The Buster Posey and Scott Cousins Collision: An Outsider’s View

Scott Cousins’ collision with Buster Posey at home plate has become such an expansive topic that you have to break it down into pieces in order to cover the entire thing.  Weeks after the event, people are still debating whether or not it was avoidable, whether or not there should be a rule change to avoid collisions at the plate, and most recently, whether or not Brian Sabean’s comments on the play were out of line or not. 

 

The Collision:

May 25^th, 2011, Giants vs Marlins.  A fly ball to right field gets caught by Nate Schierholtz in the top of the 12^th inning of a tie ball game in San Francisco.  Schierholtz makes the catch, and Scott Cousins the runner on 3^rd, tags up and barrels down the line towards the plate.  What happens next will be forever burned into the minds of San Francisco Giants fans.  The throw beats Cousins to the plate, but Buster Posey was unable to haul it in.  Cousins slams full force into Posey out in front of home plate, sending Posey flying backwards.  The only issue is that instead of falling ass over teacups, Posey’s left foot got caught underneath him, forcing his leg to twist in directions that would make Irina Vashchenko cringe.  Yes I just referenced a Russian Contortionist.  Get on my level, Bill Simmons. 

The end result was that Cousins was safe, and Buster Posey was left in a heap at home plate with what wound up being a fractured bone in his leg and torn ligaments in his ankle.  Immediately a debate sparked over whether or not the play was clean or not, and if Cousins could have avoided hitting Posey. The fact is, there is no debate.  Did Cousins have 2 paths to home plate?  Yes he did.  There was a lane for him to slide around Posey. “(Cousins) had two paths to go and he elected to go after Buster,” Giants’ Manager Bruce Bochy said.  But the fact of the matter is, with Schierholtz having a cannon attached to his right shoulder, the throw beat Cousins to the plate, and had Posey caught the ball cleanly, Cousins would’ve been out trying to slide.  Cousins wasn’t out to get Posey, or to make a collision at the plate, he did what was necessary in his mind to be safe and score the go-ahead run. 

Another argument from people is that Posey wasn’t blocking the plate and therefore Cousins shouldn’t have touched him.  Maybe he wasn’t right on top of it, but he was near it, and close enough to it that Cousins touched home plate after colliding with him.  In an unfortunate situation, people always want to point the blame somewhere, and make someone the bad guy, but here you can’t.  The play was clean, there was no malicious intent.  I know that is a tough pill to swallow for Giants fans, and Buster Posey fans, but it is true. 

The Rule Change Debate:

There is no debate to be had here either.  Had Cousins vaulted into Posey with the throw having been cut off, then yes, there would be an issue.  And had that been the case, I’m nearly positive there would have been consequences for Cousins.  But how would you change the rules in this case?  Bochy thinks that a fine, a suspension and an automatic out should be the result of a runner barreling into the catcher when he has a path to the plate.  So that would leave it up to the umpire to decide whether or not the runner had a path to score.  That isn’t something you want to do.  And it isn’t like this is an ongoing issue.  People have to look all the way back to 1970 when Pete Rose crashed into Ray Fosse at home plate during the All-Star game to find another significant injury coming from a home plate collision.  It would be one thing if Cousins had broken Posey’s jaw, or gave him a concussion, or broken his ribs, or something like that.  The thing is though, is that this collision was a normal play with an unfortunate consequence.  Posey’s leg got caught under him.  It was a freak injury.  No rule change in the world is going to prevent freak injuries. 

Bochy likened the play at home plate to a punt returner fair catching a punt.  He says that the NFL made a rule against hitting guys who had called for a fair catch, so the MLB should make one against hitting catchers on plays at home plate where there’s a path to the plate.  The thing is, the punt returner is giving up his right to make an attempt at a return by fair catching.  So what, does Posey wave his arm in the air and say, don’t hit me?  So then that means he’s giving up his right to try and tag Cousins out.  That would be fine, but I’m guaranteeing, nobody is going to like that rule. 

Bottom line is that you can’t change the rules in this situation.  Had the ball not been close, or had Posey been 20 feet up the first base line, then there would be an issue, and like I said, I’m almost certain in that case there would have been consequences.

