The bulk of today's pregame talk centered of course on last night's brawl between the Orioles and Royals. There were other topics floating around. Just none that were deemed as important.
Suspensions are looming for Manny Machado and Yordano Ventura, the central figures last night. In the meantime, I'm going to dump a bunch of quotes at your feet from managers Buck Showalter and Ned Yost.
You may notice that they're not on the same page. The managers, not the quotes.
Also, it seems apparent that the Orioles were upset about something bullpen-related following the scuffle. It's worth monitoring if the Royals need to bring in certain relievers.
Showalter on whether anyone was hurt in the fight: "I was thinking about it at the time. That's why I went where I went. You do think exactly like that. You don't know for sure until you're two or three days away from something like that for sure, but I talked to Richie (Bancells) before I came down there. So far, so good.
"It's one of those things that comes with it. It's a lot easier to do those things when you feel like you're doing it for a just cause. I have been in some of those where it wasn't, and it wasn't a good feeling. It's something we've been real careful about here and talk a lot of about. Make sure it's for a just cause. I've been in some of those where you're involved in things like that and you know how it got to that point and it's wrong, and you shouldn't have been out there, and that's where things get policed from within with our club.
"We always talk about the ramifications of your actions and the things you say. I've already told our players, think about what reflection and the consequences it has on your teammates, your organization and your fans. Stop and think sometimes, there's a lot of things that branch of it."
Showalter on when he expects to hear about the suspensions: "I don't. I know how some things were done in the past. I haven't heard from anybody today. I haven't heard from the MLB office. I've heard from a lot of people. A lot of people."
Showalter on whether discipline is easier to accept based on circumstances: "You hope it's nothing, but I understand that most of those things are predicated on precedence. That's usually where they start and end and you argue your point, why yours is different. I do think about when something like this happens, kids and people at home that play games. You watch the Little League World Series. You see things going on there that tie in completely between the bats and 'look at me' stuff that goes on. Where are they getting that from? That crossed my mind when I went home last night about people watching that.
"A lot of things go through your mind. It's got to be tough for them. I understand you're talking about a pitcher versus a position player. Would it be something different for a guy hitting .300 as opposed to a guy hitting .100? It probably won't figure into it. I'll leave it in their hands and hopefully they do the fair and right thing, and if I don't feel they have, I'll address it."
Showalter on reports describing both Ventura and Machado as hotheads: "I'd have to consider the source and go through it and see if the person actually has a clue as to what they're talking about. Most people who weigh in on it haven't been in the fire. You just kind of let it go by. You look at precedence and how everything happened. I think everybody in here can think about some things we did. How old is Ventura? Anybody in here who hasn't done anything they wished they hadn't done at 25, raise your hand. I try to keep that in mind."
Showalter on whether he's concerned about Machado's reputation: "No, he's not getting that reputation. So if you're basing on one person that really doesn't know, I'd have to read it and think about it. Which really wouldn't be on my list of things I really need to do today if you consider the sources."
Showalter on how Machado is different as a person since his suspension: "Nobody's that smart. You don't sit around here and critique human beings. You all can do it. I certainly have personal thoughts about everybody and things I've been exposed to obviously a lot more than anybody in this room. But everybody learns from good things, bad things. And Manny is a lot better at some things than he might not have been two or three years ago.
"He's had a lot of good things come his way. We'll see how he handles them as he continues in his baseball career. So far, so good."
Showalter on whether it will be a fair penalty: "I'm biased, so keep that in mind. I also know regardless of right and wrong, there are certain things that they have to, precedents they have to follow in order to look fair to the previous people. But there are circumstances with all of them. I certainly hope someone at least talks to us before they ...
"The only time I've gotten kind of irritated or whatever is when they want to talk to you about it after they've already done it. Then it's dependent on what they see on film and what the umpires' reports are. They could have very easily issued warnings the first two pitches if you really wanted to get picky. I think everybody knows what was going on there."
Showalter on whether second pitch near Machado's head was red flag: "Yes. Especially where the target was. You look at a lot of things based on experience. You look at the catcher's reaction, you look at teammates' reaction. I love how people, I don't want to say smugly, but just kind of act like ... Until you've stood in a batter's box and a guy's throwing 97-99 mph, even if they're throwing 89 mph, it's a different gig, OK? And people talk about, 'Well, years ago that was this and that was that.' Years ago it was wrong. It's like the slide was wrong, injuring catchers and injuring people at second base. We've made things better.
"It would have been very easy for Ubaldo to go out there and do something. Why didn't he? Why didn't he? That would be my question to everybody. So that's the difference."
Showalter on whether he saw anything in replays that he missed on field: "It wasn't particularly pleasant to watch. I had a pretty good feel for it at the time and after watching it, what I did watch, it kind of verified what I thought. I didn't take anything out of it like, 'Wow, I didn't see that at the time.' You all talked about Chris (Davis). I know I'm sore today. I don't know why or why anyone would care. I don't have to play.
"Chris was in my office late last night after everybody left and we were talking about a bunch of stuff. He said the one thing he remembers is looking up and I was in his face. He could see my body right above him and he didn't understand what was going on. It was kind of funny. I better stop there. You get the gist of it.
"Did I catch something I didn't see? There were a couple things I'm a little, one thing I'm a little concerned with and I want to see how it plays out. I'll wait and see if it does."
Showalter on pushing back Hyun Soo Kim: "If you've been to Korea, this is a lot more common than it is here. If you've seen them with umpires over there, it's a whole different thing. That definitely was not uncharted territory for him. I think that's where I'm so proud of the coaches in that situation, with Dominic (Chiti). I know Zach (Britton) was upset and so were a lot of guys, and the ability to get everything back out in the bullpen and walking next to them ...
"If you listen to the conversation of the bullpen guys to ours, you get back to the just cause stuff. I know the players understand on both sides, but it's a reflection on everybody on your team when something like that happens. That's what I tell our guys all the time. Make sure it's something you won't be solo on."
Showalter on if he believes the fight can bring a team closer together: "No, not at all. I don't buy that stuff. If you've got to do that, you've got the wrong ... No. But if it was something different. It was no surprise at all. I had a good feeling exactly what was going to happen and how it was going to go down if X happened. Everybody was ready to do what we had to do.
"I hear that a lot. This is going to do this. No, we were already there. We didn't need something like that to create that. That stuff wears off. You're going to be who you are. All your strengths and weaknesses show up in a season. You will seