John Kruk hates BJ Upton

Bullpride08 · August 25, 2008

As for the call it was the right one, and a heady play by AJ. By rules you are not allowed to touch or impede a baserunner in baseball. Even if Aybar was next to him and AJ reached out, Aybar needed to stop after he threw the ball or get way out of the way,
you are wrong here.
the rule book clearly states that it is a judgment call for the umpire if he believes that the runner "delibertely interferes" with the play. it is VERY clear that AJ made the move towards Aybar that was not related to his attempt to get to 3rd base. (that point was even brought up on Baseball Tonight when they jokingly said that 3rd base had been moved to left field).
AJ clearly looked back at Aybar and knew exactly where he was at and then throw his elbow at Aybar (and still didnt even make contact, but he fell down in a Vlade Divac type flop)
point is....its a judgment call for the Ump to make there and he clearly used poor judgment.

No sir you are wrong on intrepretation here, I wish but that's more of a stretch then the ump call. Deliberately interferring with the play is by knocking the ball out of a tagger's hand, or attempting to knock down a fielder. AJ did neither, he reached out and touched Aybar who came dangerously to close to AJ. I've played enough years in baseball to know what Aybar did was stupid, you always stop or run way around to get out of the way. He simply jogged past AJ. You can't ask the umps to make a judgement call, when the judgement would still yield to AJ. They'd confer and ask if he 'deliberately interferred' and then when the obvious answer is "NO" they'd still give AJ the base because you cannot touch the base runner in any situation. That is a pretty clear rule in baseball, and not up for interpretation at all.

I am Rays fan but this is what happens when you miss your starting 3rd baseman- Evan is a very skilled infielder and that wouldn't have happened.

BTW, Riggan's missed tag is what killed all our momentum.

Bullpride08 · August 25, 2008

OK, John Kruck, dogging on BJ for lack of whatever, Please. John was one of the most disgusting (and still is), lazy and uncaring individual when he played. So those comments coming out of his mouth made me laugh until my rib cage hurt :ROFLMAO
AJ just made a smart play by advancing on the BJ catch. Sometimes it takes more than just talant and speed to be a major leauge player. It takes making the smart plays.
We have a very smart player too, his name is Bartlett. On Saturdays game, when the bases were loaded, he sheilded the short-stop who in turned misplayed the ball, leaving everyone safe and a run to score. Those little things is what makes you a great team, they call it small ball. Bartlett has done so many of the small things that really go unnoticed. He is the teams MVP!

Agreed, AJ made two smart plays including the reach out to touch Aybar. But BJ not even making a motion to gun it in to 2nd wasn't a bright move. If you praise Bartlett for heady play (which he does a ton of stuff like that), then you have to say that BJ's throw after the flyout was not a smart one. It wasn't that big of deal, but put together with his growing list of boneheaded stuff it should be easy to see why guys are on him. A smart, heady center fielder catches and pivots to try and throw out AJ at 2nd (that's what a guy like Bartlett would have done).

GoUSFbulls99 · August 25, 2008

Agreed, AJ made two smart plays including the reach out to touch Aybar. But BJ not even making a motion to gun it in to 2nd wasn't a bright move. If you praise Bartlett for heady play (which he does a ton of stuff like that), then you have to say that BJ's throw after the flyout was not a smart one. It wasn't that big of deal, but put together with his growing list of boneheaded stuff it should be easy to see why guys are on him. A smart, heady center fielder catches and pivots to try and throw out AJ at 2nd (that's what a guy like Bartlett would have done).

I will not defend BJ's lack of whatever. I have said before, he is a great player, who needs to break this VERY VERY VERY bad habits he has. And other teams taking advantage of his bad habits (like getting tagged out at second by the first baseman for lollygagging, and runners advancing on catches that some outfeilders may not even make) maybe will be his wake-up call. Yes he makes bonehead mistakes, and with his talent these guys usually wouldn't even think on running on his arm, but until he gets it they will.

He will change, it is gonna be a slow and painful process, but he will and he deserves to be on this team!