This Week in Dumb Baseball: Can we stop with the 'unwritten rules' already?
As regulars around these parts know, I'm the resident Dumb Expert here, at least when it comes to baseball. I checked in here with the five dumbest things about the first week of baseball and I'm here with another update, thanks to some tasty material. As noted in the Week 1 update, let's remind everyone:
By way of reminder, this is a fun exercise in subjectivity. That is, the following includes my opinions. It's also for fun. If anyone gets angry, I hereby release all liability and this is an absolutely legally-binding paragraph. I watch lots of cop shows that have court scenes and I'm telling you, this is true. It's damn true.
Onward!
Verlander 'took offense?'
Back on Friday night, Astros starter Justin Verlander took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. It was broken up by White Sox infielder Tim Anderson. Anderson clapped his hands and pointed to his dugout. Uh oh, we can see where this is headed.
"I wasn't upset with him being excited about getting a hit," Verlander said (Houston Chronicle). "Hey, that's baseball and you can be excited about getting a hit, he earned it."
Well alright! This is very good. I guess we can move on.
Wait. Anderson stole second on a 3-0 pitch with his White Sox trailing 5-0. It was a ball, so he reached second without a throw, as it was ball four. Anderson seemed to celebrate and Verlander exchanged words with him.
So, OK, it's probably a bad baseball play to run there. On 3-0, what if Verlander pops 98 right down the middle? That's the easiest time for a catcher to throw out a runner and what the White Sox need down 5-0 is as many baserunners as possible. Next batter, Anderson appeared breaking to third base, but Verlander went with an inside-move pickoff attempt to check him back to second. Verlander said it was "another bad baseball play." He's right, too. It was.
Shouldn't you be happy when players on the other team are making dumb plays? Instead, we get a Verlander lecture after the game.
Via Houston Chronicle:
"He steals on 3-0 in a 5-0 game, that's probably not great baseball," Verlander said. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I don't know. But he celebrated that, though. And it's like 'Hey, I'm not worried about you right now. It's 5-0, I'm giving a high leg kick, I know you can steal. If I don't want you to steal, I'll be a little bit more aware of you. But I'm trying to get this guy out at the plate.'"
OK, Justin, that's fair, but the runner is trying to make his way around the bases. You can try to stop him. If he's making bad baseball plays, again, isn't that good for your team? Verlander concluded with ...
"He was a little overaggressive and I let him know it. I took offense to it." (Via Chronicle, again)
Holy cow. He took offense to someone on the other team trying, even to the point of it possibly being a detriment to his opponent. The game wasn't even close to being over, either. It was 5-0 in the fifth.
Guys, you play a game for a living. You are incredibly physically talented -- a true joy to watch and cover, especially a stud like Verlander -- and it takes a very mentally tough player to make it to the bigs. Stick with the mental part and stop being offended when your opponent tries, please, especially when it's 5-0 in the fifth.
Actually, this was a good idea by Javy Baez
The Cubs were in Colorado to face the Rockies this past weekend. During the later innings in the game on Sunday, Cubs shortstop Javier Baez was stepping in front of DJ LeMahieu -- who was on second base -- to prevent LeMahieu to steal the signs from the catcher and relay to his hitter. Here's the video, and pay particular attention to the Rockies' broadcast.
OK, so let's sort this out.
First off, I have zero issue, ever, with a player trying to relay signs. As the broadcast noted, it's long been part of the game and there's a gamesmanship element to it.
That's about the only thing the broadcast said here that isn't ridiculous.
If it's gamesmanship to steal signs, how is it not also gamesmanship to duck in front of the runner and block his view? Baez wasn't breaking any rules. He was preventing sign stealing.
After the game, LeMahieu said he wasn't stealing signs. OK, then why do you care if Baez wants to use extra energy to pop in front before each pitch? He wasn't blocking the view of the runner during the pitch, as he was popping back behind the runner once the pitcher had his sign.
What's the argument? That's it's annoying. So, so dumb.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, this was a great idea by Baez if he thought LeMahieu was relying pitches to the hitter. The counter-argument I keep seeing is some variation of that no one has done this before and they need to change up their signs. Allow me to present why this was actually an excellent move by Baez:
In order to change the signs, there needs to be a mound visit. Mound visits are capped this season. The game was being played in Coors Field, and mound visits could be extra-precious there. Baez saved his team a mound visit with this move.
Again, there's nothing illegal about it, so what was the problem, DJ? It was annoying? Deal with it. Play the game. If you weren't trying to relay signs, then what Baez was doing was of no consequence whatsoever. It's just another example of a player taking himself far too seriously and/or inventing "the right way" to play the game.
As far as the Baez move goes, I could see it becoming more and more common with the mound visit limits.
Lindor apologizes for being happy
This goes along with what we've said above in the opposing-players-being-offended thing and I've already covered it. Maybe it's because of crap like we hear on a seemingly nightly basis that Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor felt the need to apologize -- despite no complaints -- for being excited after his special home run in his native Puerto Rico.
I'd like to request watching a game where players show their positive emotions and don't feel the need to apologize later.
That'll do for now. Whenever there's enough dumb material for another round, your Dumb Expert will be back.