Dave Martinez went about as nuclear as a baseball manager can go these days, showing a picture of what he believes was a blown call late in the Nationals’ loss to the Astros Wednesday night in his postgame presser depicting a runner inside the baseline on the grass…basically, “the Trea Turner Rule” revisited, once again to Houston’s benefit.
Grant & Danny LOVED it, thinking it will be ‘a postgame rant we’re referencing for a while.’
“That’s so good,” Grant said after playing the clip of Davey going off. “It’s short and sweet, and no cursing. He brought a receipt with him, a prop – I’ve never seen that before, and it’s incredible.”
And then, Grant broke down the play based on Martinez’s visual aid.
“He had a printed still image of the baserunner well inside the line, past where dirt meets grass – and if you’re Keibert Ruiz, what do you do?” Grant asked. “As he gets further up the line a la Turner, he gets closer to the line eventually so he can step on the bag, and he’s at the bag when it happens.”
So, Grant knows, there will be people who say it was the right call because he was on the line and it didn’t deter the throw, but Grant has a problem with that.
“I don’t know that I agree, because the rule states he has to be closer to the line – but this was not just about last night, and you can hear it in Davey’s voice,” Grant said. “He flipped out because of the lifetime achievement of all of these calls; it doesn’t matter what the result is, they are on the wrong end of it time and time again, and I think Davey is at a point now where he’s saying, ‘we can watch these plays and come to different conclusions, but something has to be done.’”
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If you polled managers, runners, and catchers, and it wasn’t a majority in favor of what happened Wednesday night, Grant thinks something needs to be done – and “this was a ‘how many times can we get screwed by this play before someone does something about it’ situation.”
“Totally correct, and there are several facets to this,” Danny said. “Some will dismiss this because he’s upset it went against the Nationals – but that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. The big picture, he is 100 percent correct about. For me, I want it called all the time the way it was last night; guys run inside the line all the time, but when you start getting excessive and run into a first baseman, we can talk, but eventually, guys meander back and touch the base – but we can’t do it, and get it right, because everyone has a different interpretation, and that’s not what the rules are supposed to be.”
There’s one other problem with the situation, which Danny explained by going a little ‘inside baseball.’
“There’s a mechanical issue on that play. The home plate umpire has a job to do, and it’s not to look up the first base line at the runner. He has to look at home plate to see the runner coming from third,” Danny said. “So, by the time he looks up for a bang-bang play at first, the offense by the runner is almost over – and the first base umpire has to watch it to call safe or out, so no one can see it that great. And, because you can’t review it, you just get, ‘oh well, see you tomorrow.’ Unacceptable.”
Follow Grant & Danny on Twitter: @granthpaulsen & @funnydanny
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