THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Should AAA players not be allowed to swing?

I’m not sure what there is to complain about.  It looked like he went twice.  I felt Scott Barry showed the proper response to Howard’s indignation on the first check swing call.  (Howard puts his hands on his hips after the call while looking at Barry - not the ground, Barry does likewise).  That is pretty much the universal sign that an umpire won’t tolerate anything more - it’s your “warning”. 

Then the bat toss after the Check Swing Strike 3 was not a “I’m frustrated at myself” bat toss - Howard was looking at Barry the entire time.  This usually merits and ejection - and that’s what happened.

Right, whether the umpire is a rookie, fill-in or veteran really shouldn’t matter.  Now, whether umpires in general should eject players for anything less than blatant confrontational behavior is another issue altogether, and one on which I am agnostic.

I do think that expecting umpires to distinguish between important and not so important games and innings in terms of who and when they “run” players is silly.  Running players is a reactive (without much forethought) behavior, just like throwing tantrums is reactive.  By the same logic, you can criticize Howard for throwing a tantrum in the 14th inning of an important game…

Once the guy suits up and steps out onto a major league field, he is a major league umpire, and deserving of all the respect of any umpire. The game situation is irrelevant, the ump should call him as he sees them at any time, including ejections.

I get it that Bill’s a Phillies fan, but he comes off very whiny in his commentary. I think he’d do better just sticking to the facts than insulting the umpire.

I went and watched the inning. Howard’s first check swing was questionable. Howard put his hands on his hips, and so did Barry at third, who looked like he wanted to rip Howard’s head off. Howard clearly says to the home plate ump, “I’m mad at myself”. The Phillies announcers several times warn Howard to be careful, as his team was out of position players. Another look at Barry, who still looks pissed. On the two strike check swing, I did not think Howard swung, but Barry emphatically rung him up. Howard is shocked and throws down his bat in anger, leading to Barry immediately tossing him. Howard then goes all George Brett.

I do think the umpire Barry was holding a grudge at Howard’s reaction on the first check swing, despite Howard telling the home plate ump “I’m mad at myself”. I also think the second check swing call and the ejection were angry reactions by the umpire. Hopefully the league will review this incident and it will be part of the consideration of whether Barry gets to continue umpiring in the major leagues.

Despite how angry Howard was, he must realize his team’s situation. He should have turned his back and walked back to the dugout. I would then suggest going to the locker room and screaming expletives or breaking something, out of the umpires sight, but it was the third out of the inning.

I was once in a similar situation when I was 18. Our team only had nine players arrive for the game. I was pitching and the ump would not give me the outside corner, where I loved to throw my cutter. We’re down a run late in the game, and I was batting with runners on and two outs. Two strikes, then he calls a strike on the corner, I felt like first time whole game he calls the f’ing pitch it’s to call me out. I threw my bat down on the ground, then went to get my glove and go back out to pitch. The ump stopped me and said he should have thrown me out for throwing the bat, but didn’t because we only had nine guys and it would have meant forfeiting the game. Be more careful next time.

The ump gave me a break, as my ejection would have meant game over. For the Phillies, it meant Oswalt had to play left. That’s not damaging the integrity of the game. He’s a major leaguer, suck it up. What about the game earlier this year when both teams had position players pitching in the 18th inning?

Where’s the manager here?  Lots of talk on this blog about the manager’s role and impact and what not, but here is a place where the manager absolutely has a role.  After Barry was seen mocking Howard, the manager should call time, walk out to the crew chief, and say the equivalent of, first, I’m not arguing the call--let’s all say the call was correct.  But your guy just did something totally unprofessional in mocking my guy.  And before this escalates so I have to put Roy Oswalt into left field and your guy gets a serious complaint to the commissioner’s office, let’s figure out how to diffuse this.  You talk to your guy and I’ll talk to my guy, and I’ll guaranty that Howard will be a choir boy in the batter’s box, but your guy, whatever call he makes, has to show him respect.  Ryan’s a lot frustrated right now, you experienced umps know how he is but I’m afraid a new guy might see this as an attack on himself, which we all know it isn’t. 

Whatever else Manuel had to do here, the one thing he had to do was get himself between the umpires and Howard. 

The rest is a bunch of hooey.  Umpires are an obstacle to be gotten around; you can complain about a bad one til the cows come home and unless a rule is broken the result isn’t changed.  So suck it up and make sure this doesn’t happen no matter what you have to do to ensure it.

this same umpire ejected Ryan Zimmerman the week prior for a questionable check swing call.  a week later he ejects Ryan Howard for a questionable strike three call. 

Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman have a combined 0 ejections in their mlb careers.  so this AAA umpire just ejected two of the more likeable players in baseball in 1 week. 

a week later he calls Joey Votto out on a questionable check swing call.  Votto did the correct thing and put his head down and just walked away.