Josh Beckett suspended 6 games for Sunday's incident

[pretendastronaut]

Boston right-hander Josh Beckett was stunned Tuesday after receiving a six-game suspension from Major League Baseball, which determined he intentionally threw a pitch near the head of the Los Angeles Angels' Bobby Abreu last week.Beckett, who immediately appealed the ruling, also was fined an undisclosed amount and cited for "aggressive actions" after the pitch that led to the benches clearing Sunday, according to Bob Watson, vice president for discipline in the commissioner's office.

"We were pretty shocked," Beckett said before the Red Sox's game against the Athletics in Oakland, Calif. "I think the appeal speaks for everything that we feel. I respect the job they have to do, but I don't agree."

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Personally I don't see where Beckett would have had any reason to be throwing at Abreu's head at that moment. I believe it was unintentional, a slip due to the poorly timed timeout, so a 6 game suspension seems really over the top in my opinion. It doesn't seem likely to me that Beckett got upset mid-motion about the timeout and decided to aim at Abreu's head suddenly.

[logan82]

A 6 game suspension for a starting pitcher is pretty weak. All it does is push his start back a couple days.

[RightFieldCoder]

But they still dock his pay on a per game basis. So it doesn't hurt the team as bad, but it hurts the player's pocket.

[jjkoestler]

"Personally I don't see where Beckett would have had any reason to be throwing at Abreu's head at that moment. I believe it was unintentional, a slip due to the poorly timed timeout, so a 6 game suspension seems really over the top in my opinion. It doesn't seem likely to me that Beckett got upset mid-motion about the timeout and decided to aim at Abreu's head suddenly."

I couldn't disagree more. Beckett is known for his control, and the catcher set up low and outside. Throwing near someone's head in that situation is bush league and should result in a larger suspension.

[TSack27]

I'm not having any luck resurrecting the espn link from yesterday's story (as today's update appears to have overrode it). Does anyone else remember reading it yesterday where they further explained that after the initial posturing teams started returning to the dugouts and then Beckett started something up with Scioscia again, with the implication that it was the behavior after the pitch that earned the suspension (like Scioscia, Hatcher & Hunter) and not the pitch itself?

[jwill535]

I was watching the game live when it happened. First off, if Abreau didnt back out of the box the ball would have ear holed him. Even if you cant stop your motion most guys end up throwing the ball into the dirt in a situation like that. Second, after it happened, you could see BA mouth(this will be cleaned up) "What the heck was that" and Beckett immediatly goes on the defense and appears to be blaming BA for not calling TO. MS comes out of the dugout and immediatly walks towards Beckett and repeatadly says "What the Fudge was that all about" and Beckett gets right into his face about it. To me it appeared that if Beckett didnt mean to do it he wouldnt have been as aggressive as he was. What angered the Angles was his reaction to BA questioning the throw.