The Braves lost 5-2 in Miami Wednesday night, but the score itself was far from the dominant story. Here are three observations from the game:
Based on the two examples mentioned above, opposing batters may not want to admire a home run against Atlanta unless they are expecting some sort of retaliation. A few weeks ago, Harper was perceived to slow-trot his home run off Braves rookie Julio Teheran and was subsequently plunked in his next at-bat. On Wednesday night, Marlins rookie pitcher Jose Fernandez, the best 21-year-old pitcher on the planet starting his final game of the 2013 season, belted his first career home run and added a little extra: tossing his bat and lingering around home plate a bit too long.
The Braves took exception.
As he rounded the bases and touched home plate (and apparently spit something in the general direction of Chris Johnson while touching third, subsequently angering the Braves' third baseman), Atlanta catcher Brian McCann got in Fernandez's face, offering some terse advice. And any time one player gets another player's face, certainly the benches have to clear. And any time the benches clear and star players are involved, certainly the bullpen guys have to trot in en masse.
So it was at Marlins Park with dozens of baseball players jostling near home plate arguing and defending ever-present mottos like "Respect The Game" and "Play The Right Way" and so on.
"He happened to hit a home run and stood there," McCann said. "I just told him, 'You can't do that. You're gonna get someone hurt.' It's just something that didn't need to happen."
"He told me, 'Buddy, you can't do that,'" Fernandez said of his brief conversation with McCann before the scrum separated the two. "And I was just gonna walk away. I was walking away already. … He was talking to me as a friend. I wouldn't say as a friend, I would say as a dad teaching a kid. That's how it felt."
The Marlins coaching staff called a closed-door meeting right after the game was finished and addressed the situation. Judging by manager Mike Redmond's tone in his postgame press conference, it was not an amiable conversation. And, for his part, Fernandez said he felt "embarrassed" by the entire ordeal.
"I feel like I don't deserve to be here," the NL Rookie of the Year favorite said. "This isn't high school no more. This is a professional game, and it should be professional players doing what you're supposed to do. I don't think that should ever happen."
(Side note: Just checked the numbers and you definitely deserve to be there, Jose.)
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, along with McCann and Johnson, said that the initial tension began after Braves rookie Evan Gattis took Fernandez deep in the sixth inning. It was the only run the Braves scored off the young phenom. Fernandez, who has developed a reputation for talking and laughing and generally playing with plenty of emotion, was none too happy once the inning concluded. Cameras showed him in the dugout letting off steam.
"He's a playful guy, he likes to have fun. And we like to have fun, too, if he's gonna play that game, that playfulness game. Which is fine. He shouldn't get upset when we hit a home run and have fun ourselves," Gonzalez said. "What I mean by playfulness, nothing evolved over that. That's just the way he pitches. … But that opens a can of worms when Gattis hits a home run and he wants to have a little fun or take a little time around the bases or stare at it a little longer. You can't have it both ways."
Back to baseball's unwritten rules, which really dictate this type of passive-aggressive back-and-forth when these "incidents" arise. As McCann warned against, a player is free to function outside these said rules as much as he wants, so long as that player understands a pitch could be thrown in his or his teammates' direction in retaliation. Hence managers telling players acting outside the norm to cool it, or else. And as long as teams and pitchers are allowed to use 95-mph fastballs as rule-enforcing weapons, the rules will remain unwritten and unaltered.
Did Fernandez show the Braves up after seven innings of one-run ball then sending his first-ever home run into the left field seats? Maybe a little bit. Should he expect a little "playful" pushback from other teams, i.e. opponents admiring home runs and laughing at good plays that come at his expense? He probably should. Should he feel embarrassed? Well, that's up to him. Either way, he'll certainly chalk this night up as a learning experience in one form or another.
The key question, though: How much should Jose Fernandez really change?
In my opinion, very little. He feeds off the very energy that got him in trouble with his manager and the Braves' roster on Wednesday night. It (along with his dynamic stuff) sets him apart, makes him all the more entertaining for the few thousand fans in Miami that actually come to watch him pitch. If this incident significantly changes the way he approaches the game, then baseball in general is all the worse for it.
