The pitchers mound is one of the few places where it is permissible to assault someone and, at worst, you get eight days of unpaid leave while missing a single start. Last night, when Yordano Ventura threw his hardest pitch of the night, a 99 mph fastball, into Manny Machado's mid-section, Ventura knew very little could happen to him. Manny though could miss eight games or maybe more if the pitch happened to break a rib or a wrist or maybe ride high and end a career.
It is easy to blame Ventura, but to some extent more blame should rest on the Royals organization for failing to reign him in or to act ethically and jettison him for his behavior. Ned Yost, the manager for the Royals, at best suggested that some of the players on the team might be annoyed with Ventura's behavior, but nothing more. Ventura has established a pattern and not much has been done.
To Orioles fans, this might seem familiar. In 1998, Armando Benitez drilled Tino Martinez in the back, which led to a crazy brawl. The Orioles, displaying incredible class, took responsibility for the incident. Manager Ray Miller personally apologized to the Yankees. Peter Angelos called up George Steinbrenner and expressed his sincere regrets. It was also noted that Angelos then instructed the front office to get rid of Benitez when it was first convenient. He was later traded in a one for one deal, netting the club Charles Johnson.
Of course, netting out the right punishment for a pitcher who assaults a batter is important as is an organization taking responsibility for the poor behavior of its employees. However, I would suggest that the larger issue is a sport that loosely condones hit batsmen as punishment for violating hazily understood unwritten rules and customs. It is difficult to take baseball seriously, including the players, when they harp about the danger of a 99 mph thrown at a player while also insisting on baseball being a periodically violent game.
In the end, the Orioles will suffer a bit with Manny being out for a week or so. They will benefit from him not breaking any bones. Articles like this will gnash teeth. The front office of MLB will condemn the behavior of both players and pretend that the suspensions placed upon them has a deterrent effect. In a game that sees the pointlessness of hard slides at home and second, it should also see the inherent disadvantages in supporting a player vigilante culture where bone-headed players like Ventura assume any negative imprint on his gentle disposition is grounds for assault.
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Last year, I suggested an approach to treat hit by pitches as equal without intent. Click here to read that.
Here's a simple rule change I'd like to suggest: Under the following circumstances, the pitcher will be automatically ejected for hitting a batter.
ReplyDelete1. If the previous at-bat resulted in a home run (this has retaliation written all over it);
2. If this is the 3rd (or even 2nd) consecutive plate appearance that results in a HBP ("your control is too wild to continue pitching");
3. If the pitch is a fastball above a certain speed (this is less likely to be accidental); or
4. If the pitch hits the batter at or above the head (same rationale as #2).
Addendum:
ReplyDeleteIf the league judges the HBP to be intentional afterward, the pitcher shall receive the equivalent of "one strike" under the current three-strike rule for PEDs (and receive a long suspension accordingly). For example, if you are caught with a banned substance twice and beanball somebody once, you're out of the MLB.
I added my column on a new way to deal with HBP at the end of the above article. http://camdendepot.blogspot.com/2015/09/it-is-time-to-suspend-all-hbps-equally.html
ReplyDeleteUntil a player sues MLB nothing will change
ReplyDeleteLawsuit would also have to include MLBPA.
ReplyDeleteThis is largely a CBA issue.
Regardless, it's a joke that Ventura is only getting an 8-game suspension (which is really equivalent to 1 since he's a starter) while Machado gets 4.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Ventura isn't being suspended for anywhere close to 80 days says it all: To the MLB, cheating via the use of banned substances is apparently a worse crime than assaulting a player with a deadly weapon. (No, seriously... a 99-mph pitch qualifies. After all, people had actually been killed by baseball pitches before.)