Dodgers: Controversial Umpire Angel Hernandez Assigned to the Division Series
The Dodgers and Giants are set to kick things off in the National League Division Series tonight in the Bay Area. After battling it out all year in the NL West, Los Angeles gets their chance at revenge after falling short to the Giants by just 1 game.
And while the worry for the Dodgers lies with the team in the other dugout, there are other factors to consider. The umpiring crews have already been announced for the series, and there are good and bad names to keep an eye on.
One guy in particular is Angel Hernandez. The controversial umpire has made a name for himself in MLB by being…well, pretty awful at his job. Hernandez will be at first base in Game 1 of the series and will slide over to call balls and strikes in game 2.
Umpire assignments for Division Series games pic.twitter.com/Q4vUZJnnV1
— Ryan Fagan (@ryanfagan) October 5, 2021
The Dodgers have some familiarity with him recently after Dave Roberts got tossed by him in a game back in April. Doc argued with Hernandez on a checked swing call after he previously called a balk on Jimmy Nelson.
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Hernandez also ranks as one of the least efficient callers behind the plate. He has consistently rated out very low average in terms of overall accuracy, and he has also been inconsistent in that accuracy. The Dodgers and Giants are going to have to figure it out though, because that will not be changing.
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what is this bandwagoning? taken to ump slaying now
I think the point is that proven BAD umpires should not be rewarded with being allowed to be an umpire in any playoff series. There are plenty of better umpires in the league.
Apparently you’ve never seen Angel Hernandez umpire. He’s horrible, and literally the only reason he gets Post Season assignments is he’ll sue MLB if he doesnt.
You are 100% correct. He has sued the league before and they don’t want the publicity..
Alas, we all wish we could be so bad at our jobs and still get paid $450,000 plus per diem and travel.
Nowadays-Why are umpires NOT rated? Every single ballplayer has statistics measuring every level of their performance like crazy! Batting avg.-obp-strikeout ratio-era-sugging pct-rbi-etc…. So why can’t umpires have some sort of rating system? It doesn’t have to be shown to us every game (like an error/hit may be judged for the players) butt when you get to these critical games that are SOOO important why is a top performing umpire not given preference over a blind-dumb-less efficient ump? These games mean SOOO much to us fans!
This guy shouldn’t even be allowed to umpire little league games
Dodgerglenn, I couldn’t agree with ya more. He’s ythe worst choice for ANY league, big or small and my concern is he plays favorites for any team that faces the Dodgers. But that’s the state of MLB right now.
Forget about umpire tomorrow -!home plate umpire tonight is no bargain either – he has called a number of pitches by Webb strikes that were clearly outside the box (2 on Will Smith in his first at bat) the fact that our hitters know he calls outside pitches strikes increases the chasing – I think our hitters have to try to go to opposite field on this pitcher
Remember, the”box” onlh exists on tv. The bix the umpire sees in his head might be different. What matters most is consistency, and he was.
He was consistent in calling Webb’s pitches several inches and even a foot off the edge of the plate strikes – that’s for sure – and it certainly helped rack up Webb’s strikeout count. The Dodgers should have picked up on that immediately and laid off swinging at all that stuff that was way outside the strike zone and they showed very little patience or discipline at the plate. But I do feel they were forced into that situation by the umpire’s very questionable and generous outside edge strike zone for Webb.
Dodgers’ offense did almost nothing to help Buehler and that was hard to watch. They did not show up. Unfortunately, Webb was dealing; but, to add insult to injury, Posey and Crawford hit their amazing homeruns. The Dodgers have got to do better tomorrow because this game was really disappointing and I hope it is not a sign of things to come.
B McP, when will Dodgers figure out how to pitch to Posey? It’s as if he has all the scouting reports himself that Dodgers have and knows every one of our pitchers pitches ahead of time. Not to mention he appears to know very well how to call a game against Dodger hitters. About as pathetic a game as I’ve watched all year.
Paul, Posey is the only current Giant I really like. Not that I have anything against the other ones. He is that good offensively and defensively. He will be going into the HOF just like Kershaw some day. The best way to pitch him is to leave nothing out over the plate. If you walk him, so be it.
I begrudgingly like Posey becasue he is such a great player, even though he always seems to have the Dodger’s number. I won’t forgive Roberts for letting Buehler pitch to Posey on a 3-0 count with two out, a runner on third, and and first base open. Granted, it was only the first inning, but all I could hear in my mind after Posey’s home run was Vin Scully saying “why would you throw a fast ball down the middle in that situation.”
Call Pedro Cerrano and Jobu. Somebody better wake up these Dodger bats or it’s over.
I live in the SF Bay but I bleed Dodger blue for over 50 plus years. Angel Hernandez is well known up here as the worst too. His calls tonight in the loss didn’t come into play fortunately. But it’s a 5 game series. For those that don’t know, there are rumors why he hasn’t got fired and why he gets post season games. Some years back a rumor says he “supposedly” filed a grievance against MLB for disciplining him and not giving him playoff games. It really was because he is in fact one of the worst umpires of all my lifetime. But Angel Hernandez thinks its for we will say something else. So people should do some research on him and maybe you can figure it all out.
that’s right go on believing that , both pitchers had the same strike zone. the diff between a veteran is when he gets in a jam , he thinks how do I get out of this , NOT as you are doing “how did I get into this jam” by blaming the ump.
Hernandez is a joke
Notice what Umpire ISN’T in any Series? Ed Hickox. You know, the M0ron who can’t tell what is or isnt a check swing.
I usually have counter-arguments to most critical comments here. Sadly, I have none for game 1’s pathetic offensive display by the Dodgers. Truly disappointing. The unfortunate trend for poor offensive performance in Buehler starts, as it has been all year, reappeared in game 1. Let’s all hope that the equally strong offensive performance during Urias starts continues as well in game 2!
How about balls being called strikes over and over. At some point batters started swinging knowing it didn’t matter at least there was a chance to get a hit. Quality fair umps are an absolute necessity. Players, fans, are held hostage to their bad calls.
The hands down worst umpire of all time just retired……the obnoxious and incompetent CowFace Joe West. Angel now inherits that distinction. He’s a joke and will in some way, shape or form have a negative and possibly game changing impact in this series. Hopefully it’s the Giants that suffer as a result of this moron being allowed to participate in any thing other than a 60+ softball game
On another note, with few exceptions like Posey, Bryant, Crawford and a couple of others, very few Giants have ever experienced the pressure playoff baseball brings. On the other hand, the Dodgers have been there and done every year for close to a decade. Based on what I saw last night, you could have fooled me
Bobbyd, while I have bristled at some of your past comments, this one so spot on! Couldn’t agree more. I’m hoping like heck game 1 can be attributed to a great pitching performance. Webb hadn’t lost a start since May 5th according to TBS. I know I’m biased, but it sure seemed to me Webb’s strike zone was much much larger than Buehler’s was. Did anyone else think so?
The only good umpire is a…..well, they are so few and far between. It’s time that the NL accepts the DH and some kind of accurate machine that replaces these incompetently fat, frustrated, and overly paid nuisances to the game. They change a games flow and have hitters swinging at bad pitches to compensate for the bad calls. It’s their power game. The teams have to make a real stand against them and their overly high count of bad calls. Enough already. They are ruining the game.
Hernandez is terrible. Good umpires are barely noticed. Bad umps are remembered and are front and center. Just wait and see, Hernandez will end up with some kind of controversial call. It seems as though he wants to upstage the players and make the game all about himself!