Comments on: Brett Lawrie is probably going to get drilled

By: purplekoolaid1

purplekoolaid1 — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:25:25 +0000

Matthew, I feel absolutely embarrassed for you that you call yourself a sports writer. You are so biased and unprofessional that it’s sad really. Embarrassing.

By: tsi431

tsi431 — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:23:57 +0000

A true Canadian would apologize for being Canadian.

I love the movie “Canadian Bacon”

By: crash1582

crash1582 — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:13:17 +0000

No… its definitly a writen rule, just not a highly enforced rule. Do not block the plate.

By: badintent

badintent — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 06:45:56 +0000

Lawrie plays old school ball, good stuff. But he doesn’t gamble on games like Pete Rose. He made a smart play to hit the arm to dislodge the ball and Hester was blocking the plate without the ball. Angles had no case to complain. Hester blocked the plate again on the next runner, he is a stud now but will end up a broken down catcher before his time if he continues to do just that. As Maxius said ” We who are about to die salute you. “

By: jaysjunkie

jaysjunkie — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 06:35:43 +0000

And he’s been hit about 7-8 times this year. No intention at all.

By: medialovesthecowboys

medialovesthecowboys — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:08:10 +0000

Hey Matt, did Lawrie hit it and not call back?

By: charlutes

charlutes — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:58:22 +0000

As soon as I saw this happen I said Mathew Poulliot is going to be all over this

By: ch0psuey

ch0psuey — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:46:52 +0000

I also thumbsup’d myself and thumbsdown’d you. Because that is how I roll.

By: ch0psuey

ch0psuey — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:44:02 +0000

Thats what a Canadian would say

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:32:55 +0000

As if I care!

By: ch0psuey

ch0psuey — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:30:19 +0000

I thumbsdown’ed you because you are Canadian. Just thought I’d let you know.

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:23:58 +0000

I wasn’t sure, just checked the box score to see if Lawrie was HBP and saw Encarnacion’s name. In the summary it showed a man on 2nd when it happened. Figured he just got plunked. Didn’t see the count.

By: db105

db105 — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:37:55 +0000

Hitting Encarnacion brought the tying run to the plate. Really doubt it was intentional.

By: paint771

paint771 — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:10:04 +0000

Actually, I think it was kind of indecisive baserunning that threw Kendrick/Aybar off. Lawrie kind of hitched on the way to third, and Kendrick saw Lawrie slow down. Kendrick had been set for a big through, but Lawrie switching gears between second and third slowed him, and then Lawrie decided late to push it. Frankly, if it had turned into an out it would have been a baserunning mistake on Lawrie’s part, but the way the play developed seemed to screw up just about everyone’s rhythm.

Weird play all around.

Now if you want to see a defender just out to lunch, check out Pujols a few innings later when Kendrick made a phenomenal catch and was going to easily double up the first base runner, but Albert decided to just park it and direct traffic in the middle of the field so Kendrick’s throw went to an empty bag. And the whole time, Albert just kind of stood there and watched everything, like a fan coming back with nachos and beer.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:09:42 +0000

As you said, the umpire had a bad day making his calls. He was probably right all 3 times, but his signals were confusing to the players and the managers.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:06:04 +0000

Not intentional at all. Just an inside pitch that was too inside.

By: paint771

paint771 — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 23:04:15 +0000

Yeah, they have nothing to bitch about regarding Lawrie. He was barreling down the line with the catcher standing straight up on the basepath on a play that 9 times of out 10 is going to come down to whether he hangs on. You can’t fault Lawrie for the play, and if it came as a surprise that Lawrie would be that aggressive (but clean), you haven’t seen much of Brett Lawrie.

I think the real frustration there was with home plate umpire James Hoye, who frankly had a pretty bad game not so much in terms of the calls but in terms of how he made them. He called a foul on a strikeout pitch to Bautista, and earlier in the home plate play inning he also got about 3/4s through calling a strike on a 3-1 count and changed mid-gesture to walk Encarnacion. So by the time of this play, he was already on everybody’s radar, and on this play, which was really complicated and unclear, it seemed like he had his mind made up before the play even concluded (he was calling safe, at a glance, before it was even clear whether Hester had hung on or even before Lawrie had reached the bag (which he didn’t touch)). I think it was ultimately the right call (although it’s one of those “You Be the Judge” things), but the questions were 1. Did Hester tag Lawrie, 2. Did Lawrie touch the bag, and 3. Did Lawrie beat Hester on re-touching the bag. The right answers, on review, are 1. No, 2. No, 3. Yes, but none of that was apparent at the point where Hoye made the call – hell the last two things hadn’t even happened yet, so I think the Angels had a right to be frustrated there.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with Lawrie, and Butcher was just being childish trying to take out the frustration on him. All in all, it was weird, but Lawrie did nothing wrong and the Jays rightly earned the run and if the Angels were upset, they should take it out on Hoye.

By: randygnyc

randygnyc — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:37:37 +0000

I see in the line score that encarnacion got hit in the 8th. I didn’t see it, but I am assuming with the base open it was intentional.

By: vanmorrissey

vanmorrissey — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:51:42 +0000

Bang bang play for sure but Lawrie is that kind of forearm to the face type of guy. Catcher had his mask on but it’s just a tough play not worthy of retaliation.

By: atwatercrushesokoye

atwatercrushesokoye — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:51:22 +0000

And Lawrie comes up and they pitch to him as normal, it was a baseball play when the catcher was between the runner and the plate, Lawrie had two options: 1. Stop and allow the catcher to catch the ball and gather himself and then allow him to tag him out. 2. Make a baseball play and go through him, he made the right choice.

Also you should note that Lawrie’s aggressiveness and all out all the time style of play is compared by most writers to a guy who ran over a catcher in an All Star game.

By: mgv38

mgv38 — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:51:10 +0000

“Catcher John Hester got in front of the plate and had to reach up for the throw” Well, that’s ILLEGAL (and yes, ProudlyCanadian, learned from Scioscia). If you block the plate withuot the ball, you can’t complain when you get slammed.

By: Matthew Pouliot

Matthew Pouliot — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:49:55 +0000

Yeah, I watched it again: Kendrick ran harder after the ball than I thought he did. The mistake was in flipping it in to Aybar. I’m going to edit that part of the entry.

By: bobulated

bobulated — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:36:47 +0000

Kendrick’s pursuit was a bit lacking but your description makes it sound like he took a stroll. Lawrie never got tagged, catcher got him high with wrist but not glove. Hester was also right on the line, not sure what you expect Lawrie to do, didn’t look like he went high with intent, more to protect his own face in a high collision vs a guy in a mask. Nothing dirty about this play. Angels are wrong if they decide to throw at Lawrie for that.

By: dieterlaser

dieterlaser — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:36:17 +0000

Wahh…that’s baseball. Maybe if Kendrick didn’t lolly gag it, he wouldn’t have hung his catcher out to dry. Too bad.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:25:09 +0000

Trolling the Jays fans again Matthew? Just a normal competitive play at home. If the catcher does not want to risk a hard hit by a runner, he should not block the plate. It is one of the unwritten rules of baseball. Of course, Hester’s manager was notorious for blocking the plate when was a catcher.

By: 32bigg

32bigg — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 21:18:08 +0000

Lol! Your obsession with hating on Lawrie is comical.