Charlie’s News At Five: 16th June 2013
Charlie takes a look at five of the hottest stories currently in baseball. This week, an almighty bench-clearing brawl, an impressive landmark, a standout player hits the DL, a team defying its critics, and MLB turns up the heat on the “Biogenesis” clinic.
1. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks “slug it out”
On Tuesday the 11th June, the LA Dodgers faced the Arizona Diamondbacks. The starting pitchers were Zach Greinke and Ian Kennedy. For four innings it looked like just a normal baseball game.
Then the fifth inning happened.
With Cody Ross up to bat, Greinke hit Ross with a pitch. In the following inning, Kennedy hit Yasiel Puig with a pitch that grazed his nose. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Greinke retaliated by hitting Miguel Montero in the back. This led to the benches clearing for the first time. Although some heated words were exchanged, no physicality was undertaken.
In the bottom of the seventh, Kennedy hit Greinke on the ear. Luckily, for Greinke, it was the ear over which his batting helmet flap covers, but still resulted in Kennedy thrown out of the game. This time, however, the benches cleared and all hell broke loose; players, as well as coaches, getting involved in a massive mêlée.
Once order was restored, Puig and the Dodgers’ hitting coach, Mark McGwire, were ejected, as well as Ronald Belisario. For Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson and coach Turner Ward were also forced to leave the game.
On Thursday, MLB announced a list of suspensions and fines in light of the brawl – Max Whittle also gave in depth analysis of the incident on his weekly UKAmericanSportsFans.com MLB podcast.
LA were also fined for its players on the DL coming off the benches to get involved in the scuffle. Players on the DL, are not allowed onto the field of play as per MLB rules.
Reactions from the two teams towards the punishments were mixed.
Multiple Arizona players including, David Hernandez, Daniel Hudson and Brandon McCarthy took to Twitter to make known that they felt some of the suspensions were unfair. Their main focus of frustration was the five game suspension for Hinske.
The Diamondbacks felt that he was trying to be a peacemaker, rather than an instigator, and that therefore his suspension was unfair. They also felt that, some Dodgers who were fined, should of been suspended. Seemingly, Yasiel Puig, avoided a suspension, due to being hit in the face during his at bat. In the replay of the incident, he can be seen running into the scrum, and getting involved in the brawl.
The Dodgers were generally understanding about the fines and suspensions, with Don Mattingly commenting that he “understands his suspension”, although Howell and Schumaker are in the process of appealing their suspensions.
This will not, in my opinion, be the end of the matter though. Baseball players have a long memory. The NL West is also currently tightly packed and every win literally matters. With bad blood, still seething beneath the surface, there could be further fireworks to come, in future meetings this year between these two bitter NL West rivals.
2. Andy Pettitte wins his 250th game
The 8th June 2013 may be a date that Andy Pettitte never forgets. He became the 45th pitcher in baseball history to join the 250-win club. He achieved his win with a strong 7-and-a-third innings effort, struck out six, while only allowing one earned run and three hits as Yankees beat Mariners 3-1.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Pettitte is the 24th pitcher to reach the 250-win plateau since 1944, leading all active pitchers in wins, with Tim Hudson and Roy Halladay tied for second place with 201 wins each.
With the advent of specialist relievers and managers, being ever more careful with their starting pitchers, 250 wins is becoming an ever rarer achievement. In the past, 300 wins was seen as one of the benchmarks unofficially required for a pitcher to be a “no doubt” hall of famer. In the future, 250 wins could easily become that benchmark.
3. Troy Tulowitzki lands on the DL
On Thursday 13th June, Troy Tulowitzki broke a rib while diving for a ball, against the Washington Nationals. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.
Thinking about the best players in Baseball, there are few you can argue about in a certain position; not so for the short stop position with Tulowitzki cementing himself as the best short stop in baseball.
This is evidenced by an average of a batting average of .296, 29 home runs, and 105 RBIs per 162-game season.
Tulo, a two-time gold glove winner, is also known as being one of the best fielding short stops in the game, ranking 3rd in MLB with a 6.2 UZR rating in 2013.
However, unable to stay consistently healthy as from 2007-12, he managed to only 120 games, in three of those seasons.
The Rockies have been unexpected contenders so far this year, but losing their talismanic short stop could be critical as without Tulo, their record goes 85–108.
4. The Swingin A’s
Nobody doubted the quality of the A’s starting rotation and bullpen going into 2013. Oakland’s cumulative starting pitching ERA is 3.99 which is ranked 15th. Given the quality of the arms in that rotation, I would expect that to keep decreasing as the season rolls on.
The Oakland bullpen ranks 4th in MLB, with a cumulative ERA of 2.90, definitely lived up to its billing.
This leaves the Oakland offense. With some hitters having career years in 2012, a good portion of analysts were unsure about how the offense would perform this year.
Led by phenom Yoennis Cespedes, breakout shortstop Josh Donaldson, and first baseman Brandon Moss, it’s performing better than what most analysts expected, cumulatively rank 7th in runs in MLB, 9th in RBIs and 7th in OBP.
Oakland currently has a 41-28 record in the AL West, and leads the Texas Rangers by 2.5games. With the starting rotation, likely to improve, and with an offense that has proven itself legitimate since the 2012 season, the A’s in my opinion, must be looked at as definite contenders.
5. MLB increases pressure on Biogenesis
Tuesday saw Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan report that MLB may use testimonies from minor league players linked to Biogenesis, to help in their case against major league players. Minor leaguers not on their team’s 40-man roster are not given the protection by the MLPA, which MLB players get.
Therefore MLB can “throw the book” at these minor leaguers. Case in point is Cesar Carillo, who received a 100 game ban. Half for lying to MLB, half after his name was found in Tony Bosch’s logbook.
The second development was that a Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge, refused a motion to dismiss MLB’s lawsuit against Tony Bosch and his associates. Carlos Acevedo (a Bosch associate) and Biokem, alleged that MLB had violated the statute of limitations. Adriana Riviere-Badell, representing MLB, stated that the duration of 2009 -2012 in which Acevedo had worked with Bosch, was within the statute of limitations.
The Biogenesis investigation is seemingly turning into a “watershed” moment, for MLB and its war on PEDs.
