http://offthebench.nbcsports.com/2011/05/27/posey-on-cousins-collision-i-left-him-a-lane-but-he-chose-to-come-at-me/

I looked at that play as much as I could stand it (While I’m real good after the fact, I hate seeing injuries happen. The notion of watching something go wrong just makes me ill) and Posey is definitely not directly in Cousin’s path. Cousin’s runs up the line shading to the infield, lining up Posey. If he hook slides he’s probably just as safe or out as if he plows the kid.

By and large I defer to your greater expertise in these matters but my eyes see a guy running at another guy who isn’t looking and with lots of room for the first guy to get around to his right.

Sure it’s one of the most exciting plays in baseball and been around since whenever. But it hurts people and it’s against the rules in any case. Lots of things change in baseball every year. This isn’t a change, just an enforcement of a known rule and the way kids are taught to play as they come up.

One thing I would like to point out however is that Posey while is a great and exciting player to watch(long time Giants fan here) he’s still raw and inexperienced. He has a combined 3 or 4 years as a Catcher. He handles the staff remarkably well, he’s got great instincts with a threatening runner on the bags and his bat is one of the best I have seen in a long time.

However…

He’s still green. He doesn’t have the experience that could have saved him in that same incident. Had he moved infield by a step or two he could have caught the ball cleanly and applied the tag without even having to block the plate. He caused his own injury as much as Cousins did for plowing into him. I’m not blaming Buster for his injury. There is a learning curve here and he clearly didn’t know better. Sadly he understands it now. Also Catchers mitts while being pretty well padded, you can feel the ball. Buster had to know he didn’t have it. He’s one of the most intuitive players in the game. So as much as I hate that the kid got injured, I don’t blame Cousins, I don’t blame MLB for leaving a 100+ year old rule intact. I blame the one guy that has the experience to know better for not teaching this kid fundamentally sound technique.

Bochy was a Major League Catcher for his entire career. There is no excuse for not working with this kid on his technique.

So really where is the hue and cry about a Manager who knows the position as well as anybody not stepping in and working with this kid to help him protect himself?

Uhhhh I think you took what he was saying out of context. He wasn’t advocating violence. He was saying that you pretty much have to take it to the runner in that situation in order to protect yourself. In this instance he was CLEARLY right.

Also Fielder had one other choice to make…

…HOLD UP AT 3rd and preserve the Inning. Hur Duuuuur!

Instead Fielder chose to be a thug and have a go at Whitey thinking the Posey incident would be fresh enough to back the man off the dish. It wasn’t a heads up play, it WASN’T smart Baseball and it wasn’t necessary to score the run right then. Then of course Fielder really never has had a Baseball mind anyway. It’s sad that he’s Cecil’s kid.

You blaming Posey for getting hurt is like blaming a girl for getting raped because she dressed too provocatively.

Fielders block the base on unforced plays all the time. Are you saying that if a guy’s caught in a rundown he should just try to take the fielder’s head off and hope for a dropped ball?

Ugghh……

You might add: Those pesky catchers are always trying to play defense. Who do they think they are ~ trying to defend against broken bones and brain injuries anyway?

And I wholeheartedly disagree with your conclusion that a catcher’s block of the plate is not part of the exciting action at the plate. In my mind it is the defining moment of the play and baseball would sorely miss an integral part to an exciting play.

When did you pull off these feats of prestidigitation? You must have spent time in pro ball, because no level below that allows plowing the catcher.

Runners shouldn’t have to decide to slide or not…if they play is close they should always be sliding, and if the catcher doesn’t have the ball then the runner should be called safe regardless for obstruction.

You may not realize this, but catcher don’t commit obstruction (what you call giving the plate away) all the time because they don’t have the ball, so getting run over would serve no purpose. If catchers stopped committing obstruction, no one would actually notice because the vast majority of the time on these plays they don’t do it.

As to rule change and/or inforcement, not only will it not work, it would drastically reduce one of the most exciting plays in the game. Plus you are opening Pandora’s Box with the recommended adjustments. On almost every close play at the plate you are begging for one team or another to have merits for arguement. Anytime a catcher makes any move toward the runner with his legs he will be open for blocking criticism. Anytime any contact is made when the runner does not slide will be open for the plowing claims. And it is silly to believe the players have time to decide ahead of time whether they are going to slide or not. It is screwed up all the time. Adding more decision making to a play that is spit second, will only complicate the issue and open up more avenues for injury.

One last comment, the play in which Posey was injured was not due to the collision. As I stated yesterday a hard slide right across the plate at Posey’s already twisted foot could have caused even greater damage than he received by the blow from Cousins. Catchers bait runners, giving them a portion of the outside(inside really) part of the plate and then kick them off with their shinguards, and this is exactly what Posey was trying to do, which resulted in him getting his toe/cleat stuck under him.

All in all it is an exciting play, with multiple options, and I for one relish the action as it is presently conducted, and do not want the rule altered. Injuries to catchers are rare on plays at the plate. And this has nothing to do with tradition. I have a myriad of rule changes I would like to see, it is just that this is not one of them.

And, really, it’s not that big of a deal. No one was hurt here because Whiteside blocked the plate properly. Posey was in awful position fundamentally.

This wouldn’t require sweeping changes. Players aren’t that stupid. A single meeting with each team to explain that now runners will be called safe if a catchers commits obstruction and that runners will be called out for going after the catcher rather than the plate (i.e. for not sliding) is all that will be required….and players will adapt immediately. These are not split second things….a player knows all the way from 3rd that there will be a play at the plate, and the catcher knows a runner is coming…they have all kinds of time to make the right decision on how to approach the play.

The plate isn’t a moving target, the catcher can easily stay out of the baseline when he doesn’t have the ball and the runner knows exactly where he has to slide to score.

These are just dumb plays, there is no benefit to the game by allowing illegal plays to injure players.

The collision risks not only the catcher but the runner. These guys get paid millions to play not loaf on the DL.