Should pitchers be allowed to throw inside?
We’ve all seen it. Sometimes we even see it coming. A pitcher just gives up a homerun, and he wants to let the other team know that he is not scared off their bats. Next thing you know, the next batter gets plunked. In light of the whole Mota-Fielder incident, I will take a closer look at the unwritten baseball code.
First off, I want to say that pitchers should be allowed to throw inside. It’s part of the game. Thee inside half of the plate is free range for the batter and pitcher.
Now, if a batter digs deep in the box with more armor on his body than Iron Man does, he is more than likely going to get hit more than a few times. Should he be mad, I guess so. However, isn’t the pitcher doing the same thing the batter is doing when he throws inside, protecting his territory?
So that brings up the debate on whether the pitcher is just being aggressive, or if he is just headhunting. If a guy hits a walk off homerun in the previous game, and his first at bat the next day he gets hit in the back; that’s a bush league move. Also if the opposing teams pitcher decides to go after the other teams star hitter in the same way, he should receive no punishment at all from the umps or the front office. It’s that simple. As it stands now, the rules actually are in favor of the first team that decides to hit a batter or throw high and inside. The umpire will usually warn both benches against any further action like that, and the next guy that goes hard inside will get tossed out of the game.
I say let the teams and players settle things instead of the umpires.
What say you?
