2009 MLB Thread

I've been having thoughts of Papelbon playing for the Yankees -- esp. since he's on record recently as saying he wouldn't necessarily say no to an offer from New York after 2010. Jason Bay? Say it ain't so!

 

Good to see Ortiz and Tek hit home runs tonight. And Papelbon picks up his 17th save. Nick Green dodged a broken bat tonight -- kind of a scary moment.

Looking around the league, most of the teams in the AL East won their games.

The Dodgers are being handled tonight by the ChiSox, and the Mets routed the Cardinals. The Rays also bounced back against the road-best Phillies. I was hoping for a Phillies sweep.

 

the phillies deserved that loss last night.

the load the bases on 3 straight walk and no outs, then Werth comes up,
swings AT THE FIRST PITCH and grounds into a double play.

He should have been pulled right out of the game for that.

Too bad coaches don't have the guts to do something like that anymore.

Oh I forgot, Jimmy rollins flips to second trying for a force to end the inning
instead of throwing to first with the slowest runner in the world Pat Burrell trying to get to first.

Runner is safe and the Rays score a bunch of runs.

 

I'm not worried about the Phillies. I'm sure they will do better at home soon.

Your post, though, reminded me of something. In High School, I got into a heated debate with my (at the time) best friend. He insisted that a batter gets credit for an RBI when he hits into a double play. I knew that he did not. But it's one of those quirky tenets of the game. Baseball has many of these, and IMO it makes the game all the more interesting.

Some others that come to mind (with varying degrees of quirkiness) are the infield fly rule (try explaining that to someone who does not know the game all that well); the ground rule triple (or three-base award); several ways a pitcher can balk; the twenty-three ways a man can get on first base; and the triple play without the ball touching a fielder (my personal favorite in the 'quirky' category).

There are many others. Please chime in if you have any favorites.

 

It makes sense to me (that there is no RBI), as choosing the double play over trying to throw a guy out at home could be considered a fielder's choice.

I haven't heard of the ground rule triple...unless that is what it's called when a fielder throws his mitt at the ball?

 

Yeah, that's why I was careful to include "three-base award" parenthetically.

"There are two ways that this can happen and you almost never see either at major league level. One, is if a player deliberately touches the ball with his hat or mask (ie, tries to catch it, for instance), or, two, if a player deliberately throws his glove at, and touches, a fair ball. Since neither of these corresponds to unique characteristics of the field it isn’t really a ground rule triple but rather a three-base award."

Rules and quirks -- The Hardball Times

 

So how about this...

Bases loaded, nobody out. Batter flies out and all runners attempt to tag up. The runners at first and second are thrown out, with the third out occurring after the runner on third scores. I assume the batter would get an RBI, even though he hit into a triple play?

 

Brian,

I love your scenario! Best answer? It would depend on the official scorer.

Seriously, I was trying to think of how it could occur. I think it could, but it would be highly implausible. Still, I think an RBI would have to be credited to the batter given the scenario playing out as you have it written, wouldn't it?

I also concur with Mike about the RBI on a sacrifice fly. {BTW, I wonder if the infield fly rule would be invoked? I suppose it would depend on the distance of the fly out. If invoked, that could throw a bit of a wrench into the play, I think.}

 

Mike,

I guess I could have been a bit clearer. I was thinking of that ball this isn't quite an infield pop up, yet is not so deep as to be a considered a fly ball out.

Stretching it a bit?

 

It's good to stretch -- especially when playing baseball.

 

That's some nice razzle dazzle!

 

You're right...a more plausible scenario would be that the runners on 1st and 2nd were doubled (and tripled) off after leaving too early on a fly ball they didn't think would be caught.

Switching gears to today's game...it will be interesting to see what happens with Milton Bradley. He was sent home in the middle of the game after Piniella ripped him for punching a Gatorade cooler. I agree with Piniella being fed up with the petulance of the players this year (at least 4 other players have destroyed water/Gatorade coolers this year) but it's hard to single out Bradley when Zambrano and others get away with the same thing.

 

One thing about Piniella is that he may be the guy to 'get tough' with players. He was a tough player in his time (I remember him mostly with the Royals); he doesn't strike me as someone who will put up with too much for very long.