Tag: Washington Nationals

Mark Prior Story a Warning To Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman

Stephen Strasburg.  Aroldis Champan.  Meet Mark Prior.

Although Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds fans may not want to hear it, the fate of hard-throwing prospects is all to familiar.

In Will Carroll’s book, Saving the Pitcher, he talks about the struggles and frequent arm troubles that seem to so often hinder the careers of today’s most promising stars.

Carroll states, “more than half of all starting pitchers will end up on the disabled list and over the last three seasons, more than two hundred pitchers at all levels of professional baseball have undergone ligament replacement surgery.”

Strasburg and Prior get all the attention because they are the biggest names and the pitchers who had the most hype. Chapman has avoided the disabled list in his brief career, but the facts are this type of thing is happening far too often and pitchers who throw hard tend to hit the disabled list just as hard.

Mark Prior was the second pick in the 2001 MLB draft and signed for $10.5 million. Fast forward nine years and Prior is pitching for the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League trying to fight his way back into the majors, where he hasn’t pitched since 2006.

Prior knows exactly what it is like to be Stephen Strasburg. Eerily similar to Strasburg, Prior also faced premature hype, excessive expectations and injuries.

Although it is possible Strasburg comes back just as dominant as before, his injuries cannot be ignored. This is Strasburg’s second trip to the disabled list and baseball fans know how quickly injuries can begin to pile up.

There is hope because Tommy John surgeries have a high success rate and Chapman is still healthy, but the tides can turn quickly and before you know it Strasburg and Chapman could find themselves in the Independent league trying to get noticed.  Just ask Mark Prior.

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The Washington Nationals Nyjer Morgan Heckled Me Too

I was at the Mets game on Monday and sat for the first time in the left field reserved seats.  It was the bottom of the eighth and the Mets were down 3-1;  there had to be only about 4,000 people left in the entire stadium at this point because of the unbearable cold. 

As the Nationals were warming up in the field, me and about 20 other people began heckling centerfielder Nyjer Morgan.  First off I want to clear up for everyone who has a negative connotation of “heckling”, that most of the time  it is harmless.  Some “You Suck Morgan” and a few A-hole chants, but that’s it.  In my years of heckling opposing players, 99 percent of them pay no attention to the fans in the crowd, but this night was special.

As the pitcher was finishing up his warm-ups people began to scream at Nyjer Morgan to throw the ball in the stands.  He responded by hiding the ball and pretending to throw an imaginary one into the crowd.  Bad choice Nyjer.  He was then greeted with the customary and aforementioned “You Suck Morgan” screams.  Then, if it wasn’t enough that it was 35 below, Nats Manager Jim Wriggleman decided that he would try and see how many pitching changes he could make in one half inning. 

As bad as this seemed at the moment it allowed us fans and Nyjer to continue to bond.   A fan screamed out during one of the pitching changes, “Hey Morgan, show us your slap shot.”  He proceeded to pretend to skate and shoot slap shots in the vast Citi Field outfield.   

More amusing then that was him blowing kisses at the 20 of us still in the left field bleachers.  Thing was, we were all dudes.  The jeering began to get worse, but thankfully for him the inning had ended.

I was tempted to leave after the Mets were unable to score in the eighth but why should Nyjer Morgan get off that easy. 

So I braved the cold and stayed for the ninth. We continued to scream at him as he warmed up, “Throw us the ball Morgan”.  Well in response to our pleas, Morgan thought it would be funny to show us the ball in his glove and then grab the family jewels.  People who thought that heckling was inappropriate before, a Major League centerfielder just grabbed his avocados, enough said. 

The last straw was when Morgan finally threw the ball into the stands, but over everyone’s head into the 20 empty rows behind.    He continued to tip his cap towards us as the jeering got worse, but in the end Nyjer got the final word as the Nats held of the Mets 3-2.  As much as I dislike most opposing players, after this encounter I will always have a special space in my heart for Nyjer Morgan.

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Stephen Strasburg Latest to Prove How Tenuous a Pitcher’s Career Can Be

It was no less than Tom Seaver—”Tom Terrific”—who went to extraordinary lengths to protect his right arm, which he astutely realized was nothing more than his livelihood.

Seaver, while traveling as a player, wouldn’t carry any of his luggage with his right appendage. In fact, he tried mightily to do nothing with his right arm other than hurl baseballs at 90+ mph toward enemy hitters.

