Umpire Angel Hernandez alleges MLB manipulated reviews to make minorities look bad [View all]

Posted on theathletic.com, June 8, 2022

Angel Hernandez alleged in a legal filing with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that Major League Baseball manipulated its internal umpiring metrics to disadvantage minorities, thereby excluding them from becoming crew chiefs.

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Hernandez claimed MLB has a history of discriminating against minority umpires, pointing out that as of the filing of his lawsuit, there had only been one minority crew chief in the league’s 150 years (Richie Garcia) — though that number has grown in the years since. There are 19 umpiring crews, each with four umpires, one of whom is a crew chief. In the appeal brief filed this week, seeking an overrule of the lower court judge’s dismissal, he also raised the argument that MLB not only looked the other way on its lack of diversity, but it altered the season-ending umpiring reports to justify this behavior.

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Herandez is a controversial umpire, at times known for missed calls and confrontations with players and managers. His lawyer, Kevin Murphy, said he would like to refute these claims with the umpire evaluation forms, but they are covered under a protective order issued by the lower court.

“I wish I wasn’t under a protective order because baseball has the statistical analysis on balls and strikes and replay,” he said. “Take this year for instance. Angel missed his first call the other day in two months. … The guy’s got an awful lot of courage. Doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t whine. He’s taking a lot of unnecessary wrongful abuse. And I just hope the Second Circuit gives us a chance to air it out in the courtroom.”

MORE: https://theathletic.com/3355774/2022/06/08/mlb-umpire-angel-hernandez-lawsuit/

Could be a valid point. But as far as Hernandez goes, he's at the very top of the list of worst/inconsistent officials in the league. When he's announced as home plate umpire you can darn near hear eyeballs rolling throughout the stadium.

From the link: The league consistently denied it discriminated and said Hernandez’s failure to ascend to crew chief or get a World Series assignment was due to his lack of leadership.

Though ...

Hernandez has suggested that MLB executive Joe Torre has a grudge against him based on a call he made against the New York Yankees while Torre was the team's manager.

We've all seen a lot of bad calls and inconsistent strike zones from this guy. He's not well-regarded in baseball.