MLB Mishandled the Bobby Jenks "Purpose Pitch"

By now you have probably heard that Bobby Jenks was fined $750 for throwing behind Ian Kinsler last Saturday when the White Sox played the Rangers. I personally think it is a ridiculous penalty and that Major League Baseball needs to settle themselves down. I saw the incident first hand and thought it was asinine that the home plate umpire warned both benches for that pitch. At the time I didn't think Jenks would be throwing behind someone in a 1-run game in the ninth inning (and if you heard Hawk Harrelson's reaction to it, you would know that he was very passionate in disagreeing with the call). This is my first problem with the way umpire's are handling bean balls and purpose pitches.

By warning someone because they threw too far inside it is taking away the inside part of the plate for the pitchers and they cannot have command of the game from that point. It forces them to throw the ball away from the hitters and allows hitters to just pay attention to the outer half of the plate and send the ball flying. As long as no one is being hit, no warnings should be given out, it ruins baseball by giving pitchers only a certain part of the plate to work with. And if a pitcher does hit a batter the other pitcher should have the chance to retaliate and then go ahead and warn both benches but don't let one team get away with beaning one player and then not allowing the other team to retaliate. You have to let the players referee themselves when it comes to these types of situations.

New Baseball Tonight analyst, Dave Winfield, shared a story while on the show about how he watched a Padres-Dodgers game last year where Manny Ramirez went deep and then his next at-bat the Padres pitcher threw inside (did not hit Ramirez) but then both benches were warned by the umpire. Winfield went on to say (I'm paraphrasing) that it wasn't like that when he played, if you hit a home run then, you could almost gurantee you would get brushed back your next at-bat. I agree with him, if you continue to let power hitters just sit right on the plate they're just going to continue to hit the ball over the fence. Pitchers need to be allowed to throw inside, especially when the big hitters are allowed to wear the massive arm protection and sit right on the plate to try to force pitchers to throw outside.

Major League Baseball needs to talk to their umpires and not be so protective of hitters, bring baseball to the way it used to be where if you hit a home run, you better watch yourself when you step up again. Bring baseball back to the 1-0 game rather than the 9-5 games that fans have become accustomed to.

Interesting Hit-By-Pitch Stat
Carlos Quentin has been hit by the most pitches since last season in the American League with 28. More interesting is that he refuses to wear protective gear even though he gets hit so much. He claims it hinders his ability if he wears an elbow guard.