Ump show: Angel Hernandez’s worst nightmare is about to become reality
For more than 30 years, Angel Hernandez has terrorized major league baseball with his terrible performances behind home plate. His inability to consistently and accurately call balls and strikes defies belief. His ability to keep his job could be a case study in the unbelievable.
Appreciate these final displays of ineptitude because the automated strike zone is coming. The days of strikes that are called balls and balls that are called strikes are numbered for Hernandez and his fellow nightmare-inducing umpire colleagues like C.B. Bucknor, Hunter Wendelstedt, Doug Eddings, Ron Kulpa and….you know what, we better stop there before the list fills this whole page.
Bob Nightengale dropped that nugget into his latest notebook pointing out how the automated strike zone, “which is definitely coming within the next two years,” will limit catcher-interference injuries like the one suffered by Willson Contreras.
It’s only a matter of time before MLB institutes automated ball-strike system
The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system is currently being tested in the minor leagues. Major league pitchers making rehab stints have already gotten to experience it (Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta is not a fan).
Another day, another dollar behind the plate for Angel Hernandez, a man who has somehow sued MLB and gotten away with it. Perhaps even more impressive is just how terrible Hernandez is behind the plate on a regular basis. He is the best argument imaginable for an automated balls and strikes system, otherwise known as ABS or robo umps.
Hernandez is almost always trending on social media for his failure to perform even the most basic aspects of his job. He also loves being the center of attention, which leads to confrontations with players and managers for no important reason.
Angel’s most recent botch job game on Sunday, when the Boston Red Sox played the Minnesota Twins. While Boston won easily, which is likely why neither team complained after the fact, the Red Sox received at least one run’s worth of an advantage, per umpire scorecards. That’s…a lot.
