When Kevin Towers took over the General manager’s position for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010, he made it clear what his teams philosophy would be.
“It’s going to be an eye for an eye, and we’re going to protect one another,” said Towers on Arizona KTAR 620 AM, also stating that “ if you don’t follow suit, or you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you probably don’t belong in a Diamondbacks uniform.”
Kirk Gibson has been an ideal employee under Towers. The often out-managed, out-thought, and out-executed Gibson continues to show all of us why the Diamondbacks are considered the dirtiest, most bush league team in MLB.
In a recent series vs. the Pirates, Arizona’s All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt took a fastball high and tight from Pittsburgh reliever Ernesto Frieri, breaking his hand and sending him to the DL for the unforeseeable future. The pitch was incidental, even the Diamondbacks broadcasting crew conceded as much. But Kirk Gibson didn’t see it that way. Gibson never sees it that way.
The “unwritten rules” aren’t that hard to understand when it comes to hitting a player with a pitch. If you hit our guy on purpose, we’re going to hit your guy on purpose. But that’s where Gibson and the Diamondbacks run afoul. Frieri’s pitch to Goldschmidt was anything but intentional, and Goldschmidt even reacted a bit late to the pitch that barely clipped his hand on the end of the bat. Frieri (a notoriously wild pitcher who since 2012 has a whopping ten hit batsmen) even apologized for the incident.
The Pirates were clearly not targeting Arizona’s prized corner infielder, therefore there was to be no “retaliation” served up. So why did Gibson have reliever Randall Delgado put a 96 mph laser into the back of Andrew McCutchen? Simple. Gibson is no longer relevant in today’s baseball world, and is simply clinging to the only thing he knows from his days in the league.
The ball that hit McCutchen wasn’t the first pitch thrown at him. Delgado threw in tight on pitch one, narrowly missing McCutchen. Normally, if a pitcher has intent to hit, he will go directly after the batter again on the second pitch. Delgado didn’t do that, and that’s why the Diamondbacks and Kirk Gibson are losing credibility among players and managers in the league.
Delgado threw a slider to McCutchen on pitch two, to make him think he wasn’t going to follow through with hitting him. But on the next pitch, a fastball found its way to the center of McCutchen’s back, and as he went down in serious agony, Delgado calmly strolled off the mound as if he knew he had done his job. The pitch reportedly hit McCutchen squarely on his spine, ironic seeing the Diamondbacks have been nothing but spineless since Kevin Towers took over. There are other incidents, this is not the first. Arizona showed off their “eye for an eye” mentality with the Dodgers and Cincinnati in previous years, and Milwaukee this season as well. And who can forget last year’s incident with the Dodgers that resulted in a benches-clearing brawl?
Gibson won’t last much longer in Arizona, and the Diamondbacks philosophy of wild west justice won’t last long either. Hiding behind an unwritten rule that you still aren’t applying correctly is simply ignorant and dangerous, and the fact that the General Manager of the team not only supports it, but encourages it, is asinine. There are so many ways to get hurt legitimately in the game of baseball, and purposely putting someone’s health and career at risk is something the league simply cannot allow to happen. Guys like Gibson and Towers are unwilling to admit that some things they used to do just don’t work anymore. Kind of like Gibson’s managing skills.
And McCutchen? He’s heading to the DL with an oblique strain that could sideline him for 3-4 weeks and kill Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes. It’s not confirmed whether or not the HBP is directly responsible, but it would not be surprising in the least. UPDATE 8/5, 3:28. McCutchen has told reporters that it’s not a strained oblique, but a fractured rib. It would seem the injury is indeed a result of the HBP.
For more on sports injuries, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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