June 08, 2014

CFL, CFL Players' Association reach tentative agreement on new deal

posted by tommybiden at 11:36 AM on June 08, 2014

So, a player I used like very much is display some of the douchiest behaviour I've seen in a while.

On Friday, Manny Machado was tagged out by Josh Donaldson. Machado overreacted to being tagged in the chest forcefully (while attempting to dodge the tag) and tried to intimidate the smaller Donaldson.

In retaliation, Buck Showalter (arbiter of all things baseball) decided to have his pitcher hit Donaldson in the next game.

Deciding that isn't enough, Machado took it upon himself to do the following in today's game:

- hit the A's catcher in the head with his follow-through while batting.
- hit the A's catcher in the head again with another follow-through while batting.
- Not apologize to the A's catcher for either contact.
- Get caught smiling as the A's catcher had to be removed from the game for concussion testing.

The A's pitcher Fernando Abad then threw an inside pitch at the knees at Machado a few innings later. Given that Donaldson was struck on Saturday, and what had happened earlier in the game with the catcher, it wasn't surprising. It wasn't at his head, or back, but at his legs, which he dodged out of the way to avoid. On the very next pitch, Machado let the ball go by him before deliberately swinging his bat and letting go of it. The bat flew down the 3rd base line, landing at the feet of the umpire.

Don't think it was deliberate? Watch as Machado doesn't even follow the path of the bat (which every batter does when they let go by mistake), and instead kept staring at the pitcher.
Further proof is the reverse angle at 1:14 in the video where it becomes pretty obvious that it was intentional.

I'm hoping he gets at least 5 games for his infantile behaviour.

posted by grum@work at 08:30 PM on June 08, 2014

Wow, that's pretty damned blatant. And the original tag, I see nothing wrong with it; he fell because he was off-balance and backpedaling (out of the baseline, no less), not because Donaldson gave him some extra-forceful, unwarranted tag. That looked like a good, clean, no doubt and get the out type tag.

That Machado would then apparently milk that anger for three games is... wow. Unsurprising that Showalter would have Donaldson thrown at, but that's one of those B.S. "unwritten rules" that the old fogies love to wax poetically about, I guess.

Is there video of his hitting the catcher out there? Seems like that would be reason to get tossed/suspended right there. I found only this one, which has only the second swing in replay. He was smirking, but the swing itself... I can't say from that one replay (other than making an assumption that if it happened two pitches in a row, it has to be on purpose) that it looked definitely intentional... at least not to my eyes.

I disagree with the announcers in that mlb.com video clip you posted grum; I don't think the pitcher was thrown for the pitch before, but because in Machado's slim defense, the pitch where he threw his bat was also being thrown way inside, which sure looks like Abad was trying to hit him twice. Still doesn't excuse the bat tossing at all, but does make it more clear why the umpires tossed Machado and Abad (the pitcher). It's pretty long-standing that if the ump sees you throw two fairly blatant attempts to hit a batter in a row, they'll likely toss you.

But yeah, the histrionics from Machado, the flung bat (which not only was a punk move... he was way off the freakin' mark, given that it appears to be intentional for the reasons grum mentioned- eye focus, late timing, etc- and yet he was staring down the pitcher, not Donaldson), these alone ought to get him a hefty suspension of ~5 games I'd hope.

posted by hincandenza at 10:08 PM on June 08, 2014

For reference, here's Alex Avila getting hit on Friday by David Ortiz's follow through. See the difference in Papi's reaction?

posted by MeatSaber at 11:25 PM on June 08, 2014

For reference, here's Alex Avila getting hit on Friday by David Ortiz's follow through. See the difference in Papi's reaction?

It proves that Machado doesn't care but not necessarily that he did it on purpose. If it was intentional, it looks a lot more natural than his bat throws do.

posted by tron7 at 12:00 AM on June 09, 2014

Seems like a one-armed extension on the backswing is pretty normal for Machado. Here's another example, but note how he was at least a little bit curious about what he slugged that time.

posted by cl at 08:35 AM on June 09, 2014