Hello,
Last night I saw one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on a baseball field. That was Zack Greinke's poor judgment following him hitting Quentin with a pitch. Let's review, before the start of the season Greinke signed a 6 year-$147 million contract with the Dodgers. Usually when a team signs a stud like Greinke I'm usually pretty excited. However with this signing something has felt hinky from the start. Not that any player ever deserves $147 million for six years, but I think Greinke is even less deserving than many players that have signed similar deals.
I don't have any concrete proof for my theory, it's just that this deal hasn't felt right from the beginning. Sometimes in sports people talk about the eyeball test, in this case this deal flunked the feel right test for me. Now obviously Greinke is just at the start of his contract and still has plenty of time to justify his contract. He could even be a key player for the Dodgers later on this season. If the Dodgers make the playoffs, a one two punch of Clayton Kershaw and Grienke would be tough to overcome. Not that I think this Dodgers team will be making the playoffs. They are a lot like their fellow LA sports team the Lakers, both have a lot of hype but ultimately will be done in by being poorly constructed teams. (LOL to Magic Johnson for saying that if the Lakers make the playoffs they'd beat the Spurs in the playoff's first round. That's a completely homer, or maybe gomer, thing to say.)
From multiple reports that I've read and heard, the consensus is that Greinke accidentally hit Carlos Quentin. That's baseball and things happen. I also realize there's a delicate balance between the pitcher and the hitter about who owns home plate. Occasionally pitchers are going to hit batters. Most times both the pitcher and hittee understand that and there's no problem, especially when it seems to be accidental. The batter needs to take first base without acknowledging the pitcher. And the pitcher should tip his hat or apologize in some way. As Mike and Mike's Mike Greenberg suggests Greinke should have tipped his hat and the game would have gone on.
However that's not happened last night and this is where the what the hell was Greinke thinking comes in. Greinke should realize the Dodgers are paying him all that money to better their chances of winning a World Series. Greinke needs to focus on what's best for his team and not best for his ego. When Quentin stepped towards the mound, the last thing Greinke should have done is engaged him. That would have been the best way to handle it. But no our good friend Zack pulled a Jerry Jones. He let pride goeth before the fall, or in this case tackle.
However the Dodgers expensive investment, Greinke, said something back to Quentin. Obviously he said something that was meant to inflame. That was the first dumb thing that Greinke did. His comment hit it's intended target, Quentin's pride. It seems Greinke has never been in a fight before as he prepared for Quentin's attack by lowering his shoulder into Quentin. That exposed his collar bone to Quentin's attack. That was the second dumb thing Greinke did. A tip of the hat would should have been enough to avoid this whole mess. And this is probably just the beginning of the mess.
The end result of the "fight" is Quentin will be suspended probably 3 to 8 games according to Buster Olney. Zack Greinke will be out 2-3 months as the Dodgers lose their second best pitcher for an extended part of the season. Already the Dodgers are undermanned and can ill afford to lose any of their key players.
Again this isn't the end of this mess as the Dodgers and Padres play each other 10 times between now and the All-Star break. Their next series starts Monday when the Dodgers host the Padres for 3 games, which means neither Greinke or Quentin will be playing in their next series. Look for more fireworks between the two teams. I hope the umpires are allowed great discretion in disciplining anyone that even fidgets out of line.
And the game almost became beside the point. The Dodgers won the game 3-2 on Juan Uribe's home run. Uribe is one of the Dodgers many bad contracts, I'm glad when he does anything positive. A.J. Ellis got on base 4 of the 5 times he was at the plate.
But before that the Dodgers have a three game series with the Diamondbacks. Entering today's games both the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks are 6-3. They're tied for second place in the NL West, both are a 1/2 game behind the first place Giants. Right now the Giants are playing an afternoon game and it looks like they will lose, that would drop them to 7-4. Tonight's Dodgers-Diamondbacks winner will be temporarily the NL West's first place team.
Perhaps the best pitcher in MLB is taking the mound for the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw will take his 2-0 record to the mound. He'll be pitching against Patrick Corbin, whose 1-0 on the season.
themusicaddict
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