Gerry Fraley points out something I can’t believe I missed: Major League Baseball has split up crew chief Joe West and over-zealous cohort Angel Hernandez to start the second half.
Hernandez has been moved on to Gerry Davis’ crew and switched spots with Sam Holbrook.
West’s crew had become notorious for hot-headedness this season. In the eight days leading up to the All-Star break alone, they had issued six ejections. Overall, they had ejected 17 players and managers despite already having a week-long break in June. That’s five more ejections than any other crew had issued.
Hernandez is typically voted baseball’s worst ump whenever those kinds of polls come along, and while West’s reputation isn’t so bad, he has a long history of bumping chins given any provocation at all. Hopefully, both will be a little calmer apart than they were together.
