This is Rob Drake (30)'s seventh ejection of 2011.
Rob Drake now has 22 points in the Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (24 Previous + 2 MLB + -4 Incorrect Call = 22).
Rob Drake is owned as a Secondary Umpire by BSBALLUMP, who is now tied for 5th place in the UEFL with 19 points.
This is the 139th ejection of 2011.
This is the 65th player ejection of 2011.
Prior to his ejection, Molina was 2-5 in the contest.
Wrap: Cardinals at Brewers 8/2/11 Wrap
Video (1): Molina Ejected, Bumps and Appears to Spit on Umpire Drake
Video (2): Molina's Tantrum, Home & Away Broadcasts
Pitch f/x courtesy Brooks Baseball
36 comments :
Bad call, but Molina is a joke
Awful call, but Molina's reaction was ridiculous, and he just took himself out of a pennant race for quite a while. At least four games.
Awful? How far was it from where the league would call it correct using the "kulpa rule"? Not *that* far. Certainly not far enough to call it *awful*.
The px value of pitch #4 (strike three call) was -1.268. Per the Kulpa Rule (UEFL Rule 6.b.ii.a), absolute px less than 0.900 is always a strike, between 0.901 and 1.000 is borderline, and greater than 1.000 may be deemed a ball.
3 Bumps + 1 Spit = 4 Game suspension? What's the over/under here?
Catcher shouldn't have done that even if he's mad about the call. No question the call is incorrect, but with two strikes, you've got to be willing to swing the bat.
If you look at the video, Molina never actually touches drake at all. He starts screaming in Drakes face, and drake turns his back and wipes off his face. He started out a little hot, but drake must have said something to set him off.
What do you mean Molina didn't touch Drake? As soon as he turned around to argue, he hit Drake with the brim of his helmet. That's clear as day, and that's enough for a suspension right there, let alone for spitting.
Even though, I don't think he intentionally meant to spit on Drake. It just flew out of his mouth cause he was yelling.
Either way, Molina was way out of line. Drake made the wrong call, but there's no reason to act like a raving lunatic.
Gil or Jeremy,
I was wondering what the ball/strike accuracy percentage was for Tim Welke behind the plate in last night's Mets/Marlins game. Tim is one of the best, and he usually calls a good game, but it seemed like he had an extra wide strike zone last night. I was just wondering what the actual numbers were.
Thanks!
@11:42pm "but drake must have said something to set him off."
Huh? Are you serious?
1st of all the time in between the 2 brims coming in contact with each other and the 1st indication of spit in Drake's face was so small, nothing could have been said.
Secondly you can see Drake's face the entire time, and he looks as if he's trying to get some words in but cannot. He lips do not seem to be forming actual words. The lips look to be reacting to what is being said.
Here's another example, IF your an umpire you can see what has happened. Clearly Molina was upset with the strike call, however that was the tipping point. He must have had other problems with Drake, and really thought Drake was screwing him intentionally. Didn't Molina seem lose his mind? Molina has been called out many times in his career. He's been a professional a long time. I really believe Molina thought Drake was giving him the shaft.
I think Molina should get 5 games, like Roberto Alomar did for spitting on John Hirschbeck, and have to pay a hefty fine. That is just disgusting behavior and if people get 50 games for steroids, I would love to see people get 50 games for spitting on umpires, in my view a much worse offense.
Intentional? If so, then the old saying about players and managers being paranoid is certainly true.
It seems as though Molina acted aggressively. I do not know if Molina chews (tobacco) but if you get that in your eyes it stings an awful lot. Umpires also do not like getting spit on and he may or may not have billed him with the helmet. The short clip was not enough to tell. I'd be surprised if Molina got more then two games unless there was something that we didn't see in that clip.
Molina should have kept his cool and has no excuse for his actions. Rob Drake is a joke of an umpire. One of the worst zones and horrible call at first the night before. This is a shame for the Cardinals organization and also a shame to MLB to have an umpire as bad as Drake on the roster.
The pitch chart does not reflect what the video shows, why? The called 3rd strike was near the inside corner, where is the last pitch on the chart? Is it #4 ??
Pitch f/x graphs are always from the catcher/umpire perspective. When broadcasters use pitch f/x data for their own graphs, they simply reverse the image (flip horizontally) to provide a pitcher's perspective to match their camera angle.
@Gil- now it makes sense.
