Angel Hernandez called this a swing, a breakdown
What Happened
In the bottom of the 9th inning, the game is tied between the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland Athletics. Tigers rookie first baseman Spencer Torkelson steps up to the plate against the Athletics. Athletics pitcher throws a pitch high and tight, hitting Torkelson on the hands. Umpire Angel Hernandez initially calls it a foul tip, believing the ball hit the knob of Torkelson's bat. Torkelson immediately protests, saying the ball hit his hands. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch comes out to argue, requesting a replay review. However, Hernandez then informs them that he had called it a swing, which makes it a non-reviewable play. Hinch is shocked, repeatedly asking Hernandez "You had a swing?", but Hernandez insists he did call it a swing. Hernandez then turns to Torkelson and tells him that if he swung and the ball hit his hands, it would be a strike. This indicates Hernandez believed Torkelson had swung and the ball hit his hands, despite the clear lack of a full swing. breaks down the play, noting Torkelson's bat barely moved and his reaction was more of a flinch than a swing. points out that if Hernandez had simply said he believed the ball hit the knob of the bat for a foul tip call, that would have been a more understandable decision. However, Hernandez's insistence that it was a swing when Torkelson clearly did not swing is problematic. then highlights a similar incident from a couple years ago, where an umpire called a pitch a foul ball even though it did not appear to hit anything. In that case, the umpire refused to allow a replay review, citing the non-reviewable nature of foul ball calls. contrasts this with another recent incident where an umpire properly checked with the first base umpire on a checked swing call, allowing a replay review that overturned the original safe call to a hit-by-pitch. argues all plays should be reviewable, rather than umpires making subjective calls that cannot be corrected. Overall, showcases the inconsistencies and issues with umpire judgment calls, particularly around checked swings and hit-by-pitch situations, which are not always handled properly under the current MLB replay rules.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentIn the first week of the MLB season, we had two situations where the same problem arose
and we got opposite ends of the situation.
You can see Torkelson's up right now and they're pitching him up and in and that one hits him.
Angel Hernandez says foul tip.
He thinks it hit the knob of the bat.
He says, no, it hit me in my hands.
Hinge says, hold on.
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I forgot to let you know that.
Hinge says, hold on, hold on.
We're going to check it out because my dude says it hits him in the hands.
So we'd like to review it.
Torkelson's on first base.
I'm saying, yeah, no, it got me in the hand.
I can feel it.
I feel it.
So Hinge says, we want to replay.
We want to replay.
And now the second base ump says, hey, did you call a swing?
And Angel Hernandez is like, uh, yeah, I had a swing.
He's like, you had a swing?
Yeah.
And they're like, well, okay, we can't, we can't go to review then.
Yeah.
You can't review a swing call in Major League Baseball.
It's a non-reviewable play.
Don't know why they have those, but they do.
So because it's called a swing, they can't.
Challenge it.
And they go, can't go to replay.
So Hinge comes out and he says he had a swing.
He says, who has a swing?
No way.
Angel, you had a swing?
No way.
What are you talking about?
And Angel says, yeah, I had a swing.
He's like, no, no, no, no, no.
You can't have a swing.
He didn't swing.
He said, that's why you go to help from first base.
You have to get help from first base.
Now he's saying that you got to ask the umpire down at first base.
Was that a swing or not?
Uncheck swings.
Don't just call it yourself.
You know, which the umpires by, by the rule book.
If they.
Think it's a swing.
They're supposed to make that call themselves.
I don't really like that because you're supposed to be watching the ball.
Just go get help when you can.
And then they're still arguing about it.
Angel turns to the batter and he says, it hits you when you swung.
Yeah.
And he's going to say, uh, if you swing and it hits you, it's a strike.
That's kind of a key right here because he's saying that he does think it hit his hand.
But he was swinging.
So initially I thought he called foul tip because he thought it was the knob of the bat.
I would defend Angel Hearn.
And as if that was the situation, he thought he heard the knob of the bat.
I would defend him there.
And I was a ready to, until I went back and rewatch it.
And he's, and he's saying here that he says, no, if it hits you in the hand, it's a strike.
