<img alt="Colorado Rockies v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rfQvJCVwBPxgucVz5dq2eF8Y3jo=/0x0:6836x4557/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73563453/2169502266.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
With retaliation pitches no longer being a thing, it’s time for baseball to step in to make sure pitchers are held responsible for hitting guys in the head. On Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 but in the process of that game, Whit Merrifield had to leave the game following an extremely scary moment. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Jeff Criswell threw a 95-mph fastball that got away from him and ended up smacking Merrifield in the head. It was a scary scene and the only reason why I’m even going to post the video is because Merrifield ended up being okay and passed all the concussion tests after the game.
With that being said, I totally understand why Merrifield was hopping mad about it after the fact. Even if Criswell looked visibly regretful about that one getting away from him in such unfortunate fashion, Merrifield was still very much cognizant of the recent injury woes that have come from Braves players getting hit by wayward pitches. Merrifield was hopping mad in the immediate aftermath and was just as heated about it once he talked to the media after the game.
From Mark Bowman of MLB.com:
“The way pitchers are throwing now, there’s no remorse or regard for throwing up and in,” Merrifield said. “These guys are throwing as hard as they can and they don’t care where the ball goes. It’s just [crap] because you can’t hit a guy [back] anymore.
“Teams are bringing pitchers up that don’t know where the [heck] the ball is going,” Merrifield said. “They throw 100 miles an hour. So they’re like, ‘We’ll see if they can get the guys out. Just set up down the middle and throw it as hard as you can.’ It’s [crap] and it’s driving me nuts. I hate where the game is at right now with that.”
“I’m very lucky it got me in a good spot,” Merrifield said. “I’m out of the game. He gets to stay in and pitch. I’m probably not going to be able to play tomorrow. No repercussions on his part. And without being overdramatic, that was my life on the line right there.”
As angry as Merrifield was, it’s also clear that this wasn’t just the anger talking for him. He’s clearly been thinking about this for a while and was probably going to bring up his concerns to the rules committee whether he (or anybody else) had gotten hit or not. It’s an issue that has had a huge effect on Atlanta’s season and it’s also an issue that baseball as a whole needs to reckon with as long as pitchers are continuing to be developed with the goal being to attain more velocity at all costs.
With retaliatory pitches having effectively been legislated out of the game at this point, the onus is now squarely upon MLB to figure out a way to properly police this issue. Bare minimum, there have to be consequences for hitting guys in the head and neck area — even if it’s accidental.
Every other sport has something in place in terms of violent play. College football has the targeting penalty and while it’s certainly not perfect in its application, it’s still a pretty solid step when it comes to dealing with dangerous helmet-to-helmet hits in football. It’s pretty easy to deal with violent conduct in basketball since that’s what the flagrant foul system is for. If you’re a hockey fan (NHL in particular) then the term “Rule 48” immediately comes to mind. Even in soccer, if you go into a sliding tackle with both pairs of studs up and it’s deemed to be dangerous (which it usually is), you get a red card ejection on the spot and you also get ejected if you make any sort of dangerous or illegal contact with the opposing player’s head.
If all of the other major sports have a system in place to deal with dangerous contact (especially to the head) then it’s high time for baseball to figure something out. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’ve got all the A1, five-star ideas but I’ve got a couple of ideas that I think would be okay.
One that I can think of immediately is that hitting a guy in the head or neck area should be an automatic ejection — full stop. That would certainly be controversial and I can understand pitchers being upset about this potentially hampering their ability to throw up-and-in but at the same time, the goal of this would be to make sure that if a pitcher does throw up-and-in in the future, they’d be able to have enough control and command over their pitch that they’ll be able to do so without potentially knocking the batter senseless.
Again, this would be pretty controversial but at the same time, if you want to nip this type of thing in the bud then the punishment has got to be serious enough to serve as an actual deterrent. This would be the type of penalty that would be awkward for this current crop of big leaguers to deal with but it would also be a little bit similar to how the pitch clock was dealt with. This rule change would be geared towards the pitchers who are coming up in the future, as it would force them to adapt so that once they do eventually make it to the majors, they’ll be able to pitch effectively without running the risk of doming someone.
A less controversial idea and one that would make a bit more sense without being as heavy-handed would be to start giving out two bases for hits to the head and neck area — once again, accidental or not. While the pitcher gets to stay in the game, the punishment for a wild throw that hits a guy in that area becomes advantageous for the the team that potentially loses a player due to injury. It’s one thing to simply have a guy take first base due to a HBP — it’s another when you suddenly have to deal with a runner in scoring position or maybe even two if there’s already a runner on base.
Once again, I’m fully aware of the drawbacks and I figure that any potential rule change won’t be as heavy-handed as the first one that I’m proposing. NPB does currently have auto-ejection for this sort of thing but at the same time, it’s pretty controversial over there. With that being said, when you consider who the Commissioner of Baseball currently is, it may just end up being something incredibly heavy-handed. Who knows what will happen in the future but I think it’s abundantly clear that baseball does need to figure out a way to protect hitters in this current era of increased velocity.
Assuming we don’t go back to teaching everybody to pitch like Greg Maddux (and judging by what guys like Ben Joyce are up to, those days are long gone and very likely going to stay long gone) then it’s definitely time to figure out a way to properly police the situation. Hopefully they’ll figure something out before the worst-case scenario that Whit Merrifield is fearful of ends up unfolding right in front of our very eyes.
