Sports Time Radio

Major League Baseball announced the suspensions from Sunday when the benches emptied in the Oakland A’s/Houston Astros game and I have to say I think they really dropped the ball on this.

Now if you remember there was a lot of concern at the start of spring training that pitchers would throw at Astros hitters because of the cheating scandal. MLB even went so far as to warn teams about excess Astros being hit by pitches. Apparently MLB didn’t happen to mention anything to the Astros about their pitchers hitting batters.

As of now Joe Kelly of the Los Angeles Dodgers appears to be the only pitcher who has intentionally tried to hit Astros hitters. Kelly ended up with an eight game suspension even though he didn’t manage to hit anyone and wasn’t even ejected from the game he was pitching in.

That brings us to last weekend. In the process of being swept in a three game series by the A’s somehow Astros pitchers managed to hit five Oakland hitters while no one from Houston was hit. If you go back to the start of the accusations about Houston’s cheating it was one of their former players Mike Fiers who pretty much confirmed everything and that’s when MLB decided to look into the matter further. Interestingly enough Fiers now pitches for the A’s. Is it possible that the Astros are the team that’s carrying the grudge and not the teams they cheated against? Obviously with Fiers being a pitcher in the American League he’s never going to come to the plate for an at bat; so what’s the next best thing? Go after his teammates and it appears that’s what the Astros pitchers did.

On Sunday after Oakland outfielder Ramon Laureano was hit for the second time in the game he was a little upset on his way to first base and rightfully so. Laureano started jawing with the Astros dugout on his way to first base and things escalated after he got to first base. Houston’s hitting coach Alex Cintron was responding to Laureano from the dugout and from reports was saying some disparaging things about Laureano’s mother. After trading some barbs Laureano had enough and went after Cintron, but Cintron hide behind some of the Astros players and Laureano was cut off by his former teammate now Houston back up catcher Dustin Garneau. Of course the benches emptied, but there where no punches thrown just a lot of pushing and shoving.

Now going back to the start of this 60 game season MLB told each team that they didn’t want the benches to empty in situations like this because of the Covid-19 outbreak. MLB also said there would be harsh penalties if teams didn’t follow this rule. I’m not sure the suspensions they announced would be considered hash.

Yesterday MLB announced that Laureano is suspended for 6 games. He is appealing by the way. Cintron who was really the instigator in this incident was given a 20 game suspension. Being that he’s a coach Cintron doesn’t have the option to appeal and began serving his suspension last night.

Now I think MLB really blew it here, but not with Laureano. I honestly thought that Laureano would get an eight game suspension like Kelly got, but I’m okay with him getting six games. It the Cintron suspension that I have a real issue with.

Now you can’t hear what anyone is saying on the video, but you can clearly see that it’s Cintron who is the main Houston in this case coach who is doing the majority of the bantering with Laureano. You can also see Cintron motion over and over for Laureano to come towards him, but when Laureano did Cintron hide very, very quickly. I’m sorry, but this deserved way more than a 20 game suspension. I really believe that Cintron should’ve been suspended for the rest of the season and the playoffs if the Astros make it into the post season. MLB had said that this is the last thing they wanted to have happen this season and Cintron was the guy who made it happen. You’d think that would make him the perfect guy for MLB to make an example of to make sure no coach does something like this again. I just don’t think 20 games is enough.

If you haven’t seen the video please take the time to take a look at it and then try to tell me I’m wrong. If you’ve seen the video I’d be interested to know what you think about these suspensions. Do you think 6 games was enough for Laureano? Or do you believe he should’ve gotten more or less? What about Cintron was 20 games enough? Or do you believe he should’ve gotten more or less?

How about we wrap the blog up with a nice comeback story.

Last night in the Colorado Rockies 8-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Daniel Bard got his 1st save for the Rockies this season. Not only was that Bard’s first save this season it was his first save since 2011 when he was a member of the Boston Red Sox.

Bard was looked at someone who would be a future closer for the Red Sox and after very good years as a set up man in 2010 & 2011 an injury limited Bard to just 17 appearances in 2012. Unfortunately Bard also struggled with more injuries in 2013 and only made 2 appearances for the Red Sox that season. Bard was always thought to have a good arm; so teams continue to take a look at him. He pitched in the minors with the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets and teams like the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates had him on their rosters, but he never pitched for them. Bard pitched in 23 games from 2014, 2016 & 2017. He hadn’t pitched the last two seasons or in 2015, but this off season the Rockies signed him. That time off seems to have done Bard some good. He’s appeared in 8 games for the Rockies this season. Bard has an ERA of 3.00; he’s 1-0 with that 1 save and he’s struck out 12 hitters over 9 innings while not walking anyone. Since the media likes to hand out awards early in a season I’d have to say that Bard is definitely the front runner for Comeback Player of the Year.

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