If you swing and it hits you, it's a strike.
So he knows that it hit his hand.
He's saying it hit his hand while he was swinging.
Yeah.
It was a swing.
It's a swing.
So there's only one major problem with that.
This isn't a swing in the slightest.
The bat, look at the bat.
This is as far as it goes.
It's not an attempt to strike the ball.
It's just a little flinch, not a swing.
So I'm upset that Angel said, if it hits you while you swing, it's a strike.
I would have loved if Angel said, I thought it hit the knob of the bat.
So I called it a foul tip.
That's pretty normal.
I would defend him there.
But unfortunately, now I have to show this video of his eyes closing, which is a very
human reaction and normal, but also don't be so adamant about the swing call.
When your eyes are closing.
And that's why the home plate umpire shouldn't call swings.
They should just watch the ball into the glove.
And when it hits the glove, they stop.
Look, this, that's knob of the bat.
And that's a foul ball.
And no one's going to argue that, you know, because that's normal to call it a foul ball
when it hits the knob of the bat like that.
So if Angel had done that, I would have, I would have said, yeah, okay.
It sucks that you can't review it.
That's replays fault and MLB's fault for not making it a reviewable play.
But it's totally understandable that Angel Hernandez thought it was.
Knob of the bat and called it a foul ball.
But then in his video, he says, if it hits your hand, I also brought up this instance
from a couple of years ago where the same thing happened.
That umpire calls this a foul ball.
It's nowhere near his bat, but he called it a foul ball.
It didn't hit anything.
It didn't hit his bat.
It didn't hit his helmet.
Although maybe it did.
And Bud Black is like, that hits you.
And the batter says, no.
And he says, whoa, hang on, hang on.
And he turns to his dugout and the umpire says, no,
you can't ask.
For a review, that's not a reviewable play.
It's a foul ball.
So that's an instance where this happened, where the umpire said, no, that hit his bat.
It's a strike.
And they wanted to review it.
And they couldn't.
This is crazy.
If Angel Hernandez had thought it hit his bat and called a foul tip, foul, a foul ball
strike, I would say, yeah, Angel, that's a fine call because it should go to replay.
But the rules of replay don't allow that to be reviewed.
He didn't.
He said.
If it hits you and you swing, which is true, but he didn't swing so tough.
I was, I was actually going to defend him until I really read his lips.
And then I was like, damn, that stinks.
Here is the other instance where the same thing happened, but it was called a different
way.
It hits Laureano in the hands.
It actually goes into play and the umpire motions.
That's a fair ball.
That's a live ball.
They field it.
They get the out.
Ramon Laureano is like, no, that hit me in the hand.
They come out and they say, okay, yeah, we want to review.
And this umpire says, okay, if you want to review, hold on.
Let me just ask my umpire if he had a swing call and this umpire had no swing.
He said, no, he checked his swing.
The ball was put in play fair.
And he said he checked his swing that allowed them to go to replay and review it.
And he says, yeah, okay, we'll review it.
Then if that's the case, they go review it.
And the umpires came back after review is a call is overturned on the field.
It's.
Hit by pitch.
And Seattle was pissed because they're like, what?
That was a swing.
It shouldn't have been reviewable.
You should have just called it a swing.
Or even if it was reviewable, go look at the review and come back and say it did him in the hand.
But review shows that he fucking went guys.
So we're it's it's it's a ball lies, you know.
You went guys.
So it is what it is.
So two instances of the same thing.
And then I found one.
One from a couple of years ago.
And it's a tricky situation because umpires should call what they naturally think they should call.
But all plays should be reviewable.
And Angel, I was going to defend you until I read your lips and realized that you.
Maybe he tried to change his story halfway through to save face, but he changed it the wrong way.
If he thought he heard knob of the bat, that's totally fair for him to call that.
Instead, he said you swung and it hit you.
But the dude, he didn't.
Swing and it's not his call.
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I appreciate you guys.
Appreciate everyone for watching them.
This was a fun one.
There was a lot of like nooks and crannies.
I just kept adding to it and adding to it and adding to it.
And it was fun.
DraftKings.
Thank you.
See ya.
Goodbye.