I know we hate to change the game/rules of baseball but there are few things more frightening on a baseball field than what happened again last night to Pillar. This just a couple of weeks after Harper escaped serious injury after getting hit in the face. These situations have caused players careers to be shortened and/or impacted for the worse...no more famous around here than Dickie Thon.

With that said, should there be consideration of higher penalty for hitting a batter above the shoulder? Is 1 extra base enough? Should it remain the same for old time's sake? Pitching inside is a lost art and this might make it even worse but I don't see velo's going down anytime soon.

wangus12 said:

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Make the players start wearing the cage helmets like they do in softball and bullriding if they're that concerned

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Yep. Very easy solution that solves almost the entire problem.

I think getting rid of the DH solves the rest.

The crazy velos are making every hitter a guess hitter. Guess wrong on 95 up and in and bad things are bound to happen. Pillar video and presser today are hard to watch.

wangus12 said:

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Make the players start wearing the cage helmets like they do in softball and bullriding if they're that concerned

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This is the answer. I had to wear one playing as a kid after my brother took a ball to the face during batting practice with my dad. It broke his nose. I'm glad my parents made me wear it, because not a year or so later I also got hit in the face during a game, but the cage saved me.

My coach having to pull my lip out of my braces after taking one in the face in 7th grade was awesome. Tournament championship game so I still took my free pass (or not so free) and trotted down to 1st with a towel. Can't even imagine it happening at 95mph

What age do kids start throwing hard enough to really hurt someone with a pitch in the face?

redline248 said:

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What age do kids start throwing hard enough to really hurt someone with a pitch in the face?

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I don't quite know the answer to that but I know that when I was about 8 years old (almost 40 years ago) a kid on my team got hit in the face twice in the same game. Black eye, bloody nose, etc. I think it hurt pretty bad, seemed like it did anyway. Glad I wasn't on the receiving end.

redline248 said:

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What age do kids start throwing hard enough to really hurt someone with a pitch in the face?

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Probably pretty young. Orbital bones and noses are not all that hard to break and baseballs are exactly soft

It doesn't take that much speed to do some damage. My dad was probably only throwing in the upper 40's to mid 50's to my brother in the story above. Kids in 4th grade can throw that hard.

all time HBP coincides with MLB crackdown on pitchers and foreign substances.

alvtimes said:

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all time HBP coincides with MLB crackdown on pitchers and foreign substances.

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Have some data on that? Besides, I'm not sure mlb is actually cracking down on substance.

redline248 said:

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What age do kids start throwing hard enough to really hurt someone with a pitch in the face?

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Probably the second a ball is thrown at them. In theory hs before it should be fast enough to be hard to get out of the way

sorry havent been here lately.... you requested data??? data about what???? HBP at all time high???? Go look I suppose...thats the OP claim..... MLB cracking down on pitchers and foreign substances??? Google is you friend... info about the MLB memo is there. Other than that..... not sure what data you are asking for!

EastSideAg2002 said:

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redline248 said:

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What age do kids start throwing hard enough to really hurt someone with a pitch in the face?

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Sounds like a great science project title.

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I would think a ball to the chest would be the most dangerous thing for children. A lot of them just don't have the muscles around the heart.

Lower the mound

After what happened in Durham might want to add the thought of pitchers wearing those funny mask the softball ppl wear

This all relates to pitchers using foreign substances to gain more spin.

You know what's interesting as well is the main argument that "batters like when pitchers use this stuff because it increases their control"

well, that argument is thrown out by the data showing batters are being hit more now than ever including several players in the face and head. When pitchers are reliant on a system of using sticky substances, they must also compensate where they are releasing a pitch. A normal increased spin rate will direct the ball away from where they are throwing and to the intended target. When they mess up or slip, the spin rate is not applied and the ball goes toward the unintended target, mainly, a batter's face and head.


We have already seen Pillar pour blood from his nose and face on the diamond as a result. That was a gruesome play. I'm afraid it will likely get worse moving forward. Someone will get knocked out or worse. MLB and mainly the commissioner is derelict in their duties here to protect players from potential harm.

2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 have had the highest amount of hit batters since the 1800s. It's amazing to me that this is not only the toughest time to be a hitter in baseball but also the most dangerous.

One can argue about velocities of pitches in different eras but one thing they can not argue is spin rates being dramatically increased in this small window of time.

So what does baseball do about this rampant amount of cheating? Do they ban only the most notable and known cheaters? Bauer, Cole, etc? The rules clearly state what pitchers are and aren't able to use so it's not even a question that they are cheating, blatantly so.

We know also from the lackluster response by baseball to the cheating Astros and cheating Red Sox that likely nothing of note will happen to these horrid cheaters. So what happens now?