The Houston Astros deserve it.
Joe Kelly doesn’t.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly did the right thing on Tuesday night. He sent a message that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred failed to send. He fired a 96-mph fastball over Alex Bregman’s head, and then he chucked a pitch over Carlos Correa’s head.
Let’s face it. The Astros are blatant cheaters. They cheated the Dodgers out of a World Series Championship in 2017, and nearly cheated the Washington Nationals out of a Championship last year.
I don’t want to go into detail about the scandal. If you’re a baseball fan, you know what happened. The Astros put cameras in center field and zoomed in on the opposing catcher’s signals. They relayed the other team’s signs to their hitters by banging on trash cans.
Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.
But here’s what’s even more ridiculous: Rob Manfred didn’t suspend any Astros players. Not a single one. Instead, he suspended Kelly eight games for throwing at Bregman and Correa.
Kelly did more than throw at the Astros. He baffled them, too. After knocking Bregman to the ground with a 96-mph-rocket, he fooled Correa with a textbook slider: a pitch that started at Correa’s hip and broke to the outside corner.
Then Kelly strutted back to the dugout and taunted Correa. He stuck his tongue out like a middle-schooler on a playground and talked smack.
I guess it’s more difficult to hit a slider if you don’t know it’s coming, right? Good grief. Enough with the Astros, Alex Bregman, and Carlos Correa. They’re despicable cheaters. They deserve every bit of hate thrown their way. They deserve to be disciplined and suspended. If Rob Manfred won’t discipline them, someone has to. And that’s precisely what Kelly did.
Manfred slapped the Astros on the wrist. He fined the team $5 million, took away some draft picks, and suspended the GM and Manager for one year. Big whoop. Give me a break. You cheat to win a World Series and that’s the penalty you’re met with?
Kelly took matters into his own hands. He should be applauded, not suspended. It’s utterly unbelievable that Manfred suspended Kelly and not even one Astro. Come on, Rob. Kelly did the right thing. He sent the message Manfred should’ve: cheating is absolutely unacceptable. It’s not okay or justifiable under any circumstance.
“I would rather face a player that was taking steroids than face a player that knew every pitch that was coming,” Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood said via twitter.
I second that. I’m a college pitcher myself, and I’d much rather face a guy taking HGH than a guy who knows I’m about to throw a curveball. There’s no minimizing what the Astros did. Manfred’s so-called punishment is embarrassing for Major League Baseball. It’s soft.
Joe Kelly did the right thing. He deserves high praise, not a suspension. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out the Astros are the ones who deserve the suspension. Not Kelly.
Rob Manfred has it backwards. Kelly’s suspension is truly pathetic. Get it right next time, Rob. Come on.