Utley Gets Hit Today?
Okay, now it’s just getting annoying. After nearly a decade of torturing Met pitchers (and their fans) while wearing a Phillies uniform, Chase Utley then moves to LA-LA land where he has a vicious encounter with the Mets only real shortstop at a key moment in a playoff game. Adding insult to injury, the play is reviewed and Utley is called safe. Given what’s at stake, the Mets really can’t retaliate for this, but they gain a measure of revenge by winning the series. The sentiment is that they will settle accounts with Chase in 2016.
But…Ruben Tejada, the broken-legged victim of Utley’s psychotic version of “old-school” baseball (enough with this old-school crap, corporal punishment of children, cigarette ads on TV during Prime Time and the use of leeches to treat diseases where all once considered good ideas too) was cut in Spring Training. So, the Mets no longer have a reason, so the story goes, to exact revenge. See ya Ruben.
Until last night that is. ICYMI, in a classic Terry Collins move, he brought in his closer, Jeurys Familia to lock down a 5-1 Met win. This move had “trouble” written all over it from the moment that #27 walked out of the bullpen. For some odd reason, Familia is one of those closers who can’t deliver without the game on the line. He loaded the bases and then walked in a run. With two outs, up to the plate strode Utley. One pitch later, the game was tied and Utley stood on third, struggling to suppress a smirk.
Looking at those throwback uniforms the Mets were wearing and seeing that Dodger Blue, I immediately flashed back to Game Four of the 1988 NLCS. But before I could call my therapist to schedule another appointment, Curtis Granderson alleviated my PTSD with a walk off homer.
Back to Utley. The Mets are sending Noah Syndergaard to the mound tonight. He was the only starter to stand up to the Royals in the World Series last year, brushing back their leadoff hitter and telling the Royals that he is is only 60 feet six inches away if they wanted to do something about it. BTW, that was the only game the Mets won in that all too brief encounter. So if Dodger manager Dave Roberts is crazy enough to pencil Utley in the lineup again tonight, Syndergaard needs to take aim at his (Utley’s) ribs at his earliest opportunity. Again, I am not “old school,” but enough is enough.
It’s early, but I don’t think that the Mets and LA will be hooking up again this postseason.The Giants look really good again and the Mets, Washington and Pittsburgh look to be lining up for one divisional crown and two wildcard spots between them, so I sense this is the year that LA ends up on the outside looking in. I get the fact that the Mets couldn’t retaliate during the playoffs and that the issue appeared to be over when they visited LA earlier this month. So, it’s time to settle this once and for all.
Did Utley re-ignite the fire? There is only one way to find out.
Second, I think Sunday is payback day. That seems to be how it is done these days. If that means a Colon 89 MPH fastball between the blades then so be it. The whole Utley thing is a distraction, albeit one that needs to be addressed. Dodgers could be a repeat in the NLDS or NLCS so Mets should send a clear message. A simple brush back would suffice from Thor but the fans are baying for blood and my preference is to not put the job on 23/24 (?) year old Noah. Being the Ace should have its privileges even if, as I expect, he is more than happy to drill him.
I was all for retribution for Ruben, but the Mets failed to do that, and drilling Utley now would just look like pouting.
Although, I guess if Thor pegs him just to fire up the crowd, I wouldn’t object to that. (Utley shows no pain at all, though, so to really satisfy the crowd, a pitch to knock him down or make him jump would probably be better than an actual HBP. Does Noah have good enough control to execute “near his head, but not AT his head”? I’d never advocate risking hitting a guy in the head.)
Good hitting on a soft opposite-field liner by Gonzalez. Lucky chopper by Kendrick — if he gets a little more of that pitch, it might be a double play, two outs and no one on. Then another DP chance on a pulled grounder by Puig, but Cabrera was playing toward the middle so it got through. This is regular old Familia — lotsa ground balls. Jeurys wasn’t somehow less than himself coming into the inning.
Losing his control against Grandal (4 balls) and Utley (1 grooved) was the real problem.
Save situation or otherwise, Familia hasn’t been the K machine he was for most of last year. Sometimes those grounders will find holes and he’ll give up runs. Expect an average number of blown saves — maybe 5 or 6 — by season’s end.
I found the umpire’s tossing of Syndergaard last night unacceptable. There had been no warning, and it wasn;t a HBP. He inserted himself into the outcome of the game and — in my view — acted emotionally in the heat of the moment. He’s supposed to be the grown-up in the room out there. Instead, he was the foot-stomping child.
When you go into a game knowing that one team is probably going to throw at an opposing player there’s no warning necessary. You warn when you’re not sure whether something was intentional or not. When you know it’s intentional you eject the player. It was a bad decision on Syndergaard’s part to do what he did, especially at that point in the game. You can argue whether he should have been tossed, but any time you throw at a player you’re taking a chance. Maybe
they were trying to satisfy the Mets fans who have taken this thing way beyond what it merited. Death threats to Utley’s family? Time to forget this incident, and move on.
I agree it was poorly handled, but let’s not misconstrue how it started.
He wasn’t called for obstruction because as the runner he had the right to the bag.
