Yankees starting pitcher Michael Pineda has earned a ten game suspension after his ejection on Wednesday for having pine tar on his neck. There’s no immediate word on whether or not Pineda will appeal the suspension.
This is funny to me, because using a foreign substance on the ball is something that seems to be widely accepted throughout the game. However, being as obvious as Pineda was about it is apparently a no-no, and earned him the suspension and the scorn of everyone around the league.
It’s also funny to me that MLB hands Pineda a ten game suspension, which actually matters for a pitcher since you can’t easily rework your rotation for ten games to simply give Pineda some time off. In recent years, we’ve seen starters that were involved in various beanball incidents get three to six game suspensions, which effectively do nothing aside from pushing back their next start a couple of days (if at all). Pineda does something that seems relatively tame by comparison and gets the book thrown at him, simply because he was blatant about it?
The hypocrisy here is delicious. Attempt to injure a fellow player with a thrown ball? Here, have a couple of extra days between your start. Get caught with pine tar on your neck? YOU’RE MISSING UPWARDS OF TWO STARTS, MISTER. It’s *just* a little ridiculous.
