Finally, someone gets it! Why does baseball have this one, dopey, football play? The Giants lost Posey for a year on one of these dopey plays! One of the biggest drawing cards around was lost for a year and it cost the Giants a chance to be the first NL team since the 42-43-44 Cardinals to win 3 NL flags in a row!
Matheny gets it. I could have written this line:
To Matheny, it can’t simply be a matter of banning runners from charging the plate. Any rule change, he argued, must also include a provision preventing catchers from blocking the plate entirely. In essence, he believes baseball should treat plays at home plate like plays at the other three bases.
Why is home plate any different? It isn’t.
“I understand old school, and I consider myself an old school player, as far as the way I go out and the way I was taught the game. I just don’t see the sense in it.”
I don’t see any sense in it, either. I want to see Posey play baseball, not football. Bravo, Mike Matheny.
*** Addemdum ***
The day after I wrote this, Buster Olney wrote a column on it and did a podcast on it. He went into depth on the metrics of it. Basically, they have figured out that a marginal run is worth $250,000. If you figure that blocking the plate is 50% effective, then it’s a +-$125,000 proposition. They figure that Buster Posey’s value to the Giants last year alone, was 36 million dollars! Basically, they should give the guy a matador cape: The run doesn’t matter!
And I was blanching in the car on the ride home, listening to knuckleheads debate on this thing like it’s rocket science. It isn’t. It’s easy to fix. Make it like any other base! If the catcher blocks the base, the runner is automatically safe. If the runner hits the catcher, he is out. MLB has instituted helmets and even changed the slide rules on the double play. It’s easy and it’s sensible. If you want contact, there’s plenty of concussing going on in football on a daily basis. Buh-bye, tough guys, we won’t miss you. NO ONE buys a ticket to see a collision at home plate.
Also read about Joba and how the Yankees are “tired of his act” and what not and basically laughing at the guy for saying he’d like to close or start. What??? A Pitcher who would like to start? Or close? What a scandal Yankee fans. Listen, the Yankees messed with this guy plenty. And the trampoline thing wasn’t a guy being stupid, it was a guy playing with his son! If I were Joba, I’d CHANT loudly every day: Trade me, trade me, trade me, trade me. But the Yankees will keep him and try and use him 75 times out of middle relief after wrecking his career, they will get maximum abuse out of him and then dump in on Free Agency. Stay classy, Yanks. Joba: get OUT of there. Go to Francona in Cleveland. Go anywhere! Good luck.
I completely agree as well. And whatever you think of Tim McCarver, I think his quote sums it up perfectly:
“Baseball should protect catchers like football protects quarterbacks.”
Comment by John Walker — February 26, 2013 @ 11:06 pm |