Angel Hernandez makes MLB's worst call in four years 

I’m a simple man. I see Angel Hernandez being called out for his unsatisfactory performance, I click. (Also, Jimmy looking well!)

Ah yes, another Jomboy episode of "How much does Angel Hernandez suck at his job today?" My favorite show.

Dear Jomboy, When discussing these Angel calls, Passan said on ESPN that “Angel is not worst” and that “there are umps who are worse at balls & strikes.” CB Bucknor came to mind. But I’d love to see a deep dive of which umpires are the worst at balls and strikes. I’m a pro-labor guy, but these umpires make me blame the union. So many dudes umping in AAA who have worked hard and deserve a chance to work in the bigs. But these old dudes won’t get out of their way. There needs to be a mechanism by which low performing umps can be sent down and successful minor league umps can be promoted. Thanks for your work. You are great at your job.

I love how major league pitchers see an umpire is absolutely favoring a location, and then they abuse it. 😂

Kyle Schwarber going off on Angel Hernandez is still one my favorite moments in baseball history.

Dude... "You're not professional"???? Are you kidding? Your absolutely killing it. I've learned more about baseball in the last 3 years from your videos than the previous 37 just watching the game and listening to professional commentary.

Home plate is 17” wide, to be off by 6.78” gives you an error of 39.88%. Tell me another job that lets you have nearly 40% error, 3 times in a row?

The 1.4 means 1.4 feet from the middle of the plate

I think the ultimate irony will be branding the robo umps as, “Angels,” come to save baseball.

Just my two cents on the whole monopoly thing: What is happening is what always happens when these sorts of acquisitions are made / empires are built. It starts with some positive stories about "Oh, they're being so nice and improving things", but then when the job is done that turns quickly. It becomes obvious that those positives were there to facilitate a means to an end. A very pre-determined end. Monopolies are always a bad thing, and the whole "one baseball" thing is pretty scary and not good. Otherwise... pitch challenge needs to be implemented in MLB ASAP exactly as it is in the minors, and your point about the umpire adjustment is super valid and great forward thinking.

Sport media goofball-ish guy by day, hardcore baseball data analyst by night. I like it

I see Angel Hernandez performance and think maybe I could be an umpire too like Leslie Neilson in the naked gun when he was undercover just making calls up to make the crowd cheer.

The only fucking explanation for this is that Angel is only looking at where the catchers glove is after he makes the catch. Theres no way hes watching the ball and missing them THIS badly

Maybe both teams for angel Hernández games when he’s the home plate umpire, both teams refuse to take the field and protest the game because he’s terrible. Maybe it’ll work. Maybe not. Might as well try. The worst you’ll get is maybe a forfeit the game.

We need a Jomboy HotOnes episode. 🙏

Really enjoyed the live use of stats here. Would love to see some more dedicated content in the same vein as your "Worst Calls" segment.

PLEASE just put a green light/red light indicator in the umps' masks to get balls and strikes right. It really impacts the game and the best pitchers/best hitters shouldn't be hurt because of good control or a good eye. I still want the ump to convey balls and strikes, just with the level of accuracy modern technology already gives me on TV.

I'm happy to chat with y'all about Diamond Baseball Holdings, "One Baseball", and the sketchy stuff MLB has been doing all the way into the indy ball aka Partner League area, I've been telling this story for a couple years now. Happy to give y'all some background.

"Did they play a home and away?" Yeah, for some reason MLB decided that the Rangers and Astros should play each other SEVEN TIMES in the first fifteen games on the season.

Jimmy, you're looking happy and healthy, brother. 1:20 dude Conan killed hot ones.

Oh nice, you showed a sample of the ABS/challenge system. I think it's great. Doesn't take much time, and you often see how close some of the calls are. When the pitch misses, it even shows everyone by how much. The fun part is that we get a spoiler in the press box since the Hawkeye graphic shows up in real time. (We can also see the times when they should have challenged.) Also, whenever a call is upheld, I always want the umpire to do some little Frank Drebin/Savannah Bananas thing. "The strike call is upheld... IN YO' FACE!"

I love and fully support your twin pitches hobby. Also, thank you so much for walking us through how to use baseball savant. You should produce a tutorial series.

The system shown in AAA is awesome, exactly like pro tennis! Pivotal questions are answered within seconds

“I’m bad at math.” 3:45 “An *eighth* of a…. 🤷🏻‍♂️” You gotta respect a man who recognizes his weaknesses openly lol, love Jomboy

During the statcast era, Which pitchers has gotten the most strikes called, when it's actually a ball. Which Batter has gotten the most strikes called, it's actually a ball. Which pitcher has gotten the most balls called, when it was actually a strike Which batter has gotten the most balls called, when it was actually a strike.

