Thirty years ago when I was scoring lots of games for the fledgling STATS, Inc. I knew the names of all the AL umpires. Today, I just seem to know the ones who are not very good:
Early in Friday’s 10-5 loss to the Braves, Bryce Harper did not like a pitch veteran home plate umpire Laz Diaz called a strike. He indicated as much with his body language at home plate, but continued the at-bat without event. As he stood in center field shortly after, Harper saw a similar pitch called a ball, and threw his arms to the sky. Diaz noticed, didn’t like it, and told the Nationals dugout as much.
When Harper ran off the field between innings, Diaz walked up the third base line toward him, and started hollering at him. Harper kept his head down and went into the dugout, ignoring Diaz’s screams. Umpires do not generally chase down players like that, and Manager Dave Martinez felt the whole thing was out of line. But the trouble did not stop there.
Diaz then called a pitch well outside the zone a strike the next time Harper batted. There was a further confrontation, this time involving Dave Martinez as well, but no one was tossed. (The part about not getting tossed makes for a very interesting read.) I know Harper complains a lot about calls, and sometimes not very nicely. He’s not the first hitter to do that, and he won’t be the last, and like other great hitters before him, probably has a better eye for the strike zone than most umpires. Still, that’s no reason for a revenge strike call. I agree with Dave Martinez that MLB should take look at that pitch.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2QBf2Mn
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