News station's criticism of Dodgers' Kiké Hernández exposes weak ball knowledge

The Los Angeles Dodgers are set to visit the White House on July 23 to celebrate their second consecutive World Series victory. Dave Roberts has confirmed that he and most of his players plan to attend, but two notable exceptions have already bowed out, Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández.

Betts said he planned to spend the off day with his family, especially his newborn daughter. "If I do [go], people are gonna hate me. If I don't, people are gonna hate me," he said. "So instead of trying to make everyone else happy, I'm gonna think about myself and my family."

Hernández hopes to be on a minor league rehab assignment while the Dodgers are on their three-series East Coast road trip, but when asked if he would've gone to the White House if available, he said, "Probably not."

This, unsurprisingly, didn't go over well with everyone. Fox News personality Joe Concha took a second on host Tomi Lahren's show to be loud and wrong about Hernández. "This guy ... not exactly key to the Dodgers winning their World Series — .237 lifetime hitter. This ain't Freddie Freeman, it's not Ohtani."

Kiké Hernández has been key to the Dodgers' postseason runs of late

Regardless of your politics, every single Dodgers fan (and Red Sox fan, for that matter) knows that this is an objectively wrong take (and Concha using lifetime batting average as a key stat to represent a player immediately exposes his elementary-level ball knowledge).

Hernández has been hurt almost all season, but as long as he's healthy enough for October, the Dodgers will continue to re-sign him for their equivalent of pennies — anywhere between $4-7ish million.

To use Concha's preferred stat, Hernández is a .272 career postseason hitter (.826 OPS) over 103 games and 10 postseasons. He is the franchise record holder for most postseason games played in Dodger blue. Even when the bat isn't fully living up to expectations, the glove is. Need we remind everyone of the game-winning double play he turned in Game 6?

The Dodgers keep signing Hernández because he has a reputation in baseball, not just among Dodgers fans, of coming alive during the postseason. Teams that face LA in the postseason know he's a threat. He's kept his career alive this long in part because of what he can do in October.

Just admit that you don't follow baseball and walk away next time.

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