The Astros aren't being Intentionally Beaned.
As fun as it would be if Astros players were being beaned on purpose, it just isn't true. So far this spring 10 players have been hit by a pitch more than once. None of those ten players wear an Astros jersey. In fact 85 players have been hit by a pitch so far. 7 of those were Astros. As of this morning there were 4 teams who had more HBP than the Astros and 3 more tied with them.
The only 2 Astros batters involved in the 2017 scandal to be plunked are Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman. They were both hit with off speed pitches. I can assure you if a pitcher were trying to enact some sort of justice it would be done with the fastest 4 seam they could muster.
The reality of the situation is that it's spring training. Not only are we seeing a lot of young pitchers with control issue, they are rusty. We are talking the first week of competition here. It shouldn't be a surprise pitches are getting away from some of these guys.
There is a lot of talk that it will ramp up once the regular season gets underway. I personally find this hard to believe. If you were a pitcher inclined to seek justice, spring training is the perfect time to do it. No one cares if you win or lose. It's meant to evaluate talent and lock down the last few guys to make the roster. The punishment is likely to be far less severe too. Even better, have one of the guys who knows he isn't making the show this year do the beaning.
The ultimate revenge for players once the games matter would be to annihilate the Astros every night. As petty as baseball players can be, the vast majority of them know this. I have no doubt there will be a pitcher or two who will intentionally ding a batter solely as justice for 2017. But those are the guys who would do that to a player who hit a homer off of them 2 innings ago.
Baseball is a game in which getting men on base or keeping them off is the key to winning. Players know this. Managers know this. Nobody in their right mind is going to give a team a base runner for free. You could argue they will use an intentional walk situation to hit a batter. That's fair and would be a smart way to go about it. But the circumstances would have to be right and the odds are they won't be most of the time.
Even Vegas bookmakers don't think it will happen that often. They have set the over under on Astros hit batsmen at 83.5. That's only 18 more than the 66 they had last year. 18 over 162 games isn't a whole lot. But more telling is that 3 teams would have hit the over last year with no one targeting them. The Cubs fell half a HBP short. Vegas is betting on the hype surrounding this narrative getting suckers to buy the over, knowing the odds it goes under are still squarely in their favor.
I'm not sure where or why this narrative that retaliation would be a huge issue came from. Hitting batters wouldn't be a practical course of retaliation. Not when it could potentially cost your team wins. It has yet to come to fruition during spring training, when it really wouldn't matter. It's time we all put this thing to bed. Sorry to the twitter accounts tracking Astros HBP. You won't be as busy as you thought you would.
The bottom line is we are talking about professional athletes who are accustomed to putting emotions aside to get their job done. The interviews may be passionate, the opinions strong, but that's about all we can expect to see here.
The only 2 Astros batters involved in the 2017 scandal to be plunked are Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman. They were both hit with off speed pitches. I can assure you if a pitcher were trying to enact some sort of justice it would be done with the fastest 4 seam they could muster.
The reality of the situation is that it's spring training. Not only are we seeing a lot of young pitchers with control issue, they are rusty. We are talking the first week of competition here. It shouldn't be a surprise pitches are getting away from some of these guys.
There is a lot of talk that it will ramp up once the regular season gets underway. I personally find this hard to believe. If you were a pitcher inclined to seek justice, spring training is the perfect time to do it. No one cares if you win or lose. It's meant to evaluate talent and lock down the last few guys to make the roster. The punishment is likely to be far less severe too. Even better, have one of the guys who knows he isn't making the show this year do the beaning.
The ultimate revenge for players once the games matter would be to annihilate the Astros every night. As petty as baseball players can be, the vast majority of them know this. I have no doubt there will be a pitcher or two who will intentionally ding a batter solely as justice for 2017. But those are the guys who would do that to a player who hit a homer off of them 2 innings ago.
Baseball is a game in which getting men on base or keeping them off is the key to winning. Players know this. Managers know this. Nobody in their right mind is going to give a team a base runner for free. You could argue they will use an intentional walk situation to hit a batter. That's fair and would be a smart way to go about it. But the circumstances would have to be right and the odds are they won't be most of the time.
Even Vegas bookmakers don't think it will happen that often. They have set the over under on Astros hit batsmen at 83.5. That's only 18 more than the 66 they had last year. 18 over 162 games isn't a whole lot. But more telling is that 3 teams would have hit the over last year with no one targeting them. The Cubs fell half a HBP short. Vegas is betting on the hype surrounding this narrative getting suckers to buy the over, knowing the odds it goes under are still squarely in their favor.
I'm not sure where or why this narrative that retaliation would be a huge issue came from. Hitting batters wouldn't be a practical course of retaliation. Not when it could potentially cost your team wins. It has yet to come to fruition during spring training, when it really wouldn't matter. It's time we all put this thing to bed. Sorry to the twitter accounts tracking Astros HBP. You won't be as busy as you thought you would.
The bottom line is we are talking about professional athletes who are accustomed to putting emotions aside to get their job done. The interviews may be passionate, the opinions strong, but that's about all we can expect to see here.
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