11/21/24
August 17, 2013
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Geez. That can't be anything but the yips. Three in a row, letting a guy score?
posted by Etrigan at 11:42 PM on August 17, 2013
I'm sorry, but they couldn't get a hold of a hi res Washington Nationals W logo with a transparent background? They had to get an unpaid intern to find a Nats W logo from a Google image search and have him/her knock out the background in Gimp?
posted by NoMich at 12:01 AM on August 18, 2013
Yeah, that's terrible umpiring.
The warning only means that the ump is telling both teams he's going to put them on a very tight leash; it isn't a mandatory ejection if you hit a batter after a warning, and in fact if an umpire believes a HBP is egregious enough, he could eject a pitcher without any warning.
And if the umpire really thinks Strasburg threw two wild pitches just to cover for the third (which would allow the run to score) as an IBB, he's goddamn crazy. After all, the way Strasburg was pitching that last batter, that might have been the only ejection of a pitcher where the opposing team would have to seriously consider contesting it.
The commentator in that clip strangely enough seemed to believe that was all intentional, saying "It's even scarier if he didn't mean to do it." Which... that's lunacy. No professional would really do all that just to hit two batters in a row in the early part of a game (at least, not one that wanted to stay in uniform). If Strasburg had some desire to hit two players, he'd have hit one, then hit the other in the 7th or 8th when he was due to come out anyway.
Anyway, that was some terrible umpiring.
posted by hincandenza at 04:21 AM on August 18, 2013
Barry Bonds' dealer said I could come back.
posted by Etrigan at 08:32 AM on August 18, 2013
I think throwing out Strasburg was the right thing to do as it seemed it was either:
1) He's still sending messages, which is after the warning and he's gotta go.
2) He's gone all Ankiel, and for the safety of the batters (and umpire and catcher and the guy in the on-deck circle), Strasburg should probably not be throwing a baseball right now.
posted by grum@work at 11:37 AM on August 18, 2013
For you Etrigan, that's a POSITIVE reference.
posted by grum@work at 11:38 AM on August 18, 2013
Regarding reason 2: Since when do umps eject pitchers for the safety of the batters because their control is so bad? There are seasons my Texas Rangers couldn't put a pitcher on the mound under that criteria.
I don't see Strasburg doing those three pitches on purpose. It was weird to toss him.
posted by rcade at 05:03 PM on August 18, 2013
Stephen Strasburg ejected for some pretty peculiar control issues after plunking Justin Upton early.