Best view of the Diaz swing that ended game 2

posted by u/el_be · 2026-10-25 13:15 UTC

## Top comments
1. u/AutoModerator · 2026-10-25 13:15 UTC
Thank you for making a submission on the r/MLB Subreddit!
Please make sure that your post complies with our subreddit rules. If your submission violates our community rules, please resubmit your post or place it in the appropriate thread(s) to avoid any penalties or punishments.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
2. u/Ambigram237 · 2026-10-25 13:27 UTC
As 1000 people have already stated in the dozens of posts before this one: all of this examination is moot because there’s no actual rule.
3. u/welltimedappearance · 2026-10-25 13:42 UTC
drives me insane that 98% of fans have no goddamn clue. We are gonna keep getting every angle possible to examine something that ISNT IN THE RULES
4. u/el_be · 2026-10-25 14:01 UTC
Right, the official rule is if the batter strikes at/offers at the pitch, so it’s entirely subjective. Viewers/fans always talk about the angles and stuff, but there’s no rule or set distance one way or another. It ultimately comes down to if the ump feels like the batter intended to swing/attempted to swing, and often times people will use these angles and unwritten “rules” to argue one way or another about a swing. This angle just shows how far he went around, and in my opinion, confirms he offered/struck at the pitch therefore making it a strike
5. u/appointment45 · 2026-10-25 14:52 UTC
For decades we didn't look at the bat anyway... we looked at the wrists. Break the wrists, you swung, if the wrists are still cocked you stopped it.
6. u/myfrigginagates · 2026-10-25 14:16 UTC
Agree. When I was a kid and a batter argued a check swing we use to yell at them "Stop griping, if you'd hit it, it woulda been a double"
7. u/timbenj77 · 2026-10-25 17:19 UTC
And in every post about every check-swing call ever, one of the top comments is that there's no real standard.
We know. Everyone knows. At least, everyone that has spent any decent amount of time following baseball.
But this wasn't the first baseball game in history, either. This isn't some novel concept. Umpires don't spend their years living in a bubble. They are capable of communicating with other umpires, managers, players...there are some defacto standards. Any given ump is absolutely looking for key things like bat angle, whether or not the wrists "break", and how much the hips turn.
Personally, I think that if the bat crosses 90 degrees, it's a swing. If there's a realistic possibility that they would have made contact if the ball were thrown in the strike zone...how is it not a swing?
8. u/Coleslawholywar · 2026-10-25 15:39 UTC
To be fair, there was a clear rule about the roof ball in the San Diego series and people still analyzed it to death.
9. u/BlueWarstar · 2026-10-25 16:06 UTC
There is, and the rule simply states they must “offer” at the pitch. So it is up to interpretation though with his bat crossing the plane of the plate AND his shoulders being squared up to the pitcher, it was a swing as much as I hated how that game ended.
10. u/TGordion · 2026-10-25 14:28 UTC
What I'm wondering is, did this just recently get discovered? I know Jomboy mentioned it, and that's the reason I asked. Because one of the main reasons I thought that the rule had something to do with the bat's position over the plate or the angle of the wrist is because Jomboy Media so often used that to say if it was a swing in videos
11. u/tinfoilhats666 · 2026-10-25 15:41 UTC
That's sort of the rule of thumb that people use and I think the umpires use, but like everyone else is saying, there isn't a real rule
12. u/HumptyDumptruckFire · 2026-10-25 15:49 UTC
It’s weird that the system they’re trialing in MiLB isn’t even either of these rules because I’m pretty sure that’s how the umpires determine a checked swing, too.
13. u/Constant-Visit-1330 · 2026-10-25 13:49 UTC

Hope this helps.
14. u/JornLuv · 2026-10-25 13:52 UTC
Plane looks broken to me 🤔
15. u/ButkusHatesNitschke · 2026-10-25 14:35 UTC
Plain as all day.
16. u/_platy_ · 2026-10-25 14:12 UTC
Also the 3rd time he’s checked swinged like that in the playoffs and first time he’s been called for it.. should have been called all 3 times imo.
17. u/Witty-Instance8381 · 2026-10-25 13:58 UTC
https://giphy.com/gifs/l1J9wXoC8W4JFmREY
18. u/DrWiggle46 · 2026-10-25 14:08 UTC

19. u/MathProf1414 · 2026-10-25 14:15 UTC

20. u/tailstalestails · 2026-10-25 14:55 UTC
Even easier than this is the bat direction. The bat head is clearly more forward than the handle so he swung and didn’t check. Parallel or a delayed bat head and the swing is checked.
(Just a fan, not a pro, this theory comes from watching too many games.)