Last night San Francisco’s catcher Buster Posey was annihilated in a collision at the plate by Florida’s Scott Cousins. The collision looked brutal and Posey left the game with a leg injury (and likely a concussion to go with it).
In the wake of a superstar catcher going down in this crash, Posey’s agent cried foul and demands the MLB look at rules to protect catchers in these plays at the plate.
Shut…Your…Face!
What is Cousins supposed to do? It’s the 12th inning and there is a close play at home. Posey was blocking the entire plate (as a catcher is trained to do) and Cousins tried to separate the catcher from the ball (as a runner is trained to do!).
A. If Posey’s agent doesn’t want him to get run over he should train him to go with a swipe tag instead of blocking the plate. And while he’s at it he should train him not to block pitches in the dirt. Those hurt something fierce. And train him to stand in the far back corner of the batter’s box when he’s at bat. Sure he’ll barely hit over .200 but he’ll be healthy!
B. What should the rule change to?! All players must slide feet first into home. Ooooh, then the runner’s going to slam his metal spikes into the catchers legs? And the runner risks tearing an ACL by sliding as hard as he can into a stationary catcher?... Not a fan of that rule. Or maybe make runners slide head-first… oh yeah…that’s how Manny Ramirez broke a finger and how Josh Hamilton broke his arm. That won’t work. New rule! If there seems to be a play at the plate, the runner has to stop halfway down the line and will face the catcher in a dance-off. The second base umpire will be Simon Cowell and Jerry West will be Paula Abdul.
C. The runner is the player at most risk! Posey has shin pads, knee pads, chest pads, and a full face helmet! Cousins has a one ear-flap helmet that falls off at the slightest impact. So when the decision is made the run over the catcher I’m not sure Posey was the one who was putting more on the line.
This was a good baseball play all the way around. Good job of blocking the plate by Posey. Great play by Cousins to score. The result was just unfortunate.
I wouldn’t be surprised if when Posey addresses the media he says right away that it was a good, clean baseball play and it was just unfortunate that his spike stuck in the dirt.
What would be awesome (but not likely) is if Posey continues to say. “I apologize for my agent. His comments about rule changes is based purely on how my health impacts his wallet. He hasn’t played baseball since he was cut from the freshman team in high school and wouldn’t know the difference between a catcher’s mitt and a ham sandwich.”
In my opinion, the video shows Posey blocked *half* the plate. Giants manager Bruce Bochy and broadcaster Duane Kuiper said on SF radio this morning that runner had a choice to swing wide of the plate (in this case to the foul side of the plate) and tag it going by, but chose instead to try to knock the ball loose. To be clear, the runner had a choice, to slide clear of the tag or to do what he did.
ReplyDeleteSure the runner had a choice, but how is the runner supposed to know if Posey is launching himself across the plate to block the dish or to issue a harmless tag.
ReplyDeleteThe runner had a choice and made the right on. It's just unfortunate Posey's cleat stuck and it broke his ankle.