FULL Blue Jays vs Rangers Brawl
As a member of the Spokane Indians during his minor league days in 2011, Odor slides into 2nd and ignites a brawl.
This is Odor from last season.....You know what......I was blaming Joey Bats......This guy is a fucking scumbag....Dirty piece of shit player.
Fuck him.....I hope he gets 20 games for that punch.
Fuck him.....I hope he gets 20 games for that punch.
MLB Network is saying that Odor tried to hit Bautista in the face with the ball.......You know what I believe it.
That`s vicious.
That`s vicious.
I say he gets 15 games for that punch......We`ll see.
Please Jose....He got rocked no doubt.....Just let it go.....No need to get into a Twitter war.
And there are three major differences in my opinion between those two slides:
1) While Bautista went in hard, he went right across the bag, in that video of Odor taking out Giavotella, he slides passed the bag on the left side. I know that this doesn't make a difference in the rule book, but there is just no reason, why a runner should slide on either side of the bag on a feet first slide. Only reason for this is taking out a defender...
2) When Odor slid, he went in leg extended and leading with his spikes. That style, esp. when passed the bag, is dirty and if no intent to injure, you at least don't care about it. Bautista, even though sliding hard, slid in a way that he was pretty much leading with his knees, feet under his ass showing towards 1st base, taking his spikes out of any possible contact.
3) Bautista aims clearly for Odors right leg. Since Odor is a right hander, that is NOT his plant leg, it doesn't carry all his body's weight, isn't immobilized because of this and therefore it's far less likely for an injury (like the ones Tejada or Kang suffered) to happen. Odors slide on the other hand aims for Giavotella's front leg, severe injury waiting to happen...
While Bautistas slide is an illegal one according to the current rules because he ended up not maintaining contact to the base, it was in no way dirty in my book. He even startet his slide about 6ft before the back, his knees more or less making contact about 3ft before the bag. And while he certainly tried to make contact with Odor, like I stated above he made it going over the bag, not passed, and doing it in a "fair" way, not spiking him or going after his exposed front leg.
It's just rather bad technique by Odor to catch & stop right over the bag, he had the chance to continue over the bag towards the infield, tougher throw but by going across the bag, at least Bautista gave him that chance. I understand that a hard slide still isn't something an infielder will be thrilled about, but total overreaction and bush league move by Odor.
Since that Spokane incident played out pretty much exactly the same, push and immediate follow-up punch, I'd fully expect them to hand out a lengthy suspension because obviously he didn't get the message the last time, has some issues about controlling his emotions and was completely out of control. Considering that they are more concerned about domestic violence/violent behavior/player conduct off the field nowadays, him getting away lightly for that on the field would just send a wrong message.
