E172 - Astros' Joshua Miller Ejected After Mickey Moniak HBP Replay, Dan Iassogna's No Swing Call 

I deeply enjoy Lindsay's frustration at the Astros broadcast crew not knowing the rules. It's deeply shared by this Astros fan.

Yelling out a cordial profanity at an umpire is a really bad idea. Yelling out a profanity at the crew chief is a death wish. Yelling out a profanity at Dan Issosgna is the definition of a death wish.

Great analysis as always Lindsey but I can only give this a C++

1:30 - Love the "fertilizer" reference. Nice nod to Vin Scully.

I think this coach went out of his way to get tossed. I mean the list that's shown he seemingly tried to catch all of them he could. Certainly a HBP and I could see calling it a swing, but it's a tough one too... Sadly, in this day an age, you don't fire your team up getting tossed. it's no longer a rare thing.

What do you mean the hands are not part of the bat??!? I went to buy a new bat the other day, and I got 50% the price of the hands that came with it. Great deal!!

What volume is this of "Grown Men Throwing Temper Tantrums" ?

Was there ever a check swing appeal? Given it was ruled foul first, that would have negated the check swing appeal. Would that have needed to happen before review? Or once the review came back with HBP, would home plate umpire then ask the base umpire to rule on the swing (unless the home plate umpire decided to make the call themselves as is their decision), and then announce the result?

CB should have come up quickly with a, "Did he go?" And replay never checks "a swing", nor a, "struck at" so it was irrelevant during the review. CB has to get the check in that instance or make the, he went call, himself. In someones opinion

I learned something from this video. Great breakdown!

"Hand is on the bat" and the Hand is on the arm. Arm is on the body. Hit on the body is therefore a batted ball 😂

As far as I can tell Miller never threw a pitch in the major league. Somewhere along the line he gets hired as the Astros pitching coach and gets credit for the pitching staff that won 2022 WS? Seems to have a limited vocabulary.

Literally every single solitary thing in baseball has a ridiculously long set of rules and stipulations to them. I don’t understand how umpires can do it.

Maybe our host could address how E167 is "this is called a foul ball and can't be overturned even if he was HBP" to this one "called foul ball overturned to HBP". Is the rule interpretation dependent on the phase of the moon?

What I still don't understand is players/coaches arguing something that is clearly wrong. I would be ashamed if I went in front of my coworkers yelling about how correct I was ,only to be shown how wrong I was the next morning.

I hate when people say hands are a part of the bat.. it either hit the bat first or the hands. Whichever first unless the batter struck at the pitch

So he moved his hands into the path of the pitch while seemingly attempting to strike at the ball, and was awarded first base. Something is wrong there. As best as I understand it: 1. it was originally called a foul ball. 2. It went to Replay where it was determined that it it hit the hand instead of the bat first, so it could not be a foul ball anymore. 3. At that point, it could be either a HBP or called a ball/strike, depending if the batter met the criteria for HBP and didn't swing at the ball. 4. But replay isn't allowed to look at if the batter attempted to swing, so we magically determine that it was a HBP. Yes, I get the "dead ball when it hits the batter" so we don't look at anything past that, and both fair/foul and HBP are reviewable but attempted swing is not reviewable. That seems like a hole in the replay rules where they can go look at the footage to change a foul ball call to a HBP, but then aren't allowed to look at if the batter was attempting to swing. Even though the original call of foul ball implies that a swing was attempted. This seems to be one of those "technically correct but actually just wrong" situations.

Is this a case of check swing is not reviewable so if not called first it's not considered? Or did NY explicitly decide this as no swing?

Screaming profanities at an umpire, especially when you're wrong, is a terrible idea for anyone on the team. We always here that coaches are "standing up for the players" which is ridiculous. Have an adult discussion with the umpire, get an explanation, then get off the field. It's not like you're going to change the umpire's mind.

Wait. I thought a foul ball wasn't reviewable. If this was called a foul ball, why is it being reviewed?

Situationally, I do not understand the moments that players and coaches choose to die on a hill nor the hills they choose to die on. Once again, the umpires working with replay get this correct. Once again, the rule book (which is available to everyone) is very clear that a batter is not responsible for their actions with regard to a swing or no swing after being HBP. And once again, the manager who has access to the rulebook and should know this rule…is wrong, horribly wrong. And again, situationally you are up 6-1 in the bottom of the 9th…read the room. This is just further proof to add to over 100 years of proof that managers love nothing more than verbally abusing the umpires on ANY and EVERY call that goes against their club whether the umpires got it right or wrong. MLB managers need to find some new material because their act is old and has been old for decades now. What other line of work do we allow people to be verbally abused on the regular? As in, that’s all part of the job of you making it to MLB as an umpire? Nobody loves The Game of baseball more than the umpires. Why else would they agree to those working conditions? Just more bread and circuses to distract us from the fact that pro sports is an entertainment platform masquerading as a competitive sport…

WOW! For once, not only are the rules not out to screw the players but the calls were right. Hallelujah!

Swing decision being based on the freeze frame is an obvious flaw in the rules.

Fertilizer - horse or bulls***

Should have been a strike. His intent was clearly to swing at the ball.

Vance Wilson was ejected by David Rackley in Kansas City and Alex Cintron was ejected by Brian O Nora in San Diego

I’m calling that a strike on the swing personally.

That’s clearly a strike out in my opinion

The batter was hit by a pitch he was trying to hit. Dead ball strike. I don't see any other option that doesn't make a complete travesty of the game.

The coach. A drama queen.

That's a strike. He swung at the pitch.

I feel like this doesn't actually address the issue at hand. If it's a hit by pitch, then yes, the ball is dead. However, if the batter doesn't make a move to avoid being hit, it isn't a hit by pitch. It should have been a ball. Per the rules: “(1) A batter must attempt to avoid being hit by the pitch. If he does not attempt to avoid being hit by the pitch then: a) If the ball is outside the strike zone when it touches the batter, the ball is dead, it shall be called a ball and the batter is not awarded first base. b) If the ball is inside the strike zone when it touches the batter, the ball is dead, it shall be called a strike and the batter is not awarded first base.”

As far as I'm concerned, he swung and missed at a pitch he could not possibly hit because it was right on his hands. The fact that it hit his hand a microsecond before the bat was through the zone is secondary. Further arguments against this being a HBP are 1) he clearly struck, or offered, at the pitch, and 2) he made no effort to avoid being hit since he was swinging at the pitch.

He swung at it, should be a foul ball.

First!