E129 - Kevin Long Ejected After Losing Battle Against Rob Drake's Strike Zone 

The sticky situation video had several, but this was a good one, too.

Drake hasn’t had any balls since Yadier Molina hawk tuah’d and spittled on that thang a few years ago.

Don't you mean Cival War?

Not to mention all the military/battle metaphors

Still waiting to see you strap up the gear and call 100+mph gas with movement, though...

@@1969EType C'mon, even Drake doesn't want to touch this beef.

They have to go an electronic strike zones, as these umps are screwing up a batter's head.

@@BrawlStars70000 how many games have you done behind plate and at what level?

Yeah, if you want the league batting average to drop 25 points, do that

Called working the slot it’s how you do it

@@terroristhunter5464except he did it poorly and missed obvious calls.

Completely intentional. A) fewer foul balls come back in that area so it safer, and B) if your head is right above the catcher’s, you’re gonna lose a lot of depth on the bottom of the strike zone

Tell us you have zero umpiring experience without telling us you have zero umpiring experience. Every umpire from 8U all the way up to the majors works in the slot.

You must be new here….

12 misses, including one greater than 4 inches after three innings is just bad. Two players punched out on a third strike ball in the same inning and Marsh struck out on one actual strike. Bad behavior is wrong, for sure. But that was Angel Hernandez level bad by Drake. And he is crew chief…no wonder Angel felt like MLB did him wrong!

@@davidm8657 so how many games have you called and at what level? He ‘missed’ in same spot repeatedly. Obviously to him, that day in that position those pitches looked like strikes. Four inches is a small distance when judging the exact location of a baseball relative to the plate, and the batter as if is flying by at 90ish mph. Note he does not get to watch from multiple angles nor does he have a CGI box over home plate. He’s a human being. Ball and strike judgement calls and dealing with them is a part of baseball. Dealing with these calls by throwing temper tantrums is childish and should not be tolerated. (Stand by for someone to retort that these calls were REALLY BAD soooooo….” 😩)

@@erniepeters1695 My lack of being a MLB umpire is irrelevant and your argument that the ump is human, while true is equally irrelevant. He had a very poor performance - no more, no less. Consistently missing calls to that extent Is just bad. I didn’t disparage Drake as a person and I don’t think you should be doing that either. Unless you think he called a good game, you are just arguing for the sake of arguing. Let it go - he was bad that day. A lot of my home team players were also bad too.

@@davidm8657 your lack experience as an actual umpire is quite relevant. Having “a good game” means following mechanics and proper rules application. Insofar as balls and strikes… go back there yourself and tell me the difference of four inches. While making sure none of a dozen other infractions are committed by the batter, the catcher, or the pitcher. That pitch he repeatedly called a strike obviously was a strike in his view, But you see… his performance is really not the point. The point is that for many, a perception that the umpire has made a bad call becomes the justification for any and all bad behavior by coaches and players. Most people miss my point and go right back to berating the sports official.

The color guy is John Kruck, a former MLB player who has a lifetime batting average of.300 He knows what a ball and a strike is. You sound like a frustrated little league umpire pissed you never advanced and make 25 bucks a game.

We haven't heard from CB in a while...

@@thomasboyd6242 The strike zone shouldn't change based on the guy calling balls and strikes. It's time for automation to at least challenge these bad calls.

@@michaelmaxwell5571 you can’t expect imperfect human beings to be perfect!!! Every zone varies a little bit from person to person! A professional would adapt and be smart!!! As for an automatic zone, it will ruin the game!!!

Why even bother having a strike zone then? Why have rules?! "You think if it's thrown off the plate it's a ball? WE LIED!!" Sorry, I'm here to watch baseball. Not Calvinball.

@@Volante31921 well you’ve got carnival ball the way they play now a days!!!

Turner and Stott were called out on pitches in the other batter's box, how are they supposed to "adjust" to that?

@@volodymyrzablotsky5372 You are using present tense incorrectly.

They're not the Naps anymore?

Remember in the 1990s when FOX started broadcasting the NFL and they introduced the yellow chryon graphic of the 1st down line? And what have we heard for the past 30 years any time there is a close play at the first down line? "And folks...we want to remind you that the yellow line is NOT official..." MLB needs to do the same for the strike one box because that box, like the yellow line on the NFL games is NOT OFFICIAL. Furthermore, the box displays the strike zone as a vertical plane. By rule the strike zone is a vertical POLYGON in the shape of homeplate. If any part of a legally pitched ball is over the plate AND meets the vertical requirements by the umpire...that's a strike. MLB pitchers can work the ball 6" left and right so, at that level it's possible to bend the ball "around the vertical strike zone plane" back over the plate and that is a strike too but, the software frequently plots those as balls if the do not "break the vertical plane" and that is incorrect.

I’m surprised he got as much as he did.

They absolutely go the other way, especially when the pitcher is wild. Painting the corners gets called as balls if you haven't shown the ability to throw strikes.

That absolutely doesn't happen. Go to 1:26 and you'll see the missed calls report.