Seaver was the prototypical power pitcher of the 1970s—strong leg kick, violent arm action. His right knee would often scrape the dirt of the mound as he delivered the baseball to home plate. Seaver got more strength from his legs than any pitcher I’ve ever seen.

But it was his exemplary right arm that earned him his living, and so Seaver treated it as the mythical goose who laid the golden eggs.

Seaver enjoyed a long, storied career. A sure-fire Hall of Famer, Seaver was. You could see it coming in the late-1960s, when he burst onto the scene, and throughout the ’70s Seaver was among the top two or three pitchers in baseball.

Seaver knew rightly that at any moment, it all could have come crashing down, no matter how much care he took of his right arm.

The pitcher’s arm wasn’t cobbled together by God to withstand the whiplash-like tension that throwing baseballs incur on it. There’s nothing natural about the pitcher’s throwing motion. If a pitcher’s arm could talk, it would need a seven-second delay.

The American worker is all too familiar with layoffs and downsizing. Most of the time, the worker has no control over whether he stays or he goes.

In a profession where control is everything, a pitcher ironically has none of it, either—in the truest sense.

Companies and corporations lay off workers. A pitcher’s arm decides such matters.

How many times have we seen it? One last, violent whipping of the arm, and something goes snap, crackle, or pop and that’s the last we ever see of that hurler on a big league mound.

Every pitcher is one throw away from the end of his career. Not trying to be dramatic—it’s the truth.

In Detroit, we may have seen the last of lefty Bobby Seay and right-hander Joel Zumaya. Maybe not, but maybe. Both of them have serious arm/shoulder issues. Seay is scheduled to have surgery soon that may knock him out for all of 2011—after missing all of 2010.

It could also knock him out, period.

Zumaya’s injury-pocked career has been frightfully documented. When last seen, Zumaya was rolling around on the grass at Target Field in Minneapolis, in tears due to a broken elbow—an elbow literally broken by throwing a pitch.

Dave Dravecky’s left arm just about snapped off as he delivered a pitch, leading to the arm eventually being amputated.

Amputated!

The young phenom Stephen Strasburg’s career hangs in the balance today, his golden right arm in disrepair.

Strasburg, the biggest thing to hit a pitcher’s mound in years, is 22 years old and will have to undergo Tommy John surgery. If all goes well, Strasburg has a shot of pitching sometime in 2012.

If it doesn’t.

People often ask: What did they call Tommy John surgery before Tommy John came along?

It’s a trick question.

Unlike Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which had a medical name prior to Gehrig’s diagnosis, Tommy John surgery had no name because Tommy John was the first professional athlete to undergo it.

The surgery works thusly: a ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body (often from the forearm, hamstring, knee, or foot of the patient).

You can imagine how groundbreaking this was when Dr. Frank Jobe famously performed the operation on the Dodgers’ John in 1974. And you can imagine how amazing it was when John returned to form and was pitching again in the big leagues in 1976. Even more astounding was that John pitched until he was 46 years old.

So there’s certainly hope for Strasburg, and baseball, which needs a kid of his freakish ability on an MLB roster.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a professional pitcher and feeling a “twinge” in my elbow or shoulder, or anywhere on my arm for that matter.

I can see why Seaver went to such great lengths to protect his golden egg-laying goose.

Still, it can all end so quickly, without any warning.

I don’t ever begrudge the big league pitcher his large salary. You could be out of the game in your 20s, just like that.

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Nyjer Morgan Starts a Nationals-Marlins Brawl in Florida

Everyone likes a good ole-fashioned baseball brawl.

Fighting in baseball dates back to the ’30s, when Bill Dickey broke Carl Reynolds’ jaw after Reynolds collided with Dickey at home plate.

Since then we have seen some classic brawls, such as the one between Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose in 1973. The Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres beat the snot out of each other in 1984, and Eric Davis and Ray Knight duked it out at third base in 1986.

On Wednesday night we had another version of basebrawl. The fight started when Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad threw behind Washington Nationals OF Nyjer Morgan. Morgan charged the mound, and the rest was history.

Here is a breakdown of what led to the fight and the fight itself.

 

Why did Volstad throw at Morgan?

The Marlins were upset that the night before Morgan destroyed catcher Brett Hayes on a play at the plate. Morgan barreled into home plate, which resulted in Hayes separating his shoulder.

This was the second time that Morgan was involved in a controversial play at home plate. He was involved in a similar play versus the St. Louis Cardinals last week with Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson.