We’ve been over this here before, but I’ll repeat: Murphy put Tejada into a vulnerable position by trying to do the impossible, and failing miserably by giving Tejada a terrible feed. Tejada compounded the situation by being as wildly irresponsible as Murphy and putting himself not only in harm’s way, but by turning his back as if he were a ballerina doing a pirouette. There is no situation, ever, that a middle infielder should be turning his back on a runner. Ever. Tejada was in a vulnerable position due to the combined foolishness of himself and Murphy, both of whom chose to ignore their status as human beings and instead thought they were comic book superheroes with super powers such as that of The Flash.
25% of baseball is knowing your strengths. Another 25% is knowing your limitations. The other half is knowing how to manage both. And it wasn’t the first time Murphy and Tejada acted irresponsibly — we called both of them out numerous times here through the years. This was the time one of them was personally harmed as a result.
The death threats were a disgrace. So would a pitch aimed at Utley’s head. The timing was also odd. This should have occurred sooner.
1. Great chineese proverb digged up by Rubin today “if you seek revenge, dig two graves”. Only problem is they only used one
2. When did the Mets get angry at Utley: when the play happened, when they saw the replay and realized what happened, when the media and the fans roared for a circus or when he Utley stands up and continues to perform?
3. Old school seems to be “right away” as Odor did recently or as Knight did so often in 86
4. Now, if they chose to not retaliate last year, were they really into last night? Was it anger, was it standing up for whats right “the right way to play the game”, was it a show or were they playing with him?
5. Anger doesnt seem like it. Standing up probably is. A show could be. Playing with him should have been.
6. My point: its always part of any game to play with the rivals mind. Utley takes many pitches and has shown it doesnt get to him. But he knew, as everyone else did, that it was an issue. What he didnt know was when and how. He isnt young any more and nagging injuries seemed to have had him down for a while, so pitching to him in a special unpredictable way could be a way to throw him off, more than straight up hitting him.
7. Last one: what does Alderson have to say?
From your responses you’re very much a proponent of old-school baseball of the sort that Utley’s slide represents. It’s that same old school style of play that dictates and sets precedent for the on-mound sort of answer that we saw.
Why is playing by the rules “old school”? Why is it “old school” for the runner to have the right to the base? The game has been fundamentally changed by The “Utley Rule” and the “Posey Rule.” What’s next? What happens if Yoenis Cespedes runs into the left field wall and suffers a concussion? Will MLB outlaw outfield walls? Or will batters be declared out if they hit a ball that incites an outfielder to run into a wall?
For those wondering about the weirdness of the timing, Utley’s been waiting for a beanball every at-bat vs. the Mets. The longer the Mets prolonged it, the more it was in the back of his head he’d get beaned, and the less aggressive he could be at the plate. Or am I giving the Mets too much credit?
Now, if your going to choose a moment to strike, wait for a decisive moment, not in the third inning with nothing much at stake.
Thanks for your take J, now it would be nice to hear from <Alderson himself
If you called out Utley for “interference” then to be consistent you would have had to call out at least one runner if not three every single game, because base runners changing direction to break up double plays happened as a matter of course and intent in MLB since the 1880s.
What MLB should’ve done was change the rule to “the runner shall be called out if his slide results in breaking someone’s leg in front of a national TV audience” because that’s the only reason the rule was changed. The rule was changed twice in history — once when Willie Randolph was upended by Hal McRae and when Tejada broke his leg. Before and in-between, contact between runners and infielders happened every single game, the occasional injuries that resulted were considered part of the process, and the majority of players, fans, and owners barely blinked, much less considered changing the rules.
Good point. Agreed, especially on the unintended consequences.
As for the collision occurring “well beyond the bag,” that’s not what my eyes saw. Tejada went flying well beyond the bag, but the actual contact occurred almost exactly at the bag.
See these screenshots for reference:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=325858022D9860B1!2017&authkey=!AEGxmZn47hxnLBM&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=325858022D9860B1!2018&authkey=!AIlzMIXx__1esn0&v=3&ithint=photo%2cpng
Looking at this frame after the fact, from a spectator position, I can understand your stance that Tejada wasn’t blocking the bag. But in real time, as an aggressive runner making a snap decision on course of action, I process the play much differently. It’s not as though Utley had the luxury of stopping time, looking into the future to see where Tejada would perform his pirouette, and plan to attack him at that exact spot. Rather, he had a few milliseconds to guess where Tejada would receive the ball and figure out a way to try to break up the DP while staying within the baseline and be within arm’s reach of the bag — because that’s what the rules at the time allowed (note in that frame Utley’s hand is just above the bag — he was technically within the rules). Yes, Utley was/is aggressive, but he generally played within the rules and I feel that in his career he wasn’t ever looking to maliciously hurt anyone — he was playing the game to his and its limits.
Maybe I defend Utley because I always played the game the same way. If I wanted to intentionally hurt people, I would’ve stuck to football. But playing baseball “hard” — to me — was always about understanding the rules, using them to your advantage, and accepting that baseball is a contact sport, which means that at times you need to be aggressive to avoid injury and sometimes it means knowing when to get out of the way. This applies not just to breaking up DPs but also home plate interactions (as runner and catcher), being a batter with a pitch coming at your body, getting hit by the ball as a fielder, running into walls, running into or avoiding other fielders when chasing popups, etc. Terrible things can happen when one player takes the aggressive approach and the other player forgets or doesn’t consider that baseball can be a contact sport. That’s what happened in this play.
Let’s leave safety up to the players (even Utley)
Innovative compromise or half-baked lunacy?