These have become my favorite thing Jomboy Media has been putting out recently. These are so informational and entertaining!

The Palencia high pitch you have to remember was after hours of a rain delay on a Sunday night in an 8-1 game with 1 out in the 9th. That ump clearly just wanted to go home and was calling anything close a strike.

Channeling his inner Eric Gregg on those calls

Can we get fans league wide to protest Angel Hernandez please ?

Jimmy!! Congratulations to all of you on the new partnership! I'm not sure why this is, but i may never have watched talkin' baseball before even though I've seen everything else you do. (baggage breakdowns and geoguessr baby!!) But sometimes with sports, because I'm still learning, I look for the sports people who chit chat one on one with me and examine situations with curiosity. Just a chit chat about Angel and doing a bunch of different "tests" on the internet. If the new partnership made it so that this talkin baseball and podcast "format" was my first recommendation on my home feed suddenly, that's a good partnership.

Jomboy- “my job is evaluating video/stats all day so to break the monotony, in my spare time I search for video/stat profiles that are doppelgängers of each other but have different names.” God bless ya, Jomboy.

I'm shocked to hear that Angel Hernandez is bad at calling balls and strikes. Shocked I say.

it’s NEVER a good thing when a single entity owns all of a specific thing. that’s my philosophy

The outro question of "is this happening more to my team than other teams" really resonates with me as a Mariners fan... The Event in Question : Consistently losing games we should be winning on paper. The Answer After Analysis : Yes.

I absolutely love these "how I find out stuff" videos.

That Peterson to Maile one might be the worst I've seen even though it statistically isn't. The ump was legit closer to the batters ass than the plate with a lefty pitcher lmao you legit can't get any further away from the pitch than that ump

That pitch challenge will be the best thing that would happen to the MLB, it will negate outrageous calls and frustration from batters

My Favorite Jomboy stuff is pitch analysis. Comparing pitches, pitch sequences, etc. Great stuff!

I love “jimmy’s 3 things”. Keep it up man it’s one of my favorites

Wyatt Langford has been getting calls like this all year. It’s like the umps never give the benefit of the doubt to rookies

I interviewed for a data tracking job for the former Rome Braves affiliate (they rebranded to the Emperors) and they wanted to pay me $10hr. Idk if fair pay is something that can be validated past that article.

I went to see my local triple A team twice last week and there were a couple of challenges to pitches, the system worked amazingly fast and really helped make it feel like all the calls were fair and correct. I’ve been a fan of robo umps in the past but the challenge system feels like the best way to do it. It keeps the spirit of the game and helps make everything more accurate

I was planning on skimming thru this episode, and before I knew it, it was over...Good stuff jomboy, keep up the good work.

Nice shout out to Conan that was an amazing ep

I think the Angel Hernandez decades long shit show is baseball’s biggest unsolved mystery. There has to be something else that we just don’t know about this guy.

Crazy how there are at least 28 home plate umpires, yet it's the same 2 or 3 (typically Angel) that are constantly blowing game changing calls

Really cool analysis, Jomboy. Question (maybe someone knows): would this analysis only show outside pitches to RH batters ? I guess to add worst call on outside pitches to LH batters , need to do repeat exercise w min_plate < .8 etc ?

You may be able to find isolated examples of umpires making worse calls than Angel, but how many of them do it as consistently as Angel?

Jimmy coming to the realization that Wyatt got fucked on almost the same pitch a week prior was a cathartic experience as a Rangers fan. I feel like I've been going crazy, kid has been getting fucked by the umps all year, it's so weird to watch. His zone just seems bigger than everyone else in the lineup.

Angle finally did it. He got his name and incredible in the same sentence.

The chalk of the batters box is part of the strike zone 😁

Love your work, Jimmy!!

Why do most umps insist on setting up pre-pitch anywhere but over the middle of the plate? It drives me nuts.

The new Robo umpire system should be called. A - Autonomous N - Neutral G - Game E - Enhancement L - Logic Or A - Accurate N - Networked G - Geometric E - Evaluation L - Lens

Regarding the first part: 1.4 would presumably feet be off the center of the plate. Strike zone was calculated at

@9:38 Something that I've noticed about Francisco Alvarez since he got called up, the dude is a master at stealing strikes. No matter how far out of the zone he catches the ball, he will quickly move his glove back over the plate to fool the umpire. More often than not, he gets that strike called.