 

Was Morgan justified in charging the mound?

Yes. I thought Morgan had every right to charge the mound. Volstad made his point in the fourth inning when he pegged Morgan in the back. At that point, everything was over.

I have to think that when Volstad threw behind Morgan, he knew there was going to be a fight, and I think that is what Volstad wanted.

 

Where does this fight rank?

The beginning was solid, but it didn’t have much staying power. The 6’0″ (that’s being generous) Morgan charged the 6’8″ Volstad and tried to throw a left punch but clearly didn’t have the reach.

As Morgan tried to latch on to Volstad, out of nowhere 1B Gaby Sanchez hit Morgan with what I thought was the “Flying Jalapeno,” which was Tito Santana’s (or what Bobby Heenan used to call it) finishing move. Upon further review, it appeared that Sanchez hit Morgan with a running lariat that would have made Stan “The Lariat” Hansen very proud.

Once the three players went to the ground, there was a big pile-up in the center of the diamond, and not much happened after that. Overall, I would give the brawl a six out of 10.

The one thing that did annoy me about this incident was how Morgan tried to play to the crowd and almost try to egg them on as he was leaving the field. When did Morgan turn into a punk?

When he was on Pittsburgh, we didn’t hear anything about him having a bad attitude or doing anything that would embarrass the organization. If he did indeed do something, I must have missed it.

Now Morgan is starting fights with fans, catchers, and other players. It’s really bizarre to me.

Major League Baseball will decide on Morgan’s fate on Friday. A five- to 10-game suspension on top of the seven-game suspension he is already appealing is likely.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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Was Nyjer Morgan Charging the Mound a Good Thing for Baseball? (Video)

When speedy Washington Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan charged the mound at Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad on Wednesday night, he did it to defend himself.

Nyjer had been plunked on the back earlier in the game, most likely on purpose for separating catcher Brett Hayes’ left shoulder, which tells you the Marlins weren’t too happy with Morgan. 

Morgan had made a dirty play in the series before against the St. Louis Cardinals, bumping into their catcher Bryan Anderson when there was no play at the plate.

It looks like the Florida Marlins had gotten their payback: They plunk the guy; you are leading by 11 runs; it’s over.

But Morgan, too, wanted his part of the revenge, as he stole second and third base—not to mention he slid in aggressively.

The Fish didn’t like that, as later in the game, Volstad threw behind Nyjer Morgan. That was pushing too hard. What are you going to do, just take another base?

Morgan sprinted towards Volstad and missed a punch, while Gaby Sanchez from the Marlins quickly clotheslined him to the ground. 

The benches cleared.

Now at this point, it seems to boil down to this: The Marlins made a mistake trying to hit Morgan two times. It should have just ended when he was hit the first time. Morgan had to crash into Hayes at the plate the night before; it was in extra innings. You aren’t going to slide and get an out at that point, are you?

Morgan understood the first time he was hit since he had made the dirty play in St. Louis, but it wasn’t dirty in Florida. He still kept his temper until he couldn’t anymore.

So, if the story were to end there, with players leaving after the brawl, there were positive notes for baseball in there. 

It showed that our national pastime matters to many of us. It showed that people will fight back in Major League Baseball and that it is isn’t a sport that should be ignored. It showed that there could be some entertainment while at it.

But sadly, the story doesn’t end there. As Morgan was heading to the showers after the brawl, with his jersey torn (which is probably coming out of his paycheck), he screamed at the fans booing him. You can’t exactly know what he had said, but screaming at fans and raising his hands as if saying, “what are you gonna do about it” is a big no-no.

He had made baseball an embarrassment because of that act, and that can’t possibly be close to being okay to MLB commissioner Bud Selig and us, the fans.

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Marlins-Nationals Brawl: Something Doesn’t Feel Right About This

The Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals engaged in a pretty ugly melee on Wednesday night, and the more I read about the events as they transpired the more I am beginning to think that something isn’t right.

For those of you who missed it—and there can’t be that many of you left—the whole thing actually started in the top of the tenth inning the previous night. With the Nationals’ incredibly speedy Nyjer Morgan on second base and one out in a scoreless ballgame, Adam Kennedy hit a bouncer to second base that looked like it might be an inning ending double play.

However, after the flip to second for one, shortstop Hanley Ramirez held onto the ball. He was unable to convert the double play but noticed Morgan racing for home. He threw home to catcher Brett Hayes, who was standing on the plate and caught the ball ahead of Morgan. An instant later, Morgan collided with Hayes at full speed but failed to score.