Why is it that with so many transcendent young stars — Fernandez, Bryce Harper, Yasiel Puig — the initial reaction is to immediately change them, to alter what is so magnetic about them to begin with, to make them fit squarely into baseball's fraternity? Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard recently referred to this trend as the build-them-up-tear-them-down-rinse-repeat cycle. Do we so desperately need every last player to strictly adhere to this unwritten legislation of baseball morality and sportsmanship?
Answer this: The next time Jose Fernandez pitches against the Braves — it'll be 2014, at the earliest — will you be more or less inclined to tune in?
If an opponent wants to take offense to Fernandez's on0field demeanor, fine. Nobody likes to feel publicly slighted. If veterans want to try and "put the kid in his place" with a verbal confrontation at home plate, swell. A little arguing and tension never damaged a divisional rivalry.
But stop trotting out this "Respect The Game" mantra in the aftermath. It's dated, misguided.
Baseball could use more personality, not less.
Lost in the shuffle, of course, is that Fernandez wrapped up one of the greatest rookie pitching campaigns in history Wednesday night. As the Marlins shut him down due to a 170-inning limit, he finishes with a 12-6 record, a 2.19 ERA, 2.73 FIP and a 3.23-to-1 K/BB ratio. Fernandez is just the fifth pitcher ever to complete his rookie season with that low of an ERA — the first since Mets legend Doc Gooden in 1985 (1.53). Nothing about that resume tarnishes the sport.
Fernandez is great for baseball. So are Harper and Puig. Trying to fix them doesn't fix anything, it only makes things worse.
Perhaps you heard of this home run Gattis hit on Wednesday night? It was just the second-most popular homer of the night, but it was still an important one: the rookie has now hit four home runs in his last eight games since being sent to the minor leagues to get some consistent at-bats. That includes three shots off two of the better pitchers in the National League (Fernandez, Cole Hamels).
In fact, Gattis has 10 hits in 30 September at-bats … which is a far cry from the 10 hits in his previous 58 ABs from July 28-Aug. 31.
Gattis is now hitting a solid, but not overwhelming .248/.304/.507 this season, numbers that are pulled down by extended slumps and limited playing time in June and August. But he's proven he can still be a very valuable commodity in the Braves' postseason plans, even if it's just as a power bat off the bench.
Don't expect that to be the extent of his contributions, though, especially if he keeps taking top-tier pitchers into the seats.
This cut won't take long, because the topic has been touched on before from about every possible angle. The simple fact is that all three players are not playing up to their capabilities at the moment — they know it, writers know it, fans know it, Gonzalez knows it, etc. When 0-for-4 nights become the norm, everyone takes notice.
With particular focus on B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla, the two highest-paid players on the roster who have underperformed throughout the 2013 season, the remainder of the September schedule could be dicey. Both players sat for the third-consecutive game on Wednesday night. Instead, Gonzalez played two waiver wire pickups: Jordan Schafer (the team's most productive leadoff hitter on the active roster) and Elliot Johnson. Sounds strange for a team well on its way to the playoffs and still a leading candidate to capture home field advantage. Yet here are their numbers over the last 30 days (via FanGraphs):
Uggla: .121/.356/.121, 0 HR, 3 runs, 11Ks, -0.1 WAR
B.J. Upton: .185/.250/.262, 1 HR, 4 runs, 27 Ks, -0.2 WAR
Not great.
To break out of a slump, one needs to play. But if one is playing poorly while the team is vying for the league's No. 1 overall seed, then Gonzalez's gameplan seems to slant toward the bench. It's an interesting situation to watch unfold as the season winds down.
The Braves can't afford to risk benching Justin Upton, though, and Gonzalez walked away pleased with his outfielder's performance Wednesday night (he finished 0-for-4): "I thought Justin Upton had some terrific at-bats, drove the ball in the first inning to right field and got Schafer to third base after a leadoff double."
Fernandez showed the type of pitching the best teams are going to throw at the Braves in the postseason — yes, "postseason pitching" is a rather over-used term, but just look at the Dodgers staff — and the bats, especially some of the bigger bats, need to help put up more than two runs. Overall, the Braves have now scored 37 runs in September — good enough for the 11th-lowest mark in the majors entering Wednesday's game.