Angel is great for baseball, just as Joe West was. Fans and teams need a common enemy

Check Game 6 of The 1997 NLCS between The Braves and Marlins...where home plate umpire Eric 'Im in a hurry to hit The Hometown Buffet' Gregg basically gifted Marlins' pitcher Livan Hernandez 16 strikeouts. Some of those pitches were literally a foot off the plate. Gregg and Angel H. are indeed two of The Worst Umps in the history of MLB.

The minor league thing is weird because some people have no issue but diamond holdings literally stole my local Mississippi braves and moved them to Georgia, while still being named the Mississippi braves.

oh shit! it's been a long time since I've seen any Jomboy video. Just been on audio. Lookin good Jimmy!

We need something like this show on JM Football.

Game 2 of Braves Phillies this season. Max fried threw strike 3 damn near down the middle of the box and umpire called it a ball…. He didn’t make it threw the first inning after that

Angel just out there guessing. I should set up a petition for a live stream eye exam on Angel hernandez 😂😂

Jimmy really briefly mentioned old school umps basing their ball/strike calls on everything but the actual pitch, I would love to see that explored more. I recently went back and watched a bunch of games from the late 2000s and definitely got this impression. Basically if the pitcher hit the glove where the catcher was set up, youre getting a strike no matter what. Jonathan Lucroy gamed this for like an entire season, where he would just set up 6 inches outside the strike zone and as a result steal strikes at a huge rate. Same thing but in reverse for when they miss their spot, you could miss dead center in the strike zone, but if the catcher had to reach for it, ball.

Very interesting video. Please keep up your good work.

Not huge into baseball but love stats and this is fascinating. Subbed

Jimmy, this is why my love for baseball shines above the others. This wealth of data and you also appreciating why it’s so amazing.

Thank God there isnt video replay of my work and someone like jomboy analyzing it. lol.

Not defending Angel but I haven’t seen one person mention this fact since this game. The strike zone is 3-D. We’re only seeing and measuring the ball distance from home plate AFTER it hits the catchers glove. This pitcher is throwing a pitch that is going right to left. Maybe from Angel’s perspective it’s catching the front corner of the strike zone as it doesn’t matter where the pitch ends up. Same is true for example, a curveball that gets buried in the dirt by the time it gets to the catcher. It can still be a strike as long it passed through the zone. These pitches look awful though for sure and likely still missed the zone based on how far they ended up outside but likely not as much as what’s being measured and put out publicly. I’m all for the pitch challenge being implemented immediately and for long term sake not renewing ump’s contracts until the union concedes to some sort of system of sending these bad umps down and calling up younger umps to give them a chance

Something you touched on before that I'd love to see a deeper dive into is pitches seen per at-bat. Is there a correlation to batting success there? What sort of value does an at-bat grinder create?

Hey giving Adam a shoutout.(MLB the show streamer) He's the one who asked for the Rizzo overlay.

Love this series

Eric Gregg in the playoffs vs the Braves has at least 7 of the top 10 worst punch outs of all time.

I work as a consulting intermediary and spoke with the CSO (chief strategy officer) of Diamond Baseball Holdings-formerly a senior executive at Live Nation-and it sounded as though the intentions behind their aggressive acquisitions is to genuinely invest into the local culture of baseball and make it the epicenter of small towns.

Was clicking around on baseball reference and found an interesting stat that I feel like you could could do an interesting deep dive on and find others easily and make it fun. Fact the last HR that Jake Arrieta gave up was the last HR that Buster Posey on the same pitch

Nothing will ever top the Joe Nathan pitch to Ben Zobrist (04/08/13, TB @ TEX, HP Ump Marty Foster) for Nathan’s 300th save. Ended the game. He did apologize, but man, BRUTAL.

Topic idea - Labatt Park is the "oldest continually operating baseball grounds in the world", with a history dating back to 1877. Since December 31, 1936, Labatt Park has been owned by the City of London.

I think it's his depth perception. He is mentally placing the zone a foot or so in front of where it is, so he sees a pitch being in the "zone" in front of the batter, and then breaks outside so that it's truly a ball.

17" plate + 2.92" diameter baseball = 19.92" wide strike zone 19.92"/12 = 1.66' 1.66'/2 = 0.83' (which means strike zone is + or - 0.83' from plate center) 1.4'-0.83' = 0.57' 0.57'*12 = 6.84" outside strike zone

On April 17, Jay’s vs New York. There were multiple pitches that were almost 7” off the plate.

These analytics breakdowns you're doing every week are awesome.

