Milton Bradley, again

I just watched in its entirety the Milton Bradley at bat in the 5th inning, and the confrontation in the 8th.

According to Bradley, when he approached the batter's box in the 8th, the home plate umpire (Runge) asked him if he flipped his bat at the ump after he struck out in the 5th. Bradley says he told the ump "No, why would I do that?" Bradley then asked the ump "Who told you that?" Runge told him that Mike Winters, the first base ump told Runge that Bradley flipped the bat at him.

I watched the end of the at bat in the 5th. It was a called strike. The ump and the catcher moved away. Bradley stood at home plate taking off his batting gloves. He was annoyed, but he wasn't talking to Runge or acting in an angry manner. I certainly didn't see him throw the bat. It is possible he tossed it after they went to commercial, but that would have been a good 20 seconds after the strikeout, and Runge was no longer even in the camera shot. It seems highly unlikely.

So after the conversation with Runge in the 8th, Bradley singled. When he reaches first, he turns to Winters and asks him a question. Bradley says the question was "Did you tell him I threw my bat? Why would you do that?" In the video, Winters is responding calmly. Bradley says Winters is telling him "You did throw the bat." Watching the video, I'm guessing Winters' tone was more along the lines of "That's what I saw...I thought you threw the bat at him." Bradley is clearly upset. Todd Helton is stoic.

As several pitches are made to Kouzamanoff, Bradley is still jawing as he takes his leads. Black comes out of the dugout to find out what's going on and to have a talk with Winters. Also, first base coach Bobby Meacham tells Black what's going on.

The game resumes, with Bradley taking his lead more quietly on the next pitch. On the following pitch, Bradley is jawing again, but not in a particularly boisterous manner. He's just talking. A fan yells "You suck ump." Bradley points to the fan, but says nothing. He and Winters continue to exchange dialogue, though Bradley is talking a lot more than Winters.

In the middle of taking his next lead, Winters says something to Bradley, and Bradley snaps. He rushes back to the first base bag -- not at Winters -- and tries to ask for time out. He looks like he wants a time out to figure out what Winters' problem is. Before he gets to the bag he turns and heads for Winters, who quickly throws him out of the game as Meacham tries to restrain him. Then Bud Black is there -- out of nowhere -- wrestling Bradley away, and eventually twisting/tackling him to the ground, where Bradley tore his ACL.

Bradley is hot tempered and probably over reacted to the whole thing. He has a chip on his shoulder.

But when I watched the video, it is clear Winters said something special to push Bradley over the edge. He was not in charging mode while he was taking his leads and jawing. Winters said something that pushed him. I'd love to hear what that was, either from Bobby Meacham or Todd Helton. Meacham commented today that if Winters had said the same thing to him, he would have charged him too. No word yet from Helton.

Nate Silver at BP argues that Helton has an ethical duty to step forward and report what he heard.

Pedro and Kenny

Three weeks ago, Kenny Rogers was a jerk that many were talking about suspending for the rest of the year and Pedro was one of the best pitchers in the history of the game.




Now, Kenny Rogers is just flawed, but everyone feels a little sorry for him. Pedro is hated. What 's next? Lifting Kenny's suspension and applying it to Pedro?




I listened to Chris Berman, John Kruk, Peter Gammons, Harold Reynolds, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver all pay tribute to Kenny Rogers for holding a press conference against the advice of his lawyers. Yeah. Three weeks too late.




Where was Rogers' apology at the time of the incident? Was he being altruistic in holding this press conference? Hardly. It wasn't about contrition, though he played the contrition game quite well. It was about trying to salvage the All-Star game he had besmirched and reducing the boos he'd receive when he entered the game. Rogers held a press conference to justify his appearance at the All-Star game. If he was truly sorry, he should have apologized within a few days. If he recognized how badly he acted, he never would have appealed the suspension.




I'm not sure which conduct is more sickening: Rogers failure to apologize or the commentators blowing with the wind. How did Kenny Rogers suddenly become a stand-up guy and "courageous"? He certainly didn't look courageous pushing around a 5'7" guy with a video camera.




But Kenny got lucky, because Pedro Martinez stepped in to take the heat. Pedro is now the pet jerk. Pedro declined the invitation to the All-Star Game on the "been there/done that" platform, saying he wanted to give some young guys the chance. Personally, I don't have a problem with that. To me, it's actually humble. Yet he is being lionized because "fans want to see him pitch." (By the way, is this a game for the fans or is it to determine home field advantage in the World Series...let's make up our minds).




C'mon. He's gonna pitch one inning at most. I never tune into the All-Star game to see the pitchers, because they don't pitch enough to matter and they are at a disadvantage. They show off 20 pitches and sit down. They are usually in an unfamiliar role, and never even get into rhythm. Plus, fans can see Pedro on t.v. (or the Internet) in virtually every game he starts. I'd be surprised if even one fan failed to attend the game or consciously chose not to watch the game because Pedro declined the invitation. Let's not forget, the fans didn't select him to the team. And it isn't as if LaRussa was unable to find another All-Star pitcher for the roster.




The real problem is that people don't like it when someone is given a compliment and is unable or unwilling to accept it. We think of the All-Star game as a big compliment (which it is), and when someone rejects the compliment, they are rejecting us. Well guess what? Lots of us have that problem. Lots of us do not want attention for doing the job we are paid to do.




If Pedro wants to rest three days instead of showing off 20 pitches in a game in Detroit, and if Pedro wants to give some young guys the chance to experience the All-Star game, that's okay.




But get your priorities straight. Don't make Pedro out to be an asshole and congratulate Kenny for his courage.

Rogers Suspension

This suspension, I understand. It will be interesting to see if Rogers bothers to appeal.




To many, 20 games sounds better than it is. That's only 4 games for a starter. Looking at it that way, Rogers' suspension is only twice as long as Sheffield's.




Can we quantify it? Sheffield has 15.5 Win Shares so far this season. He has played in 74 games this season, so he earns about .21 Win Shares per game. A 2 game suspension will cost the Yankees .42 Win Shares, or about 1/7 of a win.




Rogers has about 12.3 Win Shares so far this season. He has pitched in 15 games. So he earns about .82 WS per start. He'll miss 4 starts, so that will cost the Rangers 3.28 Win Shares, or just a little more than a full win.




By that measure, Rogers' suspension is 8 times that of Sheffield. Still seems light to me. I would not have been outraged if Kenny Rogers had received the Ron Artest treatment.




NBCSports.com has a poll. The question for the poll was "Was the suspension too harsh?". Forty-four percent (44%) think it is. Huh?

Sheffield Suspension

I cannot understand this suspension. First, Sheffield was safe at first, and it did not take an instant replay to figure that out. He looked safe at full speed.




Second, C.B. Bucknor tossed Sheffield from the game simply because Sheffield threw his helmet on the ground as he crossed the bag and realized he had been called out. He didn't throw the helmet at Bucknor, and he did not confront Bucknor (or really even yell at him)...not until he had already been tossed from the game.




He's not allowed to be frustrated about a call? Even though Bucknor did not see him safe, surely he knew the call was close and he might get an argument. Did he toss Sheffield to preempt an argument?




And third, a suspension? Even if Sheffield had been out (which he wasn't), and even if he was justifiably tossed by Bucknor (which he wasn't), when did he cross the line? He gave Bucknor an earful, for about 15 seconds, before being pulled away by Joe Torre. That's not much of an argument.




I watched the game live on t.v., and I was surprised at the out call and absolutely shocked when Sheffield got thrown out. The time between the out call and the toss could not have been more than 1 second. I expected major league baseball to quietly reprimand Bucknor for the short fuse. Instead, Sheffield gets a suspension. Everyone appeals, of course, and Sheffield has followed suit. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a rare instance in which the player wins the appeal.




You wanna suspend someone? Suspend Bucknor for bush league umpiring. Instead, of course, Bucknor will be at the All-Star game. So will Sheffield.

Kenny Rogers T.V. Etiquette

How in the world did Kenny Rogers ever pitch in New York? Arlington, Texas is not exactly sporting the biggest media spotlight. And this is Rogers' 12th year with the Rangers. He's got to know most of these people by now.




You've got a couple of local t.v. cameras shooting him walking onto the field to warm up. No one interviews him. No one berates him. He's just in a bad mood, so he decides to push around a little videographer and break his $50,000 camera.




Apparently Rogers has been miffed with the media all season, because they accused him of not being willing to pitch with the Rangers unless some contract modifications were made. The horror!




I am not particularly sympathetic to media intrusion or sensationalism, but neither of those things were present here. Kenny, you are a major league baseball player. You're gonna be on t.v. To me this is no better than Milton Bradley attacking fans.




Win Shares does not take into account whether a player is a jerk. In light of Rogers' behavior today, I feel justified in revoking his All-Star spot and handing it to the next best starter judged by Win Shares. So congratulations to his teammate Chris Young. Chris, I wish you had a better role model.