| PRO On a slow day, give me your opinions on this (MLB related)

Brandon Van de Graaff

A defensive deity, inventor of the Concussion.
Staff
This happened Friday night. Pretty much all the info you’ll need is in the video, but there’s history between the Marlins/Acuña and it was the first pitch of the game. Did the umpires handle it correctly in your opinion? I say, no.

(This link is from the Marlins broadcast, FWIW… haven’t seen a full video from the Braves side, but the commentary doesn’t really have a bearing how it should be handled anyway)

 
He should have waited til the second pitch.

Did they handle it correctly? IMO, yes. The umps got together and discussed it. We don’t know what they said, but it wasn’t a quick decision.
 
Marlins mishandled it. If you wanted to plunk Acuna, hit him with the second or even third pitch. Hitting him with the first was entirely too obvious. Umpires getting together to discuss wa the right thing to do and ultimately, tossing Mattingly and the pitcher was also the right call.
 
I guess I'm too old school. I don't really get why it matters what pitch it is (other than optics, which shouldn't factor in). If the intent was to hit him (not saying it wasn't), why does it matter if it was pitch #1, #2 or #10.

IMO, you if do anything, issue a warning to the Marlins. Then after Atlanta drills Jazz Chisholm in the ribs (if they want to), you issue a warning to them. Without having warnings issued before the game (and there was no reason to issue them), it was silly to throw him out. Also think the announcers made a valid point, that Acuna handled it as he should have, but Snitker pushed the envelope and caused the ejection (which is what I imagine Mattingly was pissed about, as he should have been). The players will police themselves for the most part if they let them.
 
I guess I'm too old school. I don't really get why it matters what pitch it is (other than optics, which shouldn't factor in). If the intent was to hit him (not saying it wasn't), why does it matter if it was pitch #1, #2 or #10.

IMO, you if do anything, issue a warning to the Marlins. Then after Atlanta drills Jazz Chisholm in the ribs (if they want to), you issue a warning to them. Without having warnings issued before the game (and there was no reason to issue them), it was silly to throw him out. Also think the announcers made a valid point, that Acuna handled it as he should have, but Snitker pushed the envelope and caused the ejection (which is what I imagine Mattingly was pissed about, as he should have been). The players will police themselves for the most part if they let them.
Hitting him on the first pitch gives the perception of intent - it wasn’t an accident - considering the previous bad blood between players and teams.

Umpires in the past have allowed teams and players to skirt rules and sportsmanship with no action taken. More recently they’ve cracked down on bad behavior to take back control of the game. IMO, that’s what they did here. They let both teams know that they will not tolerate poor behavior (whether this event was intentional or not). Snitker may have pushed the envelope, but Mattingly jumped in. If a team/manager can eliminate a key piece of the opponent, that should be a positive.
 
I guess I'm too old school. I don't really get why it matters what pitch it is (other than optics, which shouldn't factor in). If the intent was to hit him (not saying it wasn't), why does it matter if it was pitch #1, #2 or #10.

IMO, you if do anything, issue a warning to the Marlins. Then after Atlanta drills Jazz Chisholm in the ribs (if they want to), you issue a warning to them. Without having warnings issued before the game (and there was no reason to issue them), it was silly to throw him out. Also think the announcers made a valid point, that Acuna handled it as he should have, but Snitker pushed the envelope and caused the ejection (which is what I imagine Mattingly was pissed about, as he should have been). The players will police themselves for the most part if they let them.
There would not be separate warnings. If they had opted for warnings, both teams would have received one at the same time and the next HBP(s) would have required automatic ejection of the pitcher and his manager. This is probably what should have been done but I am not going to go so far as to say this is the only option they had. The history in this case certainly warranted the discussion to take the action they took.
 
Hitting him on the first pitch gives the perception of intent - it wasn’t an accident - considering the previous bad blood between players and teams.