 

Brian Sabean’s comments:

They were out of line. For a GM to call out a player like that was dumb.  Everyone knows that.  I’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish.  Ralph and Tom, the hosts of the radio show Sabean was on when he made his remarks, did ask him his thoughts on the situation, but as a General Manager you need to keep a level head in that situation and realize that any comments you make are going to be a reflection on your franchise as a whole.  It made him and the team seem defeated, and that the only way this was going to be resolved was if players got beaned in the next Giants and Marlins meeting.  What the Giants need to do if they want pay back is to just play baseball and show that they aren’t going to be intimidated by losing their best player, and they’ve done just that.  Since the collision they’ve gone 7-5, including taking 3 of 4 from St. Louis, and 2 of 3 from Colorado, and battling back from a 4-0 game 1 deficit to defeat Washington 5-4 in 13 innings on Monday night.

All of that being said, Sabean has apologized to Cousins, and everything seems to be hunky dory; we’ll find out when San Francisco visits Florida for a 3 game set beginning on August 12^th. 

 

Conclusion:

Here’s one of my biggest problems with this entire thing: if this was anyone other than Buster Posey, there would be no debate about rule changes or if it was a clean play.  There wasn’t mass discussion when Twins’ 2^nd baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka got his leg broken on a hard slide at 2^nd base by Nick Swisher in the first week of the season.  Bill Smith (Minnesota’s GM) didn’t come out and talk bad about Nick Swisher.  The play wasn’t still being talked about 2 weeks after the fact.   In fact, most people have forgotten about it at this point.  Swisher went in hard to break up a double play, and he slid into Nishioka’s leg and broke it.  While it wasn’t as violent as the Cousins hit, it was still devastating to the injured player.  But it was a clean play that had an unfortunate consequence, just like Cousins and Posey’s collision at home plate, nothing more and nothing less.  I understand that it’s a difficult thing to take for Giants fans, but there are 24 other guys on the roster still out there trying to win games.  Players get injured, ask A’s fans.  Regardless of who it is or how it happened, you’ve got to pick up and move on.

Oakland A’s Managerial Woes

This was going to be a hellacious rant about all of the awful managerial decisions Bob Geren has made over the course of the season, that all really came to a head with several questionable calls Geren made in Friday night’s game against the Giants.  Instead I’ll just give you  a list of mistakes Geren made in Friday’s game:

-5th inning. Bases loaded, nobody out, pitcher Trevor Cahill at the plate facing Giants’ starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong.  The obvious strategy here is to have Cahill take until he walks or strikes out to bring up the lead off hitter with bases full and one or none out, right?  Wrong.  Instead Cahill hacks at a 3-2 pitch that winds up being a 4-6-3 double play.  “Well he had the take sign early…but down by a run, you need to get that run home. and he did drive home the only run of the game” said Geren.

-7th inning.  2 outs, a runner on 2nd, pitcher Trevor Cahill is due up.  To this point Cahill had allowed just one run and one hit over 6 innings on just 83 pitches.  So you let him hit here and if he doesn’t get a hit you still have him on the hill and the top of the order up to start the 8th inning, right?  Wrong.  Instead Connor Jackson pinch hits for Cahill, and grounds out to 2nd to end the inning.  “”We needed a hitter” said Geren.

-8th inning. No scenario needed. Aubrey Huff (hitting .222) is walked to get to Buster Posey (hitting .278 and in the midst of a 9 game hitting streak).

-10th inning. Brad Ziegler pitched the 9th walked one and struck out 2.  He threw 23 pitches.  Brian Fuentes is brought on to pitch the 10th inning.  You know the rest.  He gives up a single to Emmanuel Burriss, who is sacrificed to 2nd by Andres Torres. Freddy Sanchez gets an intentional pass to bring up Aubrey Huff who singles home the winning run.  Ziegler and his .61  ERA watched from the bench.

This is just one game.

The A’s are primed to go .500 again this season.  Close games like this that come down to managerial decisions are what separate the good teams from the mediocre ones.  Bruce Bochy has guided his team to a 13-3 record in one-run ball games.  Bob Geren’s club?  7-10 in those games.

The A’s will be nothing more than mediocre with Bob Geren at the helm, and mediocrity isn’t going to fly forever.

Setting the Record Straight: The San Francisco Giants

               I’m an A’s fan.  Have been my entire life, and I grew up as the kind of A’s fan that doesn’t like the Giants.  I believe in the rivalry.  But at the same time, I respect the Giants, and enjoyed watching them play baseball last season.  What their fans saw as “torture,” I saw as an entertaining 9+ innings of the greatest sport in the world.  But there have been a lot of things I’ve heard from Giants fans following the first series of the year that have really bugged me.  Most of the ignorance and stupidity probably comes from these bandwagon Giants fans, but still, I feel that it must be addressed.

