One of the most famous umpires of all time, Angel Hernandez, is retiring from the MLB at age 62. He has been involved in many controversies throughout his career.
He is known as one of the worst umpires of all time, accused of making some of the worst calls behind the plate in MLB history. His critics said he was not just inaccurate, but inconsistent with calls, not having a true strike zone for pitchers to adjust to.
His statistics can be looked at through a popular website called Umpire Scorecards, which rates MLB umpires on how accurate and consistent their calls are throughout a game.
Hernandez has a pitch-calling accuracy of 93.2 percent, which ranks him 67th out of all 85 umpires who have appeared in the big leagues this year. His consistency is worse, coming in at 93 percent and ranking 70th out of 85.
His expected correct call differential is his worst statistic, at -5.5 and ranking 76th. All of that is just from this year; he has had many other bad seasons earlier in his career.
Since joining the Major League staff in 1993, he has worked three All-Star Games (1999, 2009 and 2017), 12 Divisional Series, eight Championship Series and two World Series (2002 and 2005). Players and coaches have been begging the MLB to stop allowing him to umpire anymore games for years.
Statistically he is not the worst umpire that fans have ever seen, but according to public opinion he is most famously known for missing the most calls behind the plate in MLB history.
Now that he is gone, teams can relax and not worry about ever seeing him again. But other questions are being asked: Are umpires necessary? Should games be called by computers?
The future may provide the answer.
