The Umpires are getting worse...

[GD]

If 1 call is the difference in a ballgame you deserve to lose!

 

-1 lol, really shortsighted.

[KSaw]

Union is the first answer. And the second is, that if every employer fired people for making mistakes no one would be employed.

 

They aren't unionized. The union was desolved prior the 2000 season. They have an association which is a national labour negotiations board. Umpires can be fired due to performance but there is a process. Under the union, jobs were lock down protected unless there was a morality issue, an off field issue that was criminal, an issue due to criminal or gambling associations, or a health issue.

[o2cui2i]

You ever notice its the same umps that blow the most calls? Its not all umps that are bad.

 

Angel Hernandez

Bob Davidson

Joe West

 

 

those 3 by a country mile are the worst. each with decades of ineptitude.

[KSaw]

Joe West had a very good season last year and has been good this year. He had a pretty good playoffs in 2011 as I recall too. Joe did have health issues for a while and some bad luck in 2010 and 2011 being right in the middle of some weird controversial plays. His strike zone was all wacky for part of 2011 as well. I can tell you definitively that there are umpires who prior to working with Joe West, dreaded the thought due to reputation and from clips on Sportscenter, who after working with him were pleasantly surprised, even impressed.

 

Angel, Bill Miller, Bob Davidson, Laz Diaz-- not good!

[KSaw]

Joe West is only in Toronto once this season. It's the Astros series near the end of July. Bet you notice an improvement from what you remember.

[GD]

Bob Davidson is scum.

[KSaw]

He's not scum. He's just no longer good at his job. Go back a decade and Davidson was good. He has held on far too long.

 

One more point on Joe West, prior to the 2011 playoffs, he had Angel Hernandez on his crew for several years. Last year and in 2013 he has Andy Fletcher, who is quite good and in his mid 40s, along with Rob Drake and Sam Holbrook, who are both darn good as well. It's amazing what happens when your crew mates are good!

[o2cui2i]

Joe West had a very good season last year and has been good this year. He had a pretty good playoffs in 2011 as I recall too. Joe did have health issues for a while and some bad luck in 2010 and 2011 being right in the middle of some weird controversial plays. His strike zone was all wacky for part of 2011 as well. I can tell you definitively that there are umpires who prior to working with Joe West, dreaded the thought due to reputation and from clips on Sportscenter, who after working with him were pleasantly surprised, even impressed.

 

Angel, Bill Miller, Bob Davidson, Laz Diaz-- not good!

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/460914-youre-outta-there-the-worst-umpires-of-major-league-baseball

 

no way you can leave CB Bucknor or country Joe off the s***** list. those boys have been getting coal in their socks their entire lives.

[Metallijay]

Then you have 161 games to make up for it

 

Baseball teams cannot get "screwed" in the regular season, game 7 is a different story which is why they only use the best

 

?? Show me where anyone said anything about losing a season over a bad call,we said 1 game....now your changing your tune because you got called out on your post.

[Nox]

Robo umps plz.

[Boxcar]

Union is the first answer. And the second is, that if every employer fired people for making mistakes no one would be employed.

 

People who make a mistake every time they are at work do get fired, though.

[Boxcar]

I don't know who thinks Angel blew it on purpose to stick it to Melvin. That wouldn't happen. The embarrassment over blowing a call like that and the fine and yes, there will be an undisclosed fine from Charlie Reilford. And then the shadow over his integrity on the field. He didnt blow it on purpose. He's just bad.

 

He's bad at what, though? This goes beyond umpiring. This would not have been blown by 99.9% of the non-blind or vision impaired community. If he has trouble seeing that, how can you possibly let him judge balls and strikes? This was a call he didn't have to make a snap judgment on, so there's literally no excuse for f***ing it up. Now what happens if the A's miss the playoffs by one game? These bad calls have big ramifications, and something needs to be done because it's getting worse and worse each year. Now with the tech available, bad umpiring is becoming much more noticeable.

[Abomination]

I wonder how the average age of the mlb umpires has changed over the last 30 or so years, and if it correlates to the bad calls?

[o2cui2i]

That article seems to zero in on guys with one significant call in their history, which doesn't make them bad umpires per se. Balkin' Bob, CB Bucknor, Angel Hernandez and Cowboy Joe West are definitely terrible.

 

the very beginning of the article says that it is a "TOP 3" and just adds a couple more to get a list out of it.

[o2cui2i]

People who make a mistake every time they are at work do get fired, though.

 

if a cook goes to work and randomly grills steaks to whatever he thinks is fitting and rarely serves anyone the steak they ordered, he's gonna get canned. but the cook wont fire himself. the customers need to complain and threaten to eat somewhere else enough so the manager fires the cook.

 

teams need to refuse to play with consistently bad umps for things to change.

[96-66 Jays]

Its still happening. How can they allow a second pitching change before the first pitcher hasnt even faced a batter??

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130510&content_id=47135778&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

[RickJay]

I'm not sure which is worse, the Angel Hernandez debacle or the pitching change idiocy. They're both stupid in such different ways.

 

Dan Shulman sure gets one thing right, though; the video review should not be done by the umps, it should be done by an independent official in MLB's head office.

 

That said, maybe not everyone here remembers, but umpiring actually used to be WORSE than this. I know that's hard to believe, but prior to the Great Quitting, you had a lot of old umpires from the 1960s-1970s school who were often not only lousy umps, but almost all of them were belligerent prima donnas. Imagine a whole league of umps like Cowboy Joe West and Angel Hernandez. Nowadays you don't even know 80% of them because they're professionals who keep their heads down, which is the way it should be. Back in the day, there were too many Cowboy Joes. No ump today is as incompetent as Eric Gregg.

[KSaw]

Easy to pick on Eric Gregg. The guy whipped through the minors built like a linebacker and was an outstanding umpire. He developed an eating disorder, gained over 100 pounds and couldn't run, get in position to make calls or even crouch properly behind the plate. It was more sad than anything. You want old school incompetence? I present you with Greg Kosc.