Tavarez gets 8 Games on appeal

[pcgd]

Julian Tavarez, the set up man for St. Louis got an 8-game suspenstion following his appeal. He suposidly applied pine tar to the ball. He has claimed repeatedly that on the hat was dirt and resein. He's been checked a couple times for his hat this year (his hand goes to his hat a couple times every pitch, I'm assuming its a nervous habit) and no umpire had felt the need to throw him out. They had him switch a couple times to please the other manager however.

Now, should the suspension be this stiff? This is the same length Sammy Sosa got for a corked bat, which the evidence was all over the field. This however is disputable.

Just wondering everyone's thoughts. I personally disagree with the whole thing but I'm a Cardinals fan so I probably don't count

[STL FANATIC]

Not a single thing in this case adds up. I'm ticked.

Tavarez had his cap checked by the umpire warming up before the 8th inning after pitching to one batter in the 7th. The umpire ruled he had pine tar on his cap and ejected him. Then, he gave the cap back to Tavarez. Walking into the clubhouse, Tavarez tossed the hat into the stands.

A few days later, MLB announced Tavarez was suspended for 10 games for doctoring baseballs.

He decided to appeal.

He was offered a comprimise of a 5 game suspension to drop the appeal, but declined saying he was innocent and that would be an admitance of guilt.

Now, a month after the original suspension, after hearing the appeal on tuesday, the MLB announces it has been reduced to 8 games.

That's the facts. Now, here's some other facts, which will have some opinions thrown in, as for why this suspension makes no sense.

The umpire thought there was pine tar on Tavarez's cap. I can live with that. He doesn't have a lab on the field. But, he threw Tavarez out for having a foreign substance on the cap. Which is what the rule says to do.

However, Tavarez was suspended for doctoring balls. The rules in this case say the pitcher is to be warned, and if he does it again, he is then to be thrown out. Clearly, this is not why Tavarez was thrown out, so why did he draw a suspension for this.

They have no doctored balls in there position, or they are keeping them a large secret.

The umpire gave the cap back to Tavarez and after the game said he thought the situation was over. Obviously he didn't think anything was going on other than Tavarez having the pine tar on his cap, nothing that would warrant a suspension.

The Cardinals recovered the cap from a former politician campaign leader (he's fairly well-known around here I guess, but not to me, so that's the best description I got for ya). Tests were run on it in St. Louis which determined there was nothing more than dirt, sweat, and rosin on the cap. That makes it understandable why the ump might have thought it pine tar given that rosin is basically a powdered form of it. However, it's not pine tar. Obviously, one can doubt the validaty of the cap, but it's still a factor.

The MLB said the length of the suspension is based on a precedent. Well, clearly, that was a starting pitcher precedent, and thus, it is actually a 2-3 game suspension. They choose to overlook that. Still, that would concede that Tavarez did something, which, he more than likely didn't.

The MLB took about 3 1/2 weeks to hear the appeal, and when they finally did, they took 2-3 days to announce the decision. Tavarez is the Cards number 1 set up man, and he works best with regular work. Now he has 2 days to get ready for the post season.

Oh, and by the way, regardless of intent, they have evidently decided this incident is worse than Sosa using a corked bat with indisputible evidence.

Not a single thing in this case adds up. It is ridiculous, and the Cards should fight it anyway they can, even if Tavarez has to serve the suspension.