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No punishment expected for Marcus Stroman after throwing near Caleb Joseph's head
Major League Baseball reportedly looked into disciplining right-hander Marcus Stroman of the Toronto Blue Jays — but won't punish him — after he threw a pitch near the head of Caleb Joseph of the Baltimore Orioles on Monday night.
No discipline anticipated for Blue Jays' Marcus Stroman over head-high pitch to Orioles' Caleb Joseph, industry source said.
— steven marcus (@newsdaymarcus) September 16, 2014
The Orioles believe that Stroman, a 23-year-old rookie, was retaliating in the sixth inning for Joseph blocking the plate illegally (the Jays say), and unnecessarily stepping on the hand of Toronto's Jose Reyes an inning earlier. Both teams were warned by the plate umpire immediately after Stroman's pitch, which Stroman later said simply slipped. After striking out Joseph to end the sixth, Stroman engaged the Orioles bench in unfriendly banter, and was shooed off the field by O's manager Buck Showalter.
Via the Baltimore Sun:
“Let's face it, he's 23 years old, emotional, you see him coming off the mound doing his little whatever,” Showalter said of Stroman. “I'll let Toronto take care of that, and I'm sure the league office will do what needs to be done. Caleb made a perfectly legal play the way it's supposed to be done. I'm still trying to figure out what they're mad about. Caleb is right where he was supposed to be.”
The Orioles won 5-2, and are on the brink of capturing their first AL East title since 1997. The Blue Jays remain on the fringe of the wild card hunt, but will need a lot of help over the next 13 days to make the playoffs. Two games remain in the Baltimore-Toronto series at Camden Yards.
Aside from this moment, Stroman's rookie season has been a delight for the Jays. As a starter over 114 innings, he's posted a 3.19 ERA with 96 strikeouts, 27 walks and 103 hits allowed.
Other pitchers have been fined and/or suspended for intentionally, in MLB's opinion, throwing at batters. Perhaps it's because Stroman missed, but he appears to have escaped without punishment — aside from is reputation. Joseph offered his perspective of dodging the wayward pitch:
“There’s life outside of baseball, you know? I have a wife and a baby on the way. Those are the type of things that go through your head when that kind of stuff happens. I am glad it didn’t hit me. So, yeah, there’s a code. Every baseball player knows there’s a code. I’m not the judge here to judge intent or any of that stuff. I’m just glad it didn’t hit me.”
Earlier in the day, MLB levied a seven-game suspension at Jonathan Papelbon of the Phillies for making an obscene gesture at fans on Sunday. Although touching yourself is apples compared to the oranges of throwing intentionally at another player, which is more detrimental? And both cases have this in common: They require MLB to read the minds of its players.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rdbrown@yahoo-inc.com and follow him on Twitter!
