A bizarre situation played out in the top of the ninth inning between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Athletics on Thursday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, and A’s broadcaster Dallas Braden couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
JJ Wetherholt — a highly regarded prospect who’s having a terrific rookie season — was on deck for the Cardinals with Victor Scott II at the plate. While hitters drifting away from the designated on-deck circle is very common, Wetherholt took that to the extreme and wasn’t too far away from the left-handed batter’s box, where Scott stood.
Braden, a color commentator for NBC Sports California, called it out.
Dallas Braden: “At this point, (JJ) Wetherholt is in the batter’s box. My goodness… Frankly, I’m surprised that nobody has said anything. Because that’s egregious.”
1B umpire Bill Miller eventually told Wetherholt to move.
“It’s about time. It’s about time. My goodness.” pic.twitter.com/B8yAnx6vM5
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“I mean, at this point, Wetherholt is in the batter’s box. My goodness,” Braden said.
“And I’ll be honest,” Braden continued. “Frankly, I’m surprised that nobody has said anything. Because that’s egregious.”
Later in the Scott at-bat, Wetherholt was finally ordered to move closer to the on-deck circle, with first-base umpire Bill Miller delivering the request.
“It’s about time,” Braden said. “It’s about time. My goodness. I mean, technically, he’s got about eight at-bats today.”
There are a few reasons why that’s indeed a pretty ridiculous tactic from Wetherholt.
For one, well, that’s not a great place to stand for safety reasons! Sure, the kind of foul ball that it would take would be a very rare thing at that angle, but it’s possible, and Wetherholt would have no time to react.
Wetherholt is also able to time the pitcher, and from such a close distance and angle, making it a pretty unfair advantage ahead of his plate appearances. Additionally, while the average major-league pitcher tends to be very locked in mentally, seeing another player in full stance, timing each of your pitches near home plate, can be an added distraction. It’s just an advantage that the opposition isn’t supposed to be allowed to have.
So, Braden’s commentary was fair, and at least the umpiring crew eventually noticed the same thing.
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