Morgan was out, the inning was over, and Hayes had a dislocated shoulder.

The Florida Marlins apparently expressed outrage over the collision and their injured catcher. This is the first thing that doesn’t sit right with me.

Collisions at the plate occur all the time in Major League Baseball, and maybe I’ve missed it, but you almost never hear criticism of the colliding players. Pete Rose famously ruined Ray Fosse’s career by colliding with him in an All Star game once; that moment is offered as an anecdote about how Rose was always hustling.

Conversely, the Phillies’ Jayson Werth was recently chastised for not coming in hard at the catcher when the throw from right field on a tag up beat him to home plate by a mile.

I thought collisions at the plate were something we encouraged and admired. I could be wrong, but let’s move on.

So on Wednesday, obviously feeling the need to retaliate against Morgan for his hard play, the Marlins intentionally threw at him in the fourth inning. Sure enough, Morgan got plunked and went to first base.

Now, I have to stop again here to note that the score at the time of this plunking was 14-3 by way of a five run first, a five run second, and a four run third. Somehow, when Morgan led off the game in the first inning there was no retaliation, but once the Marlins were killing the Nats, now they felt was the time to plunk the guy.

Okay.

So now Morgan is standing on first base with one out in the top of the fourth inning in a 14-3 game against a team that just intentionally threw at him. This is where he apparently broke one of the most unwritten rules in all of baseball: a player on a team that is getting shellacked isn’t allowed to steal bases.

Morgan, one of the fastest players in baseball, took off for second base and beat the throw easily. Then, he took off for third and again beat the throw easily.

So let’s stop here. Evidently, the Florida Marlins took exception to Morgan stealing bases in this situation. Wes Helms is on the record as having said that he just can’t stand when a guy doesn’t play the game the right way, and indicated that down ten runs, Morgan had clearly stolen the bases “out of spite.”

Really Wes? Out of spite? What do you call hitting a guy in the fourth inning of a 14-3 game for something that happened the night before? Sounds pretty spiteful to me.

But no, stealing two bases down 14-3 in the fourth inning after having been freakin’ beaned: totally out of line. How dare he!

After the game, Helms said “We had to show we weren’t going to put up with how he was treating us.”

Pardon my language, but are you effing kidding me? The way he was treating you!?

Well, you know the rest: Morgan comes up again in the sixth inning, pitcher Chris Volstad throws behind him, he charges the mound, a brawl breaks out, blah blah blah blah blah.

I gotta tell ya’, I’ve been watching baseball for a long time, and I am not completely sure I am totally on board with what is going on here.

Where I come from, when a player collides with the catcher on a close play at the plate it is called hustle. Where I come from, when you intentionally plunk a guy in retaliation for something, you don’t then get your panties in a bunch when he makes you pay for intentionally putting him on base.

You want to get Nyjer Morgan back for stealing bases on you? Throw him out.

But let’s not go saying that down by 11 runs in the fourth inning a guy isn’t allowed to steal a base. This isn’t football or basketball; a lot of scoring can happen between the fourth and the ninth innings. On August 22, 2007, the Texas Rangers went into the top of the fourth inning with zero runs and ended up winning the game 30-3, so let’s not pretend the game was over.

And for that matter, if you want to talk about “playing the game the right way,” how about not whining about how an opposing player “treats” you when you’ve just hit him with a pitch and you’re up by eleven runs.

And by the way, I don’t think I’ll take my lectures about how to “play the game the right way” from a guy like Wes Helms, who has never managed to put himself into a regular starting role in his entire career.

Maybe, just maybe, if Helms had been a little more hard-nosed and little less concerned about how he was being “treated” by opposing players, he would have become a full-time major leaguer at some point in his career instead of a part-time role player for the cheapest team in baseball.

Nyjer Morgan will likely be suspended for some length of time for what took place over the last few days, but in my opinion it is the Florida Marlins who have come out of this like a bunch of overly-sensitive goons who don’t play the game the right way.

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The Nyjer Morgan Marlins Brawl: Time To Outlaw Barreling Over the Catcher

When Nyjer Morgan was hit in the hip by a fourth inning Chris Volstad fastball in last night’s game, it was payback for Morgan running over Florida catcher Brett Hayes a night earlier. Late in the game a full-fledged brawl erupted when Morgan was thrown at again.