<img alt="Colorado Rockies v Atlanta Braves" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rfQvJCVwBPxgucVz5dq2eF8Y3jo=/0x0:6836x4557/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73563453/2169502266.0.jpg">
Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images
With retaliation pitches no longer being a thing, it’s time for baseball to step in to make sure pitchers are held responsible for hitting guys in the head. On Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 but in the process of that game, Whit Merrifield had to leave the game following an extremely scary moment. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Jeff Criswell threw a 95-mph fastball that got away from him and ended up smacking Merrifield in the head. It was a scary scene and the only reason why I’m even going to post the video is because Merrifield ended up being okay and passed all the concussion tests after the game.
With that being said, I totally understand why Merrifield was hopping mad about it after the fact. Even if Criswell looked visibly regretful about that one getting away from him in such unfortunate fashion, Merrifield was still very much cognizant of the recent injury woes that have come from Braves players getting hit by wayward pitches. Merrifield was hopping mad in the immediate aftermath and was just as heated about it once he talked to the media after the game.
From Mark Bowman of MLB.com:
“The way pitchers are throwing now, there’s no remorse or regard for throwing up and in,” Merrifield said. “These guys are throwing as hard as they can and they don’t care where the ball goes. It’s just [crap] because you can’t hit a guy [back] anymore.
“Teams are bringing pitchers up that don’t know where the [heck] the ball is going,” Merrifield said. “They throw 100 miles an hour. So they’re like, ‘We’ll see if they can get the guys out. Just set up down the middle and throw it as hard as you can.’ It’s [crap] and it’s driving me nuts. I hate where the game is at right now with that.”
“I’m very lucky it got me in a good spot,” Merrifield said. “I’m out of the game. He gets to stay in and pitch. I’m probably not going to be able to play tomorrow. No repercussions on his part. And without being overdramatic, that was my life on the line right there.”
As angry as Merrifield was, it’s also clear that this wasn’t just the anger talking for him. He’s clearly been thinking about this for a while and was probably going to bring up his concerns to the rules committee whether he (or anybody else) had gotten hit or not. It’s an issue that has had a huge effect on Atlanta’s season and it’s also an issue that baseball as a whole needs to reckon with as long as pitchers are continuing to be developed with the goal being to attain more velocity at all costs.
With retaliatory pitches having effectively been legislated out of the game at this point, the onus is now squarely upon MLB to figure out a way to properly police this issue. Bare minimum, there have to be consequences for hitting guys in the head and neck area — even if it’s accidental.
Every other sport has something in place in terms of violent play. College football has the targeting penalty and while it’s certainly not perfect in its application, it’s still a pretty solid step when it comes to dealing with dangerous helmet-to-helmet hits in football. It’s pretty easy to deal with violent conduct in basketball since that’s what the flagrant foul system is for. If you’re a hockey fan (NHL in particular) then the term “Rule 48” immediately comes to mind. Even in soccer, if you go into a sliding tackle with both pairs of studs up and it’s deemed to be dangerous (which it usually is), you get a red card ejection on the spot and you also get ejected if you make any sort of dangerous or illegal contact with the opposing player’s head.
If all of the other major sports have a system in place to deal with dangerous contact (especially to the head) then it’s high time for baseball to figure something out. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’ve got all the A1, five-star ideas but I’ve got a couple of ideas that I think would be okay.
One that I can think of immediately is that hitting a guy in the head or neck area should be an automatic ejection — full stop. That would certainly be controversial and I can understand pitchers being upset about this potentially hampering their ability to throw up-and-in but at the same time, the goal of this would be to make sure that if a pitcher does throw up-and-in in the future, they’d be able to have enough control and command over their pitch that they’ll be able to do so without potentially knocking the batter senseless.
Again, this would be pretty controversial but at the same time, if you want to nip this type of thing in the bud then the punishment has got to be serious enough to serve as an actual deterrent. This would be the type of penalty that would be awkward for this current crop of big leaguers to deal with but it would also be a little bit similar to how the pitch clock was dealt with. This rule change would be geared towards the pitchers who are coming up in the future, as it would force them to adapt so that once they do eventually make it to the majors, they’ll be able to pitch effectively without running the risk of doming someone.
A less controversial idea and one that would make a bit more sense without being as heavy-handed would be to start giving out two bases for hits to the head and neck area — once again, accidental or not. While the pitcher gets to stay in the game, the punishment for a wild throw that hits a guy in that area becomes advantageous for the the team that potentially loses a player due to injury. It’s one thing to simply have a guy take first base due to a HBP — it’s another when you suddenly have to deal with a runner in scoring position or maybe even two if there’s already a runner on base.
Once again, I’m fully aware of the drawbacks and I figure that any potential rule change won’t be as heavy-handed as the first one that I’m proposing. NPB does currently have auto-ejection for this sort of thing but at the same time, it’s pretty controversial over there. With that being said, when you consider who the Commissioner of Baseball currently is, it may just end up being something incredibly heavy-handed. Who knows what will happen in the future but I think it’s abundantly clear that baseball does need to figure out a way to protect hitters in this current era of increased velocity.
Assuming we don’t go back to teaching everybody to pitch like Greg Maddux (and judging by what guys like Ben Joyce are up to, those days are long gone and very likely going to stay long gone) then it’s definitely time to figure out a way to properly police the situation. Hopefully they’ll figure something out before the worst-case scenario that Whit Merrifield is fearful of ends up unfolding right in front of our very eyes.
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