cabrera controversy

To give a little recap of the Cabrera incident last night. It was the top of the eighth and Bobby Abreu was on second with nobody out. WIth a 6-1 lead, Cabrera threw a high-and-tight fastball that hit A-Rod in the shoulder. Home plate umpire Chad Fairchild immediately ejected the starting pitcher. Cabrera's very confused and Dave Trembley runs out of the dugout to argue the call. If you didn't see what went down, these will give you an idea:

So that's what happened. And there's been a number of responses. First of all Yankees manager Joe Girardi (probably steaming from his team's three straight losses) said: "I don't know. I mean you never know. Danny Cabrera is wild and I don't like it. He was down in the zone all night, and we just don't like it." Going right the source of the matter, however, reporters asked A-Rod if he thought it was intentional, to which he said, "No." Asked again, he responded, "6-1 score?"

Then the starting pitcher weighed in for himself. "I was surprised because the score was 6-1, nobody out...How can I put somebody on base?" Cabrera said. "So [it] surprised me." Then Fairchild (the ump) gave his explanation. "There had been no warnings given to that point in the game, but my thinking with the ejection is when Alex came to bat the prior time, he had hit a home run, and the very first pitch his next at-bat was up towards the head area," Fairchild said. "I deemed that pitch intentional and I removed Cabrera from the game."

And Girardi still wouldn't let it go and pointed out that this was not the first questionable encounter with Cabrera; he also hit Derek Jeter earlier in the season. "It's happened a few times with this guy, Daniel Cabrera," Girardi said. "We know at times he has control issues, but it's just awful dangerous when you're up there."

Then today's addition of the New York Daily News had this on the cover of their sports section:

The headline and deck (particularly the words "dirty" and "drilled") blatantly imply that the pitch was intentional. The article recapping the game was mainly focused on the pitch/ejection. And apparently Dennis Sarfate saw the cover and had this to say: "He's leading the league in (expletive) walks," Sarfate said. "You think he’s got pinpoint control?” You can read more about the cover reaction here.

Seems like a lot of drama over one inside pitch. But I need a chance to add to it! First of all, let's look at the specific situation last night. The Orioles were winning 6-1, there were no outs, and he already had a runner on second. It seems crazy that Cabrera would intentionally put a stunt like that. And what's worse, Trembley was probably going to pull Cabrera anyway, considering he had just passed 100 in the pitch count and he had two men on with no outs. Waaay presumtiuous of Fairchild to eject him.

Now, let's look at the broader context. As Girardi kindly points out, "Cabrera is wild." That's a bit of an understatement. He is very wild and he's known for that. He led the AL in walks in both 2006 and 2007. And he's currently leading the league again in walks (66), hit batsmen (15) and wild pitches (12). So for Girardi to think that this was an isolated incident is ridiculous. Cabrera is a wild pitcher, that's just a fact. The ump should have known Cabrera's track record and not have reacted so impulsively. 

Girardi and the New York Daily News can do all the finger-pointing they want, because at the end of the day, we're still 2-0 in the series.