                We’re 4 games into the 2011 baseball season and the defending World Series Champion, San Francisco Giants are 1-3.  This is causing mass hysteria amongst Giants fans.  (Note: Not all of them, I’m just noting some of the things I’ve heard on radio and in talking with people). 

                Before you freak out though, Giants fans, take a step back and take an objective look at your favorite team.   First things first: They were only 10-8 against the Dodgers last year, so beginning the season 1-3 against them is not the end of the world; especially when the issues in the losses seemed to be some early season rust.  Also, along the lines of playing in the NL West: that is a tough division.  The Giants were only 38-34 in division play last year.  You take out their 13-5 record against Arizona and that figure moves to 25-29.  Moral of the story, don’t jump ship if they struggle within their division, especially since everyone except for the Padres has stayed about the same talent-wise. 

                Another thing I’d like to address along the lines of the San Francisco Giants is this sudden uproar over Aubrey Huff in right field.  He had a difficult time reading a couple of balls to start the season.  I’m positive he’ll get over that, considering last season Giants fans were the first one to defend the team’s defensive prowess, even when Burrell and Huff were manning the corner outfield positions.  I was sitting at Chili’s in Sacramento during game 4 of the Giants and Dodgers opening weekend series, and heard suggestions that Rowand start in left over Burrell.  I also heard that Tejada should be benched, so Ross could play right, Huff could play first, and Brandon Belt could play short.  A caller on KNBR offered a suggestion that put Pablo Sandoval at shortstop.  I cannot make this stuff up.  This needs to stop.  They are 4 games in, give them a break.

                On the subject of Pablo Sandoval, it is great that he lost 30 or 40 pounds or whatever the final number was.  An assumption I think some people fell into, however, was that weight loss would translate into better offensive numbers.  This is not the case.  Pablo Sandoval’s offensive woes come from a lack of discipline at the plate.  You can see it every time he stands in.  He swings at anything and everything.  He could lose 50 more pounds and have the same approach and still not hit at the rate he did his rookie season.  It wasn’t even that he was so much more patient in his rookie year, teams just didn’t have a book on him.  I’m not saying he won’t hit, but the weight loss isn’t going to immediately make him produce on offense.  Sandoval will start producing when he tightens up his approach in the box, and starts swinging at “hitter’s pitches” and not “pitcher’s pitches.” 

                So on to the real reason I wrote this.  A Giants repeat isn’t exactly a sure thing this season like a lot of people think it is.  I heard a lot of complaints from friends that people in the national media didn’t even pick the Giants to make the playoffs.  While this seems absurd to leave the defending world champs out of the playoffs, it isn’t exactly a far-fetched prediction.  Going back to last season, the Giants vaulted to the top of the NL West following an extraordinary 10 game skid by the Padres from August 26^th to September 5^th.  Not a good time of year to go 0-10.  Even if San Diego goes 5-5 in that span, San Francisco may not have even made the playoffs.  Along with the Padres late season woes, the Giants were the epitome of “team” last year.  There wasn’t one guy that put the team on his back and carried them, but rather one or two guys a month that would get hot and carry the team along.  The pitching was there pretty much all year, and when it wasn’t, the offense came together, stepped up and scored some runs.  A big part of the fluidity with which this team seemed to operate was the lack of injuries.  Not one significant injury to a starter all season.  Incredible.  They were destined to win.  Everything Sabean and Bochy touched turned to gold.  Burrell, Ross, Lopez, Ramirez, all key players acquired throughout the course of the season, and used to perfection by Bruce Bochy.  The Giants may need some more of that magic this year, and that is something that is very tough to duplicate.  All of this along with the necessity of Andres Torres to replicate his career year, and Aubrey Huff to put together another .290/26/86 season, point to the Giants having difficulty repeating their championship run. 

                These are just some things to take into consideration for you Giants fans out there.  I don’t want this to be looked at as a Giants bashing session, because that’s certainly not what this was meant to be.  They could absolutely repeat, and should they make the playoffs, pitching and timely hitting could carry them all the way once again.  I’m just trying to give an outsiders perspective that isn’t Tim Kurkijan’s or John Kruk’s.  I also understand that real Giants fans already know all of this, but all the folks that jumped in just in time for first pitch of the NLCS certainly don’t. 

Editor’s Note: Kyle still picked San Francisco to win the National League West.

Follow Kyle on Twitter: @madsports8

Email him: madhatter_kssu@att.net

Listen to his radio show: Tuesdays 8pm pt/ 11pm et on http://www.kssu.com