I’m not clear enough on what’s legal or not here so if they’ve determined that he deserves a suspension regardless of intent than I’d say that’s just fine. I disagree completely with the people mad at Jake. That’s just stupid.
Lucroy paid an awful price, Jake gets a couple games off and we win the game. I think we can live with it.
According to the rule the MLB cited in their discipline, intent does matter. It's one of those weird situation where it is impossible to prove guilt but also impossible to exonerate. I think MLB is just playing it safe here by suspending him to cover their butts for the next less ambiguous play they have to adjudicate. I think they should have gone with just one game and no fine, but meh.
So, Jake appealed, but if he doesn't hear back before tonight's game, it's pointless. I doubt he will. I guess it's good to have the appeal on record, though.
When you appeal, you play until it's heard. He can play today. He wasn't suspended yesterday, he just didn't play.
After reading through this whole thread and watching that video 20 times... Official Baseball Rule 6.01(i) states that a runner attempting to score - may not initiate an avoidable collision. Jake assumed Lucroy was going to move to the dugout side of the line, but Lucroy never did. Jake assumed wrong, and Lucroy is in the hospital with a broken nose (these are often permanently noticeable). Yes, we trust Jake's character and intent not to hurt anyone, we know it was an accident, but that's irrelevant, this was clearly an avoidable collision, and IMO simply poor judgement. In other words, Jake would flunk out of the school of defensive driving. Can you imagine that kind of logic while driving? So no, I don't think Jake is malicious, just somewhat blinded by being hyper competitive, and just a moment of sheer stupidity, really. Jake said it himself, "Things are happening so fast, that's the hard part about it. I literally had a split second to decide if I was going left or right. It was a bad choice on my part." Yes, a bad choice, there was really not enough of a reason to shift entirely inside when he did - I can't imagine just about every other base runner simply sticking to the outside of the plate, slight movement by Lucroy and all. The only controversy I could see is that one of the only reasons I see for shifting inside at the last minute like that is for sheer desperation knowing you're about to be thrown out and justifying moral action, like, the possibility of Lucroy moving his entire body to the dugout side of the line before Jake gets to the plate... which would almost defy physics and any kind of common sense. I really don't see what the argument is. This has nothing to do with being an Astros fan or not. If that was our kid out there we'd be just as upset as the Angels.
Why would he have to move his body to the other side? He merely has to be on the line. You take the inside path because the plate is not a square, and the tag is more difficult because the catcher catches the ball and comes back the other direction for the tag, and you potentially get in the path of the ball.
He sounds like Samuel L Jackson's character from Coming to America. I'd just tell him to refrain from his profanity and watch him go ballistic and drop more F bombs. What a loser.
Catchers can't be on the line, that's blocking the plate. If players assume catchers are going to block the plate and dive for either side of the plate at the last minute like a free kick against the goalie in soccer, you're going to get exactly what happened here 50% of the time. As this screenshot shows, this is before Jake shifted hard to the inside. Lucroy simply made a slight adjust to his left to pick up the skip of the ball, or even, would have been the same movement to his left if he had the ball to tag Marisnick (which may be what caused Jake to overreact). But to assume Lucroy was going to move his entire body to the other side of the plate before Jake got there, as I said, almost defies physics and any kind of common sense. There are serious consequences here. As you can see with Altuve here in last night's game, why even think about an inside move when the catcher is already inside the line, exactly where he should be on a normal play, as Lucroy was. Anyway, again, not trying to roast Jake, but this is all about player safety.
It doesn't come close to defying physics. It also isn't illegal if he catches the ball first, which he would have if the ball was more on target from Calhoun. Altuve is different because he want already at 3rd. Turning the bases while running is entirely different. There is actually a very similar play a couple years ago by Yuli against the angels, but the throw ended up the first base side instead of 3rd, but Yuli took an inside line too.
Considering there is recent precedent that MLB will suspend players who put others in harm's way against the rules, it would be ill-advised for Angels' pitchers to purposely throw at Astros' hitters.
You couldn’t have been more incorrect. Will the guy who answers everyone’s questions admit he was wrong ? I’ll wait.
So, who do we pick to bean? The first batter? Trout? Ohtani? Wait till Lucroy gets back? Can't. Wait.
Well, they really did hit him.. but they hit him the "wrong" way.... which will likely lead to retaliation by the Astros. Thought they'd be smarter than that... the issue was done with... but now that they hit him near the head, it's not.
This most likely. Marisnick likely calls for no retaliation because he's not a dirty player, and likely didn't intend for a vicious collision in the first place. Edit: If no suspension for beaning especially that high, odds of retaliation are higher.