I'm personally stunned that Langford didn't get ejected, that kid is so dang mature. If I was to have my guess I'd say 80% if not more of players would be gone after that kind of umpiring performance.

Conan on "hot ones" was one of the best things ive seen😂

That +/- 0.83 is the lateral position from the center of the plate, in feet. The plate is 17 inches wide, and a baseball has a radius of about 1.5 inches. Since only a tiny edge of the baseball has to clip the edge of the plate for it to be a strike, that means there's a 20 inch wide swath where the ball can be considered a strike. Statcast position logs the position of the center of the baseball. 20 inches / 12 inches = 1.6666 feet. Divide that by 2 to get your ~0.83 feet since they consider 0 to be the center.

Totally thought that said "twin pitchers with different names" and I'm like "yeah, that's how names work"

Absolutely love Adam getting a shoutout on Jomboy

Rizzo: *walking to first after HBP* Angel: "Strike!"

Angel Hernandez/CB Buckner are by far the worst umpires in decades. But the worst call? I know hyperbole works to get clicks, but Eric Gregg’s entire 1997 NLCS Game 5 was the worst called game ever, with strike calls individually being worse than Angel’s calls behind the plate. Worst individual call ever that had actual consequences (not an 8-1 game in April), is Don Denkinger safe call at first base that would have rightly won the 85 World Series for the Cardinals. As a result it led to the Royals coming back to win Game 6 and then winning the series in seven. Regardless of hyperbole, keep up the great analysis Jomboy. Love your baseball content.

I don't understand why people dismiss automation calls. Computers in real time can call a pitch perfect every time letting the umps keep an eye on other things

When a pitch comes across home plate at an angle the way these do, should the graphic on the screen light up before it hits the catchers glove? Isn't a ball or strike determined by where the ball crosses the front plane of homeplate? Not back where the ball is caught??

I have been impressed with the job John Libka has done, I was watching him call Reds - Mariners the other day and it reminded of a game I watched him call last year for the Mariners, where basically every pitch that the tracker showed in the zone he called correctly and vice versa for pitches out of the zone. Doing a bit of google-fu I did find some clips from '20 where called some strikes that where way out of the zone, I'm curious what exactly he did to get so much better.

Jomboy, Have they changed the strike zone? It use to be be at the letters of the shirt, and now it looks like it is just above the belt. Did I miss something? Just asking. Love your page. Bill.

An Ump cheating scandal to get calls correct using an earpiece would be so refreshing.

Hey Jimmy I think something interesting to look into at least would be the rangers making their opponent produce errors. For some reason that happens a lot. I noticed that in the rays post season series and this last series where we just played the tigers. Idk if it’s a thing but would be something interesting to look into.

I am just waiting for the day when Angen Hernandez calls a strike on a pitch where they are trying to intentionally walk the batter. You know it is going to happen. Catcher stands up, walks to the right, grabs the ball out of the air, Hernandez realizes there is still a baseball game going on, pulls the foot-long hot-dog back out of his deep-throat and says "strike".

0.83 derives pretty easily. Home base is 17" wide, which is equivalent to 1.42 feet (or -0.71 to 0.71). However, only the edge of the baseball has to be in the zone for it to be a strike. A baseball is 2.9" wide, half that is 1.45", which is equivalent to 0.12 feet. Add that to the edge, and you get -0.83 to 0.83 feet. Decimal feet represent y'all.

For the twin pitches, I wonder how much of that is an overlap in the respective break ranges of the pitches more than the actual pitches being the same. One pitcher's cutter may have a median break of a certain value, and another's slider may have a very different median break, but those two may overlap on opposite sides of their respective ranges. So when you find "twin pitches", it would be interesting to then compare all of the cutters from that one pitcher to all of the sliders from the other one to see what the break distributions look like. Are they really always similar, or are they mostly different with rare cases of overlap?

I love this video. 2024 has been the worst I’ve ever seen. Last year they started to get used to the square and they gave up on it. So brutal to watch cuz the players are playing a different game than the viewers.

I would like to see a deep dive on how days off affects players, I was watching the braves game and they were talking about the duvall/kelenic platoon. kelenic was playing after 3 days off and went like 0/4 with 3 K's. The braves were also complaining about the NLDS against the phillies last year and how the days off were bad for them. It made me curious if days off were actually bad for players, or maybe good because of rest days. could look at platoons/all star break/playoff break/etc.. for data.

i would LOVE to see a Angel umped game whenever/if the ABS thing comes to the bigs, how many times batters will want the pitch checked, will be hilarious to see.