February 19th, 2020 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka When MLB commissioner Rob Manfred imposed his so-called punishment upon the Houston Astros for the biggest scandal in baseball history (and what will be his legacy as MLB’s 10th commissioner), that punishment penalized every team in major league baseball except the Houston Astros. There is simply no other way to put it.
Oh sure, Astros manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were fired, but those actually culpable for what amounts to a felony (grand theft) and mortal sin (thou shalt not steal) – the players themselves – absolutely positively skated.
How is every other team in major league baseball except for the Houston Astros being penalized, you ask? Because included in Manfred’s so-called punishment was this little tidbit:
“Retaliation in-game by throwing at a batter intentionally will not be tolerated. It is simply not appropriate to express whatever frustration you may have by growing out of the Astros situation by putting someone physically at risk by throwing at him.” – Rob Manfred
(Video capture courtesy of MLB.com)
The burning question, of course, is how will MLB umpires (or anyone else for that matter) be able to determine if a pitcher intentionally hit a batter or if it was merely an inside pitch that simply got away and was completely unintentional?
The obvious answer is that they (nor anyone else for that matter) cannot … at least not if the pitcher is even remotely skilled at his craft.
In other words, and you can take this to the bank, any Astros batter hit by a pitch in 2020 – especially early in the season – is going to receive the benefit of the doubt.
…and that, quite frankly, sucks.
Play Ball!
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I think it would be awfully hard to tell if throwing at a batter had anything to do with the Astros stealing signs electronically.
I suspect that’s what Ron meant by “the benefit of the doubt.”
It does appear the intent is to protect them more so than other players. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right.
Indeed I did, RTR. To be honest, OBF’s comment made no sense to me at all.
My biggest concern and fear is that umpires will take away one of the biggest parts of the game – a high and tight fastball designed to put fear in a hitter’s head.
This will be a game-changer, you watch.
I suspect that it puts umpires in a difficult spot. Likely they’re just as offended with these guys as most players are, but they have to, at least, appear neutral so won’t speak up.
Now their being told to show favoritism to them.