It's far from ludicrous for Jake to be suspended. Everyone here would call for it if the teams were switched. Two games ain't ****, likely only one after the appeal. No biggie #AlvarezCF
No joke, Joe Torre should know that Marisnick sucks at making contact... no way that was intentional.
The league needs to be very clear about the rule because there have been numerous players that have said they do not understand the rule. Also, Molina keeps saying "slide"......... how about the catcher get out of the way if they do not want to be ran over in front of home plate. It should be a two way street, the catcher can always just tag the runner.
How has the rule concerning catchers not blocking the plate without the ball not already determined fault here? Jake clearly got to the catcher before he got the ball. Why isnt this one and done right there? What the f#ck does base-running intention have to do with it when a standing rule was violated before the contact? What meaning does the rule have if it doesn't apply to this?
Lucroy wasn't blocking the plate though... where Jake contacts him is several steps inside the base path.... if Jake had just run down the line he wouldn't have contacted Lucroy (certainly wouldn't have contacted him he did) I know Jake was making a split second decision and I don't think he was trying to hurt Lucroy.... All I'm saying is this isn't an example of a catcher attempting to block the runner from touching the plate by being all over the plate..
The entirety of Lucroy's body was inside the line the entirety of the play, meaning Jake always had the outside available. Lucroy's tag attempt would have been a swipe tag if Jake hadn't come inside. As far as the suspension goes, intent is not really the issue - it's whether the play was dangerous. Flagrant fouls in basketball, yellow cards in soccer, hits against defenseless receivers, etc aren't usually intentional - they are just players being a bit reckless and doing things that risk injuries that the leagues want to avoid. Jake was reckless when he decided to launch himself based on a guess that another player would move from where they were, regardless of whether he intended to hit Lucroy.
Lucroy wasn't remotely blocking the plate. His entire body was inside the basepath, meaning the entire outside lane was open. Lucroy was exactly where he should have been.
Look at his Lucroy's feet/legs from start to finish. They never cross the line: https://twitter.com/AstrosFuture?re...o/iframe/twitter.min.html#1148086027220914177
Maybe its my aging eyes, but it looked to me like Jake fainted outside first, then darted inside. A split second later, Lucroy darted inside. The entire outside wasnt open initially. Only after Lucroy went towards the ball and Jake on the inside. Ill admit there is more than one way to interpret the video footage. Just my take.
Marisnick's "mistake" is he changed his path. Once he did that, he opened himself up for interpretation. While I don't think Marisnick changed his path to make the collision, he made the choice to change his path and he was really wrong about where Lucroy would be. I hate when "intent" is part of the rule as it puts Torre in mind reader mode. It would be simpler to if rule just said if you deviate path and make a strong collision with catcher, you're out. Regarding Lucroy, I don't see how he's not getting same suspension from a rule perspective. It really looks like he knew Marisnick had chosen to go inside and went to block the inside part of plate completely. While I think intent on Marisnick to make contact is murky, I don't see how Lucroy is giving his best effort not to make a forcible collision. He turned a side swipe into a head-on devastation. Someone should tell him that while Marisnick is a defensive specialist, he's a big dude.
I see where you are coming from...I'm not sure though. if I saw that the opposing player was as visibly shaken up and remorseful as Jake was after the play, I'd like to think I woudn't be demanding blood.....
Lucroy isn't doing anything illegal (a path to home is there, other than Lucroy's foot), but he is moving back into the baseline as Marisnick makes his move, but then plants and lunges forward to try and catch the ball. Marisnick certainly looks like he is about to dive head first and then tries to stop and spin away from plunging into Lucroy. At the end of the day, only Marinick can say for sure if it was intentional to break up the play or not. Only way to 100% prevent this play from being questionable is to require the fielder to not be in the vicinity at all (never going to happen since you need it for rundowns and plays at the plate to be exciting), or to require base runners take a direct route to the base, which is not required until Lucroy catches the ball, which he never does.
Jake is such a good dude, he’s clearly bothered by what happened. I’ll never be convinced that this was intentional.
I wouldn't want blood. I would also assume the runner was safe (the Angels broadcasters sure did). The biggest difference is I'd be happy the runner was called out, and maybe change my opinion on intent.
