What kind of punishment are you expecting for Hammel?

[scOtt]

LOL If Hammel had had the control to hit him in the shoulder/head area intententionally with a slider he wouldn't be in the position where his intentions were in question

THIS! If Jason had that much control of his 3 he would have thrown it low and away for a STRIKE!

Hunter Wendlestadt is the idiot! :angryfire: He's NOT commanded by MLB to throw Jason out there. He has to stay in the game and realize what happened. Not showboat it!

[crissfan172]

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/22338595/jason-hammel-gives-up-three-straight-homers-plunks-next-guy-gets-tossed

This article explains it well.

"My own conspiracy theory is that pitchers do this -- "this" being go to the off-speed stuff -- precisely for purposes of plausible deniability. After all, Hammel's slider checks in at 84.5 miles per hour, which means it's fully capable of leaving a mark."

You can get your frustration out of your system while also being able to deny you meant to hit him. Throwing a fastball is basically admitting you're trying to hurt the guy and asking for a suspension.

It was a BACKUP slider. If pitchers could throw backup sliders on purpose, they would do it all the time since it's pretty much impossible to hit.

[atomic]

It was a BACKUP slider. If pitchers could throw backup sliders on purpose, they would do it all the time since it's pretty much impossible to hit.

Yeah when it hits you in the head it is a quite hard to hit.

[scOtt]

Yeah when it hits you in the head it is a quite hard to hit.

Head. You're an idiot too. My apologies to the board. You're just trolling now atomic! He turned away and let it glance off his shoulder.

[Can_of_corn]

Yeah when it hits you in the head it is a quite hard to hit.

Once again he got hit in the shoulder.

And he didn't seem upset about it.

[atomic]

Head. You're an idiot too. My apologies to the board. You're just trolling now atomic! He turned away and let it glance off his shoulder.

It its trolling to make a joke?

[ShoelesJoe]

He'll get six games off.

I don't (want to) believe it was an intentional beanball head high, but if it was then that was the only slider JH threw all day that went where he wanted it to go.

[atomic]

6-game suspension? More? Less?

I don't think he will get suspended.

[scOtt]

It its trolling to make a joke?

If it was a joke I sincerely apologize! I missed it.

[Can_of_corn]

It its trolling to make a joke?

Would depend on the joke.

I am sure I could make some jokes that the subject would classify as me trolling them.

[Can_of_corn]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Leyland on Hammel: "In my heart, I do not think he was throwing at him.' <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23orioles">#orioles</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23tigers">#tigers</a></p>— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) <a href="

">June 2, 2013</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[olehippi]

Nobody can go into Hammels mind and tell if its intentional or not for sure. You have to go by the situation... and hitting a guy in the head with the first pitch after 3 straight homers is considered head hunting, and isn't considered acceptable by Major League Baseball. Hammel just saying "It was an accident" or "I didn't mean to hit him" doesn't mean anything to MLB.

I don't buy the slider meaning it was totally unintentional, either. You can get your message across with an 82 mph pitch while also using that as an excuse why you weren't throwing at the guy.

You sound like a displaced Detroit Tigers fan. Logic should tell you that if he was pissed and wanted to drill someone it would have been with a fastball. It's usually much more accurate.

[OriolesFaithful]

Even considering his wildness, lets say its a 5% chance he hits a guy in that area given his command today. Thats still a 95% chance it was intentional. You talk about holes in my argument... how do you respond to there being very very little chance of actually hitting a guy in that situation by accident?

Its possible it was unintentional. But its also much more likely it wasn't.

Your attempts at quantifying this are completely erroneous.

Okay, so let's start with your 5% figure. With an erratic Hammel, on a righty-to-righty match-up, a slider that slips has a chance (as you say) of 5% of hitting someone in the head. That means the other 95% of the time, a slider that slips could land anywhere BUT the head.

I think the point you are trying to make is that pitches don't normally end up near the head, therefore given the context of the situation, Hammel had to have intentionally thrown at the head. But when you consider the pitch used (82 mph slider), total lack of command, and prior history, then it becomes very hard to argue your point.

[AlbionHero]

Your attempts at quantifying this are completely erroneous.

Okay, so let's start with your 5% figure. With an erratic Hammel, on a righty-to-righty match-up, a slider that slips has a chance (as you say) of 5% of hitting someone in the head. That means the other 95% of the time, a slider that slips could land anywhere BUT the head.

I think the point you are trying to make is that pitches don't normally end up near the head, therefore given the context of the situation, Hammel had to have intentionally thrown at the head. But when you consider the pitch used (82 mph slider), total lack of command, and prior history, then it becomes very hard to argue your point.

So then, you think over a 50% chance of the time he throws that pitch in that situation, he'll hit the guy up near his head? Thats the only kind of argument you can make it for it being a better chance it was unintentional.... and if thats true, then why is he throwing a pitch that'll likely hit the guy in the first place if he doesn't want to hit him?

Plus, Hammel knows as well as anyone that if you hit a guy in a situation like that, you're going to be ejected. Why throw anything inside for the first pitch?

[The Wedge]

Okay, this is just simple logic, people. If Hammel can't hit his spots, therefore giving up three gofer balls in a row, how the hell do you think he can suddenly gain enough control to actually throw at someone's head? It's the Ricky Vaughn argument. Walked the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches, gives up a grooved ball granny, then the next one plunks the batter and he's tossed. Like he suddenly gained control for that.