I’ll jump in here as a Padres fan to play a little Devil’s Advocate. First off, this is a pretty thorough and even-handed breakdown of what happened by Grantland. This bit about the second time Greinke beaned Quentin sticks out to me -
Quentin seems to think that Greinke hit him on purpose. Greinke claims he doesn’t do that. Really Zach? Cause if I’m Quentin, that 2009 game sure as Hell looks like you did it on purpose. 1st at bat, high and tight. 2nd at bat, beaned between the shoulders. And it’s all just a coincidence that the White Sox and Quentin in particular used to light Greinke up back then when he was still with the Royals. Riiiiiiight.
This article from Fox Sports, on the other hand, is exactly the kind of garbage that makes fans of small market teams think that the mainstream media just can’t get enough of sucking up to the Big Boys. The entire thrust of the article is that Quentin needs a month-long suspension because, and I quote,
And what is this amazing personal reason that Quentin had for charging the mound? Did Greinke sleep with his wife? Kick his dog? No…
The “personal” and entirely not “baseball” reason that Quentin charged Greinke? Cause Greinke won’t stop beaning him! Regardless of how you feel about the incident, this has to be the dumbest piece of journalism I’ve read in a very long time.
Seriously? Quentin was 3-10 with a walk and HBP (2 home runs, three strikeouts) in his career against Greinke before Greinke hit him the second time. This is now considered lighting him up? Really?
Why does that mean it was intentional? That makes it sound like he’s trying to pitch Quentin inside. Pitchers are allowed to do that even though hitters periodically forget it.
“Many” equals three, and at the time it was two. So Quentin promised he’d attack Greinke after Greinke hit him the second time. That doesn’t make Quentin look very good, does it?
Quentin is an ass and umps need to start calling strikes again if the batter is hit while hanging over the plate. I recall at least once where he was hit on a body part in the strike zone. Not that this one was a case of this, but charging the mound is just stupid period.
There’s a nice writeup at Grantland. On the one hand it’s true that Quentin was not hanging over the plate in this case and Greinke seemed to hit White Sox batters a disproportionate amount of the time in seasons past, and the fact that Jason Marquis had almost hit Kemp on an 0-2 pitch in the first inning. On the other, there’s all the remaining context of this game and the season, the fact that the pitch hit Quentin squarely on the forearm, not on the back or the head, and everything else.
The point is that Quentin certainly believes it was intentional, and has plenty of reason to think that way. And Greinke knows that Quentin thinks he’s hitting him on purpose. Quentin is certainly going to get suspended, and rightly so - no one should be charging the mound. But Greinke pretending to be entirely blameless here is a joke - he threw the pitch, he said something clearly inflammatory, then he threw his glove to the ground and squared up for a fight. There is plenty of blame to go around here - Quentin, sure, but Greinke, Kemp and Hairston each get a share too.
The only good news here is that Quentin should be suspended long enough to miss the series in LA next week. Hopefully that’ll tone things down… somewhat. Otherwise it’d be a bloodbath. But they’ll both be back long before the season’s over, so there’s no way we’ve heard the last of this.
I think that’s stretching it a bit, BoltEater. Your evidence includes the villain of the piece literally saying that he was afraid that he almost hit the guy.
The entire story is that Carlos Quentin lost his fucking mind four years ago, and we’re just finding out about it now. It’s funny how easy it is to slip into the mentality that accepts that sports is just a different universe - like fighting in hockey - but if we’re being rational human beings about this, he ran up and physically assaulted a guy and caused him to suffer a broken collarbone because he had a secret crazypants grudge for years. He likes getting hit by baseballs. He aspires to it. But when Zack Greinke - fucking Zack Greinke of all people! - hits him as the leadoff batter in a close game on a full count, oh shit no it’s time for everyone to physically attack everyone. It’s absurd.
Watching the Indians game and they are saying that Greinke hitting Quentin three times shows it can’t possibly be in error. And then Archie Manning said: “If you have a problem with a guy throwing at you, go get him.”
Because that’s what Real Baseball Players do, I guess.
You cannot be “beaned between the shoulders.” To be “beaned” is to be hit in the head. Let’s at least get our terms correct.
Limiting ourselves to people who’ve played a fair number of games, no player in the entire modern history of baseball is likelier to be hit by a pitch than Carlos Quentin. It is virtually certain that, over the course of his career, SOMEONE will have hit him three or four times, just by random chance.
Exactly. The pitcher HAS to be able to pitch inside. If you are a Carlos Quentin and you intentionally hang out over the plate in the hopes of getting a cheap walk, then oh fucking well. Sucks to be you. And don’t cry about it or charge the mound in some stupid attempt to justify your shitty AB’s.