Hayes suffered a separated shoulder in that home plate collision, a play which need not have happened. The throw from Hanley Ramirez was high and if Morgan slid, he most likely would have been safe. It was the second home plate collision Morgan caused this past week.

But the problem is that runners rounding third and coming home usually decides to knock over the catcher when he is about 20-30 feet from home plate. There is no chance for them to end up sliding.

If they did then try and slide, they might get injured. You see many times when a player slides too late at any base they end up catching a spike in the ground and wrenching or even breaking their ankle.

This is not the first time this season that a runner hurt a catcher on a collision at home plate. Mark Teixeira plowed over Angels catcher Bobby Wilson, injuring Wilson’s head and severely hurting his ankle. What if Teixeira got hurt? Would that run really be worth Tex on the DL for two months?

And how can we not forget about Ray Fosse, whose All-Star career was derailed after Pete Rose barreled him over in the 1970 All-Star Game?

And this type of play does not just end in injury on the spot. It also affects how catchers play the game during the rest of their careers.

Fosse was a power hitting backstop in 1970, smashing 16 home runs by that All-Star break. He finished with only 18 that season, and never hit more than 12 in a season the rest of his career.

Drafted as a second baseman, Yankee catcher Jorge Posada was converted to catcher during his Yankee minor league career. During a minor league game, Posada was run over in a game and seriously injured.

He is now not that good on plays at the plate. He shies away from contact, and many times the ball. The prior collision has affected his play as a catcher throughout his career.

Another Yankee catcher, Francisco Cervelli, broke his wrist in a 2008 home plate collision with Tampa’s Elliot Johnson during a spring training game! That eventually led to a bench clearing brawl when the Yankees Shelley Duncan went in high with his spikes at Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

In that game, Jonny Gomes of the Rays played the Gabby Sanchez role from last night when he came in from right field and tackled Duncan.

From my days of playing, I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I have been run over (still held on to the ball), and have run a guy over (and he held on to the ball). Most of the time, the catcher does hold on to the ball anyway, so why even do it?

The runner risks injury just as much as the catcher. In both occasions when I played, I was sore after each collision. The runner can also be injured on this type of play.

In 2008, David Murphy of the Texas Rangers barreled into Yankees catcher Ivan Rodriguez and Murphy missed the rest of that season with a badly hurt knee.

Running over the catcher is such a bad play on all accounts. The runner is still out on most occasions, someone always get hurt, and the effects can stay with a catcher throughout his career.

I am old-school on everything in baseball. I abhor instant replay, sabermetrics, pitch counts, innings limits, and postseason games only played at night.

So many teams restrict their young pitchers usage so they can “save his arm and prolong his career.” Why then does baseball allow these violent collisions at home plate, when most of the time, someone is injured?  

There is such a severe shortage in quality all around catchers, that MLB and the individual teams simply can’t afford to have a catcher seriously injured.

Base runners should now be required to slide into home plate just as they are required to slide into the other bases. Why should home plate be different?

Runners would be able to dive head first into home plate but to intentionally run over the catcher should be outlawed. After all these collision you might start seeing teams tell their runners to slide into home plate. It just makes sense.

This rule will not avoid all injuries to catchers and young Cleveland Indians backstop Carlos Santana is an example of that, although I still believe that Ryan Kalish would have been safe had he slid to AVOID contact. In the example above on Murphy, he slid feet first into Rodriguez and still was hurt badly.

This rule would not lessen all, but MOST major injuries to catchers, and many injuries to the runners.

And the runners might actually score more runs.

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Rob Dibble Bounced from Calling Washington Nationals Games

After Rob Dibble made these comments (on his XM Radio show) about Washington Nationals rookie phenom Stephen Strasburg—”Okay, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid”—it was conveniently announced that he was on vacation.

Most in the D.C. media, most notably Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post (who seemed to have a weekly article about Dibble), speculated that was the beginning of the end of his color commentary days with the Nats.

Well, yesterday it became official. With one year and one month left on his three-year contract, Dibble was relieved of his commentary duties for MASN.

The former Cincinnati Reds pitcher had a mixed bag of fans and critics while with the Nationals.

Me personally, I was a huge fan. He made watching games fun, especially last year.

When the Nats were getting drummed for 10 runs before the fifth, the only reason to tune in (if you were rooting for the Nats) was to hear what Dibble was going to say.

