Matt Kemp received a four-game suspension today for his part in the bench-clearing “brawl” (heretofore “The Challenge at Chavez Ravine”) on Tuesday night while his counterpart in the incident, Yorvit Torrealba, received a three-game suspension.
For those that don’t know, here’s the gist of what happened: Matt Kemp struck out swinging in the seventh inning and the ball hit the dirt. Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba blocked the ball properly; the ball rolled a little down the first base line and while Kemp ran/stumbled toward first base, he got between Torealba and the ball. Torrealba pushed Kemp lightly out of the way, Kemp took offense to it. Torrealba tagged Kemp on the chest and Kemp pushed him hard. Torrealba threw the first punch, with ball in hand, at Kemp’s neck; Kemp wrangled Torrealba in a headlock and threw him to the ground and then both benches erupted.
I’m not going to argue that Matt Kemp should earn his MENSA accreditation for this, but four games seems a little long considering he didn’t throw a punch. “Inciting” was listed as one of the reasons, which I completely understand, but if Torrealba hadn’t thrown the punch–that is, if Kemp’s push had happened in a vaccuum, he would have been given a one-day suspension, so to be suspended four times as much as he should be because of how the other player reacted is the excessive part.
I get that the league also wants to curb these sort of incidents and to do so, it makes sense to tag on a couple extra days of suspension, so it’s not unreasonable. But like I said, it’s excessive.
On an unrelated note, the MLB’s first-year players draft took place today and the Dodgers got lucky as Ethan Martin from Stephens County High School in Toccoa, Georgia, fell to them. Martin’s a two-way player: he can project as a major-league third baseman or a major-league pitcher. According to the scouting report, he’s got an all-star caliber fastball (low- to mid-90s) and curveball, with some great movement on both. His control isn’t great, but it will probably get better.
In most mock drafts, he was supposed to go before the Dodgers’ pick at 15, so looks like this was a moderate steal.
