Wakefield, Hernandez, Francona and West

[RogersUmp]

What did Angel Hernandez call the balk for on Wakefield friday night? It looked to me like he may have stepped toward home on his attempted fake to third.

[rbmartin]

Francona ejected arguing balk call on Wake | redsox.com: News

Here's the video.
Not sure about the call.
I don't like Francona's behavior nor do I Like Joe West's behavior.

[jkumpire]

Balk

[jkumpire]

"http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=14540715&topic_id=11493214"

Sorr5y, can't make into a link for some reason

[Rich]

My first reaction was that he stepped to the plate instead of third.

[David B]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

My first reaction was that he stepped to the plate instead of third.

I can see why he called the balk, but that's very marginal. LHP get away with a lot lot more than that, and I like what Francona said, he's been doing that same move for years and its never been called.

Joe West is probably going to get in trouble for his part, you can't put your hands on the manager and get away with it.

Thanks
David

[johnnyg08]

You can't charge through a person either. West doesn't have to stand there and let him run through him either. Sorry, If somebody tries to run through me, I'm going to defend myself. Ridiculous to say that West should've kept his hands off of him.

[biggravy]

Originally Posted by David B

I can see why he called the balk, but that's very marginal. LHP get away with a lot lot more than that, and I like what Francona said, he's been doing that same move for years and its never been called.

Joe West is probably going to get in trouble for his part, you can't put your hands on the manager and get away with it.

Thanks
David

No way. Francona was clearly the aggressor here. He was raging like a lunatic and Cowboy Joe put his hands on him long enough to just keep him from charging right through him. GMAFB.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by rbmartin

Francona ejected arguing balk call on Wake | redsox.com: News

Here's the video.
Not sure about the call.
I don't like Francona's behavior nor do I Like Joe West's behavior.

Joe was doing his job. He rodeo-clowned Farcona away from Angel and Francona tried to bull his way through. At the end Francona threw his gum at Angel. Real classy guy.

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by David B

I like what Francona said, he's been doing that same move for years and its never been called.

I don't believe that. If he had been doing that move for years, it would have been balked for years. He stepped toward the plate. Balk.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

I don't believe that. If he had been doing that move for years, it would have been balked for years. He stepped toward the plate. Balk.

It's just coach speak. Bill Walkenbach said that to me in his first year at Cornell after a balk on a pitcher he had only seen in practice.

[ASA/NYSSOBLUE]

And speaking of ejections, the Biggest Idiot in All of MLB, aka Milton Bradley got ejected AGAIN last night for arguing what was a pretty good pitch on the low outside corner of the plate. His manger had to come out and physically restrain him from attacking the HP ump, a AAA fill in named Muchlinski.

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | CWS@SEA: Bradley is ejected arguing a strike - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

Includes the usual stupid "You can't the give the pitcher both sides of the plate" remarks from the mouths in the booth.....

Why do teams keep getting Bradley??

[DG]

I don't see a balk. Nobody steps toward third to deliver to the plate, this is classic 3rd to 1st move, that I once thought fooled no one at ML level. Joe West, at 3b did not call it.

[briancurtin]

Originally Posted by DG

I don't see a balk. Nobody steps toward third to deliver to the plate, this is classic 3rd to 1st move, that I once thought fooled no one at ML level. Joe West, at 3b did not call it.

I'm not seeing it either. I think it's pretty clear where he's stepping.

[jicecone]

So what else is new, shades of the old "I have to figure out someway to insert myself into this game Hernandez" arise again. He gained direction towards third and at no time did it ever look like he was going to deliver the ball to HP. Look at Hernandez he doesn't make the call right away, he hesistates and sees how far the runner is caught off the bag, then probably thinks that couldn't happen unless the pitcher did something illegal.

Yes it was borderline where he stepped but it was totally obvious what Wakefield was doing. Of course, Wakefields fat arse prevents him from keeping his legs together anyway. which worked against him here.