The Blue Jays are down two games to none in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series against the Indians and outfielder Jose Bautista isn’t happy about it. Mike Vorkunov, a contributor to various publications including USA TODAY, reported this on Sunday evening:
Jose Bautista implied today that there are "circumstances" working against the Jays & we're not talking about whatever they are. #postseason pic.twitter.com/cbTfN7gqws
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) October 16, 2016
I’ve always been a fan of “Hanlon’s razor,” which says (paraphrasing), “don’t attribute to malice that which is more easily explained by stupidity.” It’s a lot easier to defend the assertion that umpires just make mistakes. Sometimes, for no reason at all, a disproportionate amount of calls will go against a particular team. It would be more questionable if umpires evenly distributed all of their mistakes. On the other hand, it’s much, much more difficult to link poor officiating to a grand conspiracy against a particular team.
This is, of course, humoring Bautista’s implied narrative that a disproportionate amount of calls have gone against the Jays in the ALCS. Which, I don’t know. Maybe. Probably not.
If Bautista’s implied claim is unfounded, which it almost certainly is, Major League Baseball can’t sit by and let one of its most recognizable players undermine the legitimacy of its contests.
Update (7:30 PM EDT): Mike Gianella of Baseball Prospectus did the legwork.
Diaz missed 17 of those 21 calls. Nine hurt the Jays. Eight hurt Cleveland
— Mike Gianella (@MikeGianella) October 16, 2016