And they said baseball players can't hit...

[LastingsMilledge85]

Watch Gaby Sanchez. Nice going Nyjer you deserved it!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100901&content_id=14192232&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[spartakid]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

That was a sweet right hook, dropped him like a rock

[Dach0sen0ne]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

How about Pat Listach not even waiting to be tagged in. AWESOME! LOL

[LastingsMilledge85]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

I don't know about you, but if he was my teammate I most certainly not have his back. This is HIS fault, and frankly I can't believe that Riggleman is fine with the way he acted. I understand you need to support your team, but Nyjer is going to hurt your team at this point. Obviously, this guy doesn't learn as he should have never been allowed to play in this game, but that's the fabulous MLB appealing process. I'm a big Riggleman fan, but I am really disappointed in him here. I would have pulled him off the field after he stole third just to send a message to him because obviously this guy doesn't get it because he plays the game "hard" not stupid

[slambam]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

I don't know about you, but if he was my teammate I most certainly not have his back. This is HIS fault, and frankly I can't believe that Riggleman is fine with the way he acted. I understand you need to support your team, but Nyjer is going to hurt your team at this point. Obviously, this guy doesn't learn as he should have never been allowed to play in this game, but that's the fabulous MLB appealing process. I'm a big Riggleman fan, but I am really disappointed in him here. I would have pulled him off the field after he stole third just to send a message to him because obviously this guy doesn't get it because he plays the game "hard" not stupid

What's stupid about wanting to score when you're down 11? I can't blame Nyjer for stealing down 11 in the 4th, there is still a lot of game to play and you can't expect the Nats to just give up. Heck, if you can't steal bags and try to win down 11, they might as well act like little league and adopt the 10 run mercy rule. But, I think his actions around the plate lately have been too much. Hitting Brian Anderson last week when he scored (and there wasn't even a throw), then clobbering and separating Brett Hayes' shoulder (if he slides it's not even a close play) were both uncalled for. He's definitely isn't the smartest guy in the world, and he sure is earning a thug label.

[allstarsplus]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

What's stupid about wanting to score when you're down 11? I can't blame Nyjer for stealing down 11 in the 4th, there is still a lot of game to play and you can't expect the Nats to just give up. Heck, if you can't steal bags and try to win down 11, they might as well act like little league and adopt the 10 run mercy rule. But, I think his actions around the plate lately have been too much. Hitting Brian Anderson last week when he scored (and there wasn't even a throw), then clobbering and separating Brett Hayes' shoulder (if he slides it's not even a close play) were both uncalled for. He's definitely isn't the smartest guy in the world, and he sure is earning a thug label.

I agree. You don't run up a score when you are 11 runs ahead, but the team that is behind has to play smart aggressive baseball. Gaby Sanchez was holding Nyjer Morgan on 1st and they almost threw him out at 2nd. It wasn't like it was defensive indifference.

Nyjer Morgan's stats show he isn't long for baseball and his baseball smarts are the icing on the cake.

This is being debated as the #1 sports topic in Washington today.

[Mark17]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

What's stupid about wanting to score when you're down 11? I can't blame Nyjer for stealing down 11 in the 4th, there is still a lot of game to play and you can't expect the Nats to just give up. Heck, if you can't steal bags and try to win down 11, they might as well act like little league and adopt the 10 run mercy rule. But, I think his actions around the plate lately have been too much. Hitting Brian Anderson last week when he scored (and there wasn't even a throw), then clobbering and separating Brett Hayes' shoulder (if he slides it's not even a close play) were both uncalled for. He's definitely isn't the smartest guy in the world, and he sure is earning a thug label.

I agree. You don't stop being aggressive when you're behind. If nothing else, you want to maintain that aggressive attitude going into the next game, and keep it throughout the season. And look at the final score, they closed the gap to 16-10, and stealing those 2 bases led to a run.

Haven't seen videos of his collisions, but I always thought if a player is in the baseline, running them over is fair play. If the ball isn't coming, the fielder should get out of the way. Baserunners need to focus on the base ahead of them, and the defender, not be looking around to see the ball. Many times I've seen a defender decoy runners into coming in easy, then grabbing the ball at the last second and applying the tag.

Hitting a batter in the hip or butt is a good way for a pitcher to send a message. Stealing 2 bases and then scoring is a good, productive way (and totally legitimate) for the hitter to respond to being hit. So at that point the message has been sent, received, and replied to.

But to then throw behind the batter the next time up... To me, that pitcher deserved to be charged. In fact, he'd hit two other batters before nailing Morgan in the fourth, so why he wasn't charged/reprimanded before that is surprising. That pitch behind the back was not even close to the plate, not within 2 feet of the inside corner.

In short, I don't think it's fair to compare hard-nosed baserunning (Pete Rose running over Ray Fosse comes to mind) with a pitcher turning a baseball into a 90+ mph weapon, and throwing it at hitters repeatedly.

[BradleyERyon]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8250511

Here's video of another great Nyjer Morgan moment. This never gets old!

[LastingsMilledge85]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

I'm sorry but I'm going to have side with Wes Helms and say that he stole those bases out of spite which clearly looks like why he took them. Also based on Nyjer's recent erratic behavior, it makes it look more like spite, than out of playing hard.

[Fnazxc0114]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

That guys trash. He got what he deserved when gaby knocked him on his butt. You got to love seeing somebodys butt hit the ground before their feet do. Maybe that will teach him that being a punk will get his butt kicked.

[Mark17]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

I'm sorry but I'm going to have side with Wes Helms and say that he stole those bases out of spite which clearly looks like why he took them. Also based on Nyjer's recent erratic behavior, it makes it look more like spite, than out of playing hard.

I can't and won't disagree, but I'll add this thought...

Back in the 1960s one of my all-time favorite players was Frank Robinson. The LAST thing any pitcher wanted to do was get him mad. Frank hit a lot of game-winning home runs following brushback pitches, and even though his extra little bit of motivation may have been personal revenge, they were still game-winning home runs.

So if this guy turns a HBP into a run by stealing 2 bases, who cares about what his motivations were? He still helped his team.

Having said that, I have to laugh at the video link Brad posted. Looks like there are plenty of other examples of this clown hurting his team.

:-)

I'm not defending him overall, just saying in that one particular game, he was the third guy on his team to be hit by a pitch, and next time up he was thrown behind. His first retaliation was to steal twice and score, his second was to say in effect, enough is enough. In this game I think he was more justified than that pitcher.

[LastingsMilledge85]

Re: And they said baseball players can't hit...

I don't believe Volstad intended to hit anyone other than Morgan though. Volstad has control issues and is another example of a guy that was rushed up here and cannot repeat his rookie performance. Bottom line, IMO, Volstad just isn't any good and the pitches that hit the other guys were ones that got away, the ones to Morgan were obviously intentional.