The Giants are scuffling, and the injuries are playing a major part.
San Francisco lost both Thairo Estrada and Mitch Haniger recently to hit-by-pitches. Estrada, who has arguably been the best second baseman in the National League this year, was hit in the hand by a pitch last week, and now will be out for four-to-six weeks.
It’s the type of injury that could change the course of San Francisco’s season, and broadcaster Mike Krukow is furious over it.
Krukow gave his perspective on Wednesday morning with Murph and Mac, explaining that pitchers’ injuring players without fear of penalty is a problem that needs to be addressed. He also provided a few ideas of how Major League Baseball can fix it. Here are his quotes edited for brevity:
I’m not good at all, I’ve got the ass as a matter of fact. This whole thing with Thairo Estrada, I’m so ticked off about it.
What upsets me about this whole damn thing is that we’ve gone out of our way in baseball to protect the second basemen and the shortstop on the pivot at second base contact. We’ve gone out of our way to protect the catcher, you saw in the Buster Posey rule. And these are good rules. But, what has happened with the ability to protect your players when they get hit by a pitch, has really altered things.
Now, if you hit somebody, and you blow them up, break their hand, all you need to do is kind of go ‘Oh, it was an accident. I didn’t mean it,’ and carry on. There isn’t one afterthought from the guy that threw the ball that blew up Thairo Estrada. At all.
You don’t have to worry about one of your teammates getting hit in retribution. You don’t have to worry about yourself getting in the batter’s box, to stand in there and have your opponent have their shot at you because of the DH. There’s nothing that prevents it at all. So why would I as a pitcher not go out there and just drill somebody in the first inning. Because you know what I just did, I protected my hitters. I just smoked some guy, it’s a freebie. They’re not going to kick me out. They’re not even gonna fine me. ‘Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to.’
Why don’t I do that? Why doesn’t every pitcher do that? Because they have a free shot to go inside, and if they hit a guy, there’s no penalty whatsoever.
These are significant guys in your lineup, and you can’t do a damn thing about it. And I seriously think baseball needs to get into this and look at a way that they can curtail the freedom some of these clowns have to pitch inside.
I’ll tell you another thing too. As far as remorse and regret, there’s none. In fact they wear it as a badge of courage. ‘Yeah I blew that guy up.’ They wear it as a badge of courage. And you need to do something about this, because someday somebody’s going to figure it out. Some pitcher is going to go ‘Wait a second.’ If they’re going after my guys, and after that guy gets hit, I can’t retaliate, then why don’t I be the guy who does it first. Why wouldn’t I do this?’
I think it’s a bad rule, and the way the game’s evolved, it prevents guys from going in there and protecting their hitters. And I think they need to do something about it.
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This could determine their season.
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If not retaliation, how about a fine? How about a substantial fine? How about something that penalizes the team for doing it? Now look, baseball has come up with some pretty good resolves for the pitch clock and to the shifts and they’re kind of on a roll right now. Well, why not put these creative minds together and come up with a realistic way that will penalize a team for going in so hard inside. Yeah pitch inside but you don’t hit anybody. ‘Well it was an accident.’ I don’t wanna hear that. It doesn’t matter to me that you didn’t try to do it. You did it! And for the longest time in baseball if you did that, somebody was going to pay. And when the National League didn’t have the DH, that pitcher who threw the ball he had a chance to pay for it.
Alright, let’s just take away the retaliation because it may further cause injury. But how about have a realistic rule that makes it a penalty in some way, shape or form. I don’t know what it should be. Maybe something as simple as if a guy gets hit by a pitch, you put him at second base. It costs you two bases instead of one. Maybe it’s something as simple as that that curtails this. ‘Cause I’m tired of seeing guys get blown up.
Listen to the full interview above. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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