He simply spoke his mind. Where most of us have a little inner voice that warns us that what we’re going to say might not be bright, Dibble does not or has simply learned to ignore it.

That is the kind of color commentator the Nationals need—well, at least until next September, when Strasburg returns from Tommy John surgery.

Much like the second half of this season, the Nats probably aren’t going to be watchable. They are going to have some good games here and there, but I’m predicting a lot of blowouts.

As a fan I’ll still catch a couple of games at the stadium, but with the firing of Dibble I might just protest MASN’s coverage of the team.

All kidding aside, the guy was fired for expressing an opinion, which given the severity of Strasburg’s injury was wrong, but an opinion nonetheless that wasn’t even on a Nats broadcast.

He’s a former pitcher who many times pitched through pain. Now granted, what happened to Strasburg was more than just a pull or a cramp, but at the time of Dibble’s comments he didn’t know that.

I’ve heard former players (of all sports) say things on nationally broadcasted television that were worse than what Dibble said, and they didn’t even get a public warning.

The way the Nats are coddling Strasburg is getting kind of ridiculous. Yes, he’s the face of the franchise, and yes, (if healthy) he has the talent to help lead this ball club to the postseason, but as the face of the franchise he’s going to be criticized, and most of it will come from the local media.

My warning to Nats management is don’t become like Dan Snyder. He’s a pariah among many members of the D.C. media because of his sensitiveness to comments about him or the team.

If you keep firing people or reprimanding them for criticizing Strasburg (or in the future Bryce Harper), you’ll replace Snyder as the most despised person in D.C. sports.

Loyal reader, I’ll close with this: Dibble is right; Strasburg needs to man up. While recovering from surgery, learn to pitch with your left arm…pansy!

Just kidding—get well soon kid, and we’ll miss you Dibble (at least I will). 

Wait! One last thing: How awesome would it have been to have Dibble calling that brawl last night between the Nats and the Marlins? I’m just saying is all.

For more of this, follow me on Twitter @jomac006.

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Nyjer Morgan Needs To Be Suspended for Remainder of Season

Wednesday night’s Nationals-Marlins benches-clearing brawl, which could have arguably been started via the Marlins bench after Nyjer Morgan was “unsportsmanlike” in stealing second and third with a Nationals deficit, and Morgan’s WWE-like exit from the field may have been the icing on the cake for Morgan’s season.

Just a week and a half ago, Morgan showed his immaturity by throwing a ball into the stands, hurting a fan. Major League Baseball slapped him with a seven-game suspension, which Morgan is appealing. I do not think Wednesday’s incident will help Morgan’s case in getting that suspension shortened.

Bud Selig needs to review Wednesday’s incident, along with Tuesday’s “controversial home plate collision” that may have ended catcher Brett Hayes’ season with a separated shoulder.

Now do not get me wrong; I am not against hard-nosed players like Morgan, but this case is a call for an indefinite suspension for the remainder of the season.

Selig needs to take a page out of Roger Goodell’s NFL punishment book and show that this sort of behavior is not tolerated in Major League Baseball and try to show the rest of the league that immature behavior like this is not tolerated while wearing a major or minor league uniform.

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Nyjer Morgan Needs To Go

That guy is just out of control. First the cheap shot on Bryan Anderson, then he throws a ball at a fan, then he takes out another catcher, tells another fan to “shut up fat b****,” then steals second and third down 11 runs, then charges the mound and jaws with the fans again on the way off the field.

Seriously, this guy is totally out of control. He shouldn’t be playing baseball, and honestly the guy probably needs to be in therapy. He definitely shouldn’t play the rest of the year for the Nationals.

By the way, remember the Nationals traded “bad apple” Lastings Milledge for Morgan. I don’t remember Milledge ever doing anything remotely similar to this. Or Elijah Dukes for that matter.

Also, this really reflects badly on Jim Riggleman. He’s the guy who let this situation get out of control, and it doesn’t help him that his third base coach Pat Listach jumped right in the middle of the bench-clearing brawl and had to be pulled out by a player. Looked like John McLaren was right in there too.

Oh, and in all this craziness, let’s not forget that Scott Olsen raised his ERA to 5.88. Can anyone explain why he’s still here?

Now Riggleman orders Doug Slaten to hit Gaby Sanchez with a pitch, warming up Drew Storen to replace Doug Slaten just in case it wasn’t totally clear what was going on. This is not the way to help the young guys transition to the bigs.

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