinking this is push is going to come

to shove here I know at triaa they're

practicing the automatic ball

system and players like the system where

they get to challenge it first there's a

video of Paul SK challenging it if I can

find that

SK challenge pitch is not going to come

up and um yeah here it is so

he he's a a two- two count with two outs

and two on and the um calls out a ball

and he Taps his head immediately so the

Umpire Taps his head and then they go to

challenge it and in like 4 seconds it

comes up on the big screen and yep he

got the corner it's a strike it's strike

three the inning's over simple as that

that's a good system I like that system

my only like concern is you got to

graduate a ton of bumps from Triple A

that have been using this system and

understand that Strike Zone because the

umpires that have been in the league for

so long they're calling a different

strike zone so if they change to this

system and have the you know the

automatic ball tracking system and the

umpires call it and then but for

egregious ones the pitcher and catcher

they have like two seconds to challenge

it it's going to be so sloppy because so

many of these umps call a different

Strike Zone and just quite frankly like

aad B Strike Zone because of their head

placement h on the inside corner the

outside is just an absolute mess and

you'll see it watch CB Buckner up watch

Angel um their heads just aren't in the

right place to make the call which I

think is a safety concern Let's uh end

this segment real quick by just finding

the worst on the other side of the plate

this season so plate X and plate Z I'm

gonna say and then we're gonna say

called strike but we're gonna clear this

so it's just this season and I want to

find the worst so we know that Angel

Hernandez the JP France pitch to White

Langford is the worst on the uh first

base side of the plate way outside

what's the worst on the other side is it

a lefty batter where the Umpire has his

head on that side of the plate that

would be my guess this pitch by Kyle

Hendricks on April 5th versus the

Dodgers and this was minus

1.23 to Gavin

Lu excuse my H hitters trying to do off

of him read that and just focus on the

fundamentals oh that doesn't look as

egregious I guess it's not 1.4 I think

it's off but it does have late break to

it yeah it's pretty off but

it because the movement goes that way

it's not as egregious in my humble

opinion okay let's see if we can toggle

the highest pitch called to

strike this season

is this going to be the highest or the

lowest this is the lowest pitch called

to strike this season Tristan McKenzie

threw it now this also depends on the

batter right so the batter is Tai France

I was expecting someone not like short

short you know lowest pitch called to

strike lot stronger as well wow o I

don't think that's called on the swing

either the the announcer just goes

wow I wonder where that crosses the

plate

there there no really really not well

wow and the highest pitch called to

strike on April 7th Daniel Palencia is

the pitcher and James outman damn

Dodgers both sides of this

one is that the same game no this was

the same game as the pitch off the plate

to Lux

that's at the elbow seems pretty high

who's this umpire because he has two so

I feel like that's bad he has the most

off the

plate uh no but this crew

does who is this Dodgers Chicago Cubs so

as two umpires in This

Crew have the two

worst which isn't good and this umpire

crew behind home plate Eric bakus Tom

Hannah LZ Diaz so and esbrook

so that crew all right all right so

there you go that's topic number one

Angel Hernandez has the worst call since

2020 I believe if we were checking the

actual data and it was really bad and

umpires I'm worried about them when the

new system comes in which I'm excited

for but I think you got to graduate a

ton of umps or like retrain some of

these umps to understand the difference

of the strike zone because if the umps

and Triple A are probably adjusting

their zone so they don't miss and and

get publicly called out by everyone and

the umet major league level haven't been

doing that so when they do Transition

the spring training where they do that

is going to be an absolute

mess all right moving on there was this

article on the athletic that I'll just

briefly touch on because I found it

interesting and I don't really

understand it because the article by

Chad Jennings evangelic and Sam Blum uh

on theathletic.com so go there if you

want to read the whole thing but there's

this new group that's buying

all the minor league teams so when when

Co happened they revamped the minor

league teams they cut them in half

basically which I know sucked because it

put a lot of people out of jobs and it

downsized it but in the end I do kind of

think it was good because they were

paying and treating these players

nothing and treating them like and

feeding them a pipe dream that they were

going to be big Leaguers when there was

