For the 3rd time in four years, Pujols was the best in the MLB while Lincecum had the best Reina Value. How did all 1,296 major leaguers perform in relation to their contract?
The Angels and Red Sox will score a lot of runs, while the absence of a dominant starter for the White Sox could be the difference.
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Major League Baseball has had its fair share of problems in recent years with things like steroids, contraction, and competitive balance.
Commissioner Bud Selig has done his “best” to fix all three of those problems during his tenure. He instituted penalties for positive performance-enhancing drug tests while commissioning Washington to investigate and compile the infamous Mitchell Report to fight steroid use.
He “solved” issues in Montreal by moving the Expos to D.C. and renaming them the Nationals while somehow navigating the nation’s old favorite pastime through the aforementioned witch-hunt and the emergence of football as America’s new favorite pastime.
The topic of a salary cap in MLB will probably remain a hot button until either the end of time or Selig’s tenure. However, there is one glaring issue with the game that can very easily be rectified.
The incident that took place between the Red Sox and the Rays at Fenway Park last Thursday – involving a dugout-clearing brawl that kicked off when Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields attempted to throw at Boston’s Coco Crisp – showcased yet another problem.
When will MLB start really punishing players for acting like grade school punks?
There is absolutely no reason for everyone from both teams to be permitted to storm the field when something like what happened on Thursday in Boston takes place.
You end up having as many as fifty guys and sometimes more, when considering coaches and other team officials, participating in a dog pile on the mound.
How about instituting fines for players who leave the dugout or bullpen? It would be similar to what the NBA does when a fight takes place on the court.
Section VII (Fines) under the technical foul portion of Rule No. 12 (Fouls and Penalties) in the NBA rule book:
“During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be suspended, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $35,000. The suspensions will commence prior to the start of their next game.”
Sounds good enough for baseball to me.
It will still be hard to prevent dozens of players from throwing down, but I would like to believe that if players were properly disciplined for entering the fray, we’d see more one-one-one fights especially since a majority of the time the hitter will be the only representative of his team on the field.
MLB also has to stick to their guns when they actually do hand out suspensions.
Too often players are allowed to appeal their suspensions to postpone them until after a couple of important games, or get their penalties reduced or removed altogether. Also, what good is suspending a pitcher for a few games when he’s only used every five days anyway? Ban him from a scheduled start or something; otherwise, he’s not getting punished at all.
For example, Boston’s Jon Lester was suspended five games for his role in the incident with Tampa Bay, but because of an off-day on Monday, he won’t even miss a start.
The rule might not go over well with hitters at the very beginning – since he’ll have no one to defend him against nine opponents – but if the umpires get involved more often like we see NBA and NFL officials do, the rule could be implemented almost seamlessly.
In order to make sure that we don’t see a hitter pummeled by a handful of opposing players, MLB could also increase the fines and suspensions of players on the field who join the initial fracas.
That would have meant heavier suspensions for guys like Jonny Gomes (five games) and Carl Crawford (four) after they rushed in to get themselves a few cheap shots in on Crisp, who had been tackled to the ground by Tampa catcher Dioner Navarro.
The crazy thing about the whole ordeal is that Crisp had to know Shields was going to throw at him.
Last Wednesday night Crisp took exception when Tampa shortstop Jason Bartlett put his knee down toward the bag on a steal attempt, which injured Crisp’s thumb.
Later in the game Crisp slid very hard into second base, taking out Rays’ second baseman Akinori Iwamura rather violently in the process.
Shields seemed to “take the high road” by not throwing at Crisp’s head – or maybe it’s more accurate to say that he missed – instead, throwing the “pitch” around the outfielder’s waist. However, the bench-clearing brawl for the ages still ensued.
Preventing the fight that took place between Tampa Bay and Boston would have also kept in-fighting between Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis from taking place in the Boston dugout later on as the latter seemed to take exception because the former didn’t join the battle.
I’m sure if you didn’t catch the incident live, you saw it a dozen or so times on either television or the internet. It’s rather obvious that neither Crisp nor Shields have a future in boxing.
The question is, though, do incidents like this one have a future in the game?
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM.com and will be covering the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium next month. If there is any specific coverage you’d enjoy from the Bronx, let him know via e-mail (Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com).