Molina denies initiating contact against Drake and spitting on him:
"Well the call, obviously, that was a bad call. Obviously, if you see a replay, that was a really bad call for him. And, then, after that, he was arguing with me and he touched me. He wasn't doing a bad job. He was OK, but the inning before, he missed like three pitches for us and then he gave the pitch to them, and that's not fair. I was talking to him, and he was pushing at me. He said, ‘Don't come here; don't come back here,' and I said, ‘I have the right to come back here,' and he threw me out. I'm glad to get the win. Whatever they do, we can talk later, but we'll have to wait for that. We never spit on any face of any man; that's not me. I was all sweaty and my face was all sweat and I was yelling at him, but I would never spit on anybody's face. I don't know what it was, but when I was inside, I saw the replay, and in the moment, I didn't see anything. But I didn't spit on his face. I don't do that."
Video doesn't lie, Molina.
If he thinks he didn't initiate contact, he's delusional.
Dan, based off my rough calculations. I see there was 167 called pitches that game (almost half the pitches in the game were callable, a lot of balls). Out of the 167, Welke appeared to miss 23 (though a couple are borderline in the vertical bounds, so a closer look may be needed). 144 correctly called pitches out of 167 called pitches=86.2% correctly called rate.
at :57 of the double broadcast clip you can see the spittle fly from Molina and appears to hit Drake in the left side of his face. I do not see anywhere that Drake initiated the contact in either clip.
Thanks Jeremy! I forget, what is considered a good ratio, over 90%?
Dan, the average accuracy during the QuesTec era was 93-94%. During the Pitch F/X era (past few years), that accuracy has grown slightly to about 94%. I'd say anything around that mark would be considered a good performance.
For instance, in No Hit 3, Ted Barrett called a game with 96.3% accuracy. That is considered very, very good.
In No Hit 2, Jerry Meals called 93.8% correct, and in No Hitter (No Hit 1), Bruce Dreckman called 95.1%.
These are all considered good percentages with 94% as the league's overall average.
So with Tim Welke at about 86% in that Mets/Marlins game, I guess I was right that he did have a somewhat wide strike zone.
Thanks for the info, guys!
Dan, you would be correct. The majority of his missed calls were not actually inside or outside, but to his left. Whether the batter was left-handed (he was giving a lot of strike calls on the outside corner), or right-handed (he was giving a lot of strike calls on the inside corner) he was giving the pitcher the strike. He was also calling a lot of balls on the bottom part of the strike zone near the knees. Those were the vast majority of his missed calls.
This isn't the first time Molina has been outrageous in an ejection.
http://cascreamindude.livejournal.com/55223.html
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=2689415
Major League Baseball has suspended Yadier Molina for five games and fined him an undisclosed amount.
And Torre will cut that down to 2 on appeal along with putting the blame on Drake somehow.
MLB cited the contact and "spraying [Drake] with spittle" as the reason for the suspension.
Early reports are that Molina will not appeal.
here is the article from ESPN.. 5 games no appeal!
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/6834233/st-louis-cardinals-yadier-molina-suspended-five-games-umpire-run-in
What do you think of the punishment, everyone? Fair? Too light? Too strict?
Why does it say "Home & Away"? The first feed is the Cardinals TV broadcast, the second is the Cardinals radio broadcast. No Brewers broadcast included.
Obviously Molina overreacted. But Drake is a douche. He screwed the Cardinals at 1B Monday night and Molina on this play Tuesday. Clearly, he has it out for the Cardinals. I know everyone here thinks the umpires are never supported by MLB, but they never get fired, no matter how bad they are. Lifetime job security is pretty good protection.
Gil or Jeremy......
How can you approve a post which includes this statement: "Drake is a douche" ????????
I've had 1 or 2 of my posts completely erased. My posts weren't even posted then deleted, they were never posted. Now I will admit the posts of mine that I'm referring to were WAY out of line for a public forum. But I still must question why an MLB umpire can be defamed in this way?
Anonymous 11:46 PM,
I definitely see your point, and don't necessarily disagree. However, we do let some posts like this go to allow people to see how illogical they can be when it comes to trying to make a point about an umpire. The previous poster obviously engaged in ad hom attack. This is hardly the worst we have seen though. We've seen very personal comments against umpires like Cory Blaser and Alfonso Marquez. Racial ones in the latter case that we withheld.
We don't find the name calling and ad hominem attacks to be acceptable. But, we do let the occasional one go through. We can let others see how people try to argue and make a point. I think most aren't going to put much weight into his point. But maybe Anonymous 8:29 PM can explain in detail why he thinks Drake is what he called him. Also as to why he thinks that umpires are never fired and they have lifetime job security without accountability. Everyone on occasion probably does say something that is out of line for a public forum, it happens...of course it doesn't mean it is acceptable.
Jeremy.....
Fair enough! Thanks!
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