too many of them it was impossible so

with the Consolidated minor leagues at

least in my positive thought process

they can pay them better which they're

unionized now they're getting better uh

pay they can treat them better because

there's less and there's less being sold

the pipe dream because you know the joke

was you would sign one dude from the

Dominican uh that you thought was going

to be a major leager and then you would

sign 10 guys for him to play against and

sell them all the same dream anyway

there's this there's this group called

Diamond baseball

Holdings and they are aggressively

buying like every minor league team they

now now own 32 of the 120 Affiliates and

they're aggressively in acquisition mode

um to me that's just scary because we're

like monopolizing it or or it's becoming

a corporation and like franchising all

the teams so they're all going to look

the same and feel the same when it's

supposed to be such a local thing but

the article does go on to say that they

they keep all the local staff they they

keep all the GMS they change some Town

names they change some team names from

like the affiliate Club to actually

something that serves that town and that

uh City and they understand small towns

and like some other owners that own

clubs

said they know it's been pretty good

they pay they pay fair prices they're

actually helping out and doing better

things for the stadiums and the ball

clubs so I'm not trying to sit here and

say it's bad because the article gave

both sides of it the good and like the

possibly bad I just thought it was was

kind of fascinating that this is

happening I didn't know this was

happening um and the map is kind of

interesting so this map in the last four

years shows all the teams they've bought

they have all four A's Affiliates all

four of them and I believe they have all

three of the Red Sox Affiliates um it

was a very mom and pop business and now

it's not so they really went to the

South First it looks like they started

with uh a lot of the minor leagues in

the south and the Yankees and then

um they're just continuing to go in 2023

they bought all over Midwest

Arizona um California so yeah I mean you

can read the article and make up your

own mind on it I don't know I don't know

how I feel about it because I don't know

if I'm smart enough to fully understand

the what it could mean down the future

and what it can apparently they're very

close to Manfred and this um there was

one line about little league where it

kind of scared me where it said

commissioner Rob manfred's one baseball

initiative seeks to put every aspect of

the game under one umbrella that of the

major league team owners from Yankee

Stadium to Little League World Series

and all things in between that's not

good that's not good there needs to be

some separation there uh MLB can't own

baseball as it

is like that's not good you know it's

already weird that they own Rawlings the

company that makes their balls I don't

like that because we've seen what

happened

2019 2019 kind of ruined baseball

because everyone just believed in three

true alcom then it is good you can hit

homers and then thankfully we're back to

a better state of play in my opinion

right now so uh I don't know if you guys

have thoughts on this or just give me

some more insight and info like maybe

it's good maybe they're helping and

they're they're cleaning it up and and

not letting bad owners run it because

they are caring but it just seems weird

that one group would

own all the minor league

teams you know isn't that what isn't

that what people are scared about with

the news when like every newscaster

saying the same just because like

it's just like a I don't

know so I read the article I'll read

comments and all that read more but I

don't know kind of weirded me out all

right a quick aside before we go to the

third topic from our book Tales From The

Dugout by Tim Hagerty I'm going to flip

to a random page we're going to do um

page number uh 120 right here and this

is an uplifting tale tall Jersey City

first baseman George Merritt lifted

short Newark base runner Jim cockman on

July 4th 1907 and dropped him in the

Baseline between first and second during

a Class A eastern league game Merritt

then got the ball and tagged cockman

before he could get back to the base the

Umpire missed Merritt's move and called

cockman out that's some schoolyard

so the first

baseman just picked him up off the bag

and threw him on the ground and then

tagged him you're off the

bag take that cockman Merit got you all

right the third thing twin pitches I've

tweeted about this a lot but I don't

think I some of you might not know I do

this hunt when I'm bored on baseball

reference it's kind of like

when I like you know editing is my hobby

and and baseball deep dive into stats is

my hobby but I can't I need to take a

break because it's also my job now so

like I've had to find other avenues that

are like this is my hobby time and this