An argument could also be made that because it was the very first pitch of the game, it wasn't intentional. Maybe he was amped up and throwing high and in (which is a good place to put it against Acuna). Regardless, there is no bad blood between this pitcher and Acuna that I'm aware of. The bad blood from the Marlins and Acuna seems to have been buried (maybe something happened in their last series I'm not aware of and I admittedly get very few Braves games on my cable package (looking at you YouTubeTV). So, why hit him now? Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Umpires in the past have allowed teams and players to skirt rules and sportsmanship with no action taken. More recently they’ve cracked down on bad behavior to take back control of the game. IMO, that’s what they did here. They let both teams know that they will not tolerate poor behavior (whether this event was intentional or not). Snitker may have pushed the envelope, but Mattingly jumped in. If a team/manager can eliminate a key piece of the opponent, that should be a positive.

These days, sportsmanship means something different depending on who you ask, especially in baseball. The action though could be taken amongst themselves (if they chose to do so). I think there's certainly a place for umpires to step in and put a stop (or try to at least) things escalating in certain situations. In this one, they went from 0-100. More than likely, Lopez was going to bat unless he got shelled... Snitker could have had him drilled if he really thought it was intentional. Guarantee you Jazz would have something to say to his own guy if he had to wear one.
 
I guess I'm too old school. I don't really get why it matters what pitch it is (other than optics, which shouldn't factor in). If the intent was to hit him (not saying it wasn't), why does it matter if it was pitch #1, #2 or #10.

IMO, you if do anything, issue a warning to the Marlins. Then after Atlanta drills Jazz Chisholm in the ribs (if they want to), you issue a warning to them. Without having warnings issued before the game (and there was no reason to issue them), it was silly to throw him out. Also think the announcers made a valid point, that Acuna handled it as he should have, but Snitker pushed the envelope and caused the ejection (which is what I imagine Mattingly was pissed about, as he should have been). The players will police themselves for the most part if they let them.
I had an uncle that pitched in the Reds organization in Triple A back in the early 70’s right before the “Big Red Machine” came about. He was throwing a no-hitter/perfect game when an opposing team plunked Ken Griffey Sr. late in the game. The manager told my friend McLean to hit the first guy when he went out for the 9th inning. Well, my uncle saw this outing as his shot to hit the big time, so he didn’t want to ruin it, so when he went out, the first pitch was a mid 90’s fastball on the outside corner for strike one. The manager called time and told my uncle that if the next ball didn’t hit the batter, he was fining him $200! Next pitch! Mid 90’s fastball in the ear hole!!! The perfect game was gone, my uncle was ejected, but he didn’t lose $200!!! Later that season, my aunt told my uncle that it was either her or baseball. He walked away from the game! 3 years later, they were divorced and my uncle was coaching HS ball for the next 30 years.
 
I had an uncle that pitched in the Reds organization in Triple A back in the early 70’s right before the “Big Red Machine” came about. He was throwing a no-hitter/perfect game when an opposing team plunked Ken Griffey Sr. late in the game. The manager told my friend McLean to hit the first guy when he went out for the 9th inning. Well, my uncle saw this outing as his shot to hit the big time, so he didn’t want to ruin it, so when he went out, the first pitch was a mid 90’s fastball on the outside corner for strike one. The manager called time and told my uncle that if the next ball didn’t hit the batter, he was fining him $200! Next pitch! Mid 90’s fastball in the ear hole!!! The perfect game was gone, my uncle was ejected, but he didn’t lose $200!!! Later that season, my aunt told my uncle that it was either her or baseball. He walked away from the game! 3 years later, they were divorced and my uncle was coaching HS ball for the next 30 years.
Great story....loved it.

in baseball....you want the batter to have an element of fear from the pitcher...
Thus...a nice fastball to the back...stings...bruises...gets batter stepping "in the bucket".... or zip one over the batters head ( way over..Randy Johnsons way over)
But if you hit one of them....then you know they will hit one of yours..

baseball...and unwritten rules...
 
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