Cox and Venters suspended [Latest: Venters suspension dropped]

[DuWayne Steurer]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5390365

 

This ought to be an interesting topic. I for one am glad that Macha/our pitchers don't take the 'retaliation' route. All it ever leads to is more trouble.

 

 

(edit: added suspension information to title --1992)

[jerichoholicninja]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5390365

 

This ought to be an interesting topic. I for one am glad that Macha/our pitchers don't take the 'retaliation' route. All it ever leads to is more trouble.

Somebody needs to do something. MLB will almost never do anything if there is no retaliation. People often say that someone will get hurt getting hit or in a brawl. The last injury I can remember from a beanball war was when Piazza got hit by Clemens. Kendry Morales got hurt jumping onto home plate and players get injured more often sneezing than in any sort of a bean ball war. Ken can complain all he wants but no one is going to take notice until Brewer pitchers start hitting guys back.

[Mr QL]

Maybe we should protect our guys and give teams a reason to not hit our players for once.

[Never Outhustled]

Rather than hitting Braves players, the Brewers should hit their cowardly manager. How cowardly is it to order someone else to throw at Fielders head, and then lie and say it was an accident?

[LouisEly]

What's carp is that other teams know that if they hit us first warnings will be issued to both benches and thus any retaliation will result in the Brewers pitcher being ejected. If I'm a major league umpire and something like what happened to Prince happens (after a HR the first one is at his head and the second one hits his back), I call both managers out and tell them that the team that got hit gets to stick one of the other teams players and then warnings will be issued, and anyone leaving the dugout will be ejected.

 

McCann should have been drilled after the grand slam. At least Parra hit Heyward and Glaus, but it wasn't in the right situation.

[craigharmann]

Rather than hitting Braves players, the Brewers should hit their cowardly manager.

Better yet, tell him to hit the road. Whine, whine, whine. Be a man and do something about it!

[greeg35]

Better yet, tell him to hit the road. Whine, whine, whine. Be a man and

do something about it!

I think he was talking about Cox. I agree though, I may have missed something; but I've never heard a manager complain to MLB about being hit too much. You generally either just lump it or retaliate. The number probably has to do with pitchers having seen what Braun and Fielder do when you don't establish the inside corner. Weeks has always been a HBP machine just because of his style.

[derflotr]

Isn't that AP article misinterpreting what Macha's point is? If that's based on his after-the-game quotes, he's just referring to the incident with the Braves, not the actual HBP count for the season.

[Funketown]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/98713239.html

 

Macha comments. As much as he annoys me from day to day, I agree with his opinion on this. It just isn't necessary.

[TooLiveBrew]

Macha really comes off great in those quotes. At first I figured it would seem whiny, but he's spot-on.

 

 

"I try to play the game the right way and hopefully appropriate action is taken and if not we’ll have to make an adjustment.

 

“I try to treat the game with respect. If appropriate action is taken … then so be it. If appropriate action is not taken, then I’m probably handling the situation as a manager.”

 

 

This in particular made me smile. I like what I'm hearing here.

[craigharmann]

“I try to treat the game with respect. If appropriate action is taken … then so be it. If appropriate action is not taken, then I’m probably handling the situation as a manager.”

What about standing up for your players? It's like he's telling the players, "yeah, I know, it sucks, I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it."

[TheCrew]

I have a feeling things are going to boil over in Pittsburgh.

[TooLiveBrew]

The way I read it is that Macha's saying that if MLB won't do something about it, he will. I guess I can understand if others are skeptical that he'll actually do anything.

[Oldcity]

I read it that way as well, and I'm fine with it. The problem is MLB not cracking down on it enough. If they did, silly "retaliation" wouldn't be necessary.

[jerichoholicninja]

Macha shouldn't have to tell his pitchers to protect his batters. If things are getting out of hand the pitchers need to it themselves. Either they are not, or Macha is telling them not to. Prince should have told Manny before the game that someone better be walking to first rubbing their back.

[dlk9s]

Macha shouldn't have to tell his pitchers to protect his batters. If things are getting out of hand the pitchers need to it themselves. Either they are not, or Macha is telling them not to. Prince should have told Manny before the game that someone better be walking to first rubbing their back.

While I understand what you are saying, the problem I can see with this is that if the pitcher retaliates, he could get ejected, putting the team/bullpen in a bad position. The manager might not like this if he didn't give the pitcher the go-ahead.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I read it that way as well, and I'm fine with it. The problem is MLB not cracking down on it enough. If they did, silly "retaliation" wouldn't be necessary.

Exactly.

 

A guy threw over a batters head, and then hit him on the next pitch. 10 game suspension. Problem solved.

 

"Retaliation" for hit batters is one of those silly 'that's the way it's always been' things that needs to just go away.

[RockCoCougars]

Macha is a joke. I never thought that these words would come from my mouth, but I miss Ned more and more each day. Retaliation should have came immediately last night with one of the Braves best hitters. The Brewers had a comfortable lead enough at the time. This is the way the game has been played forever, you protect your players. It'd be one thing if this was an isolated incident to this series, but when that punk Hanson drilled Braun on purpose a few months back, he hasn't been the same since.

 

Perhaps a brawl would fire this team up a little and give them a little more cohesiveness- both things that this manager has failed miserably at.

[logan82]

Weeks is getting hit only slightly more than his career rate. Fielder is getting hit almost twice as much as normal. You really have to look at whether or not it is intentional on a case by case basis. In Weeks case I would bet that they are almost all unintentional. I personally think Macha is making something of nothing otherwise I think we would see Braun getting hit a lot as well. Outside of those 2 almost nobody has been hit more than 3 times.

[TooLiveBrew]

It'd be one thing if this was an isolated incident to this series, but when that punk Hanson drilled Braun on purpose a few months back, he hasn't been the same since.

 

I think it's way too easy to just assume that was on purpose. It might have been, but there was really no history that would suggest Hanson would've done that intentionally. I really don't believe that was on purpose. When pitchers hit guys intentionally, it tends to be in the thigh or back, not the elbow.

[danzig6767]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5390365

 

This ought to be an interesting topic. I for one am glad that Macha/our pitchers don't take the 'retaliation' route. All it ever leads to is more trouble.

In general i agree. It gets on my nerves when some managers have their pitchers drill a guy on the other team almost each time one of their guys gets hit as if accidental hit batters don't happen. It can really get ridiculous.

 

In the case of Fielder the other night though, that was completely uncalled for by the Braves/Cox and if i was managing the Brewers, i'd have sent out say Villanueva and have him return the plunking and not a soft one. Sometimes a hit batter situation is so egregious as in the case of Prince that a manager can't just sit back and hope the league office takes action for him.

 

Plus, whether some fans think it's stupid or not, i'm sure some of those players will hold it against a manager that seems to never instruct a pitcher to retaliate. After throwing at Fielders head and then drilling him in the back with a 95mph fastball, i'm surprised that Prince didn't go to the mound, he IMO would have been entirely justified in blasting that pitcher.

[Baldkin]

Prince doesn't charge the mound. He charges the clubhouse after the game.

So, I wasn't watching yesterday... were either of the two Brewers HBP's intentional?

[Invader3K]

Didn't look like it. The one Parra threw at Heyward barely grazed his leg.

[crewcrazy]

Riske's HBP of Glaus looked less unintentional and came after the warnings, but the fact that it loaded the bases probably saved Riske from getting tossed.

 

It's not like the Brewers don't ever return HBP's -- when Fielder got hit on Friday night following the Braun homer, Kameron Loe did hit Alex Gonzalez on a pitch that was up and in, IIRC. I can see a Braves fan thinking that was retaliatory.

 

With this team's history with the Pirates, though, I agree that things could get ugly this week. It doesn't help that the pitching staff is going to be strained with Capuano starting tonight, so it's not like they could spare a pitcher to serve a suspension.

[Invader3K]

Yeah...I think fans forget that a manager, "getting even", can really hamstring himself later on. I don't really see anyone on the current roster that is expendable, as far as serving a suspension. Maybe Villanueva, but with how shaky the rotation is right now, I wouldn't want to risk it just to "send a message."

 

Really, someone charging the mound might be the better way to respond the next time someone gets hit. If it's Prince or Rickie, I don't see how the league justifies suspending either one at this point. Of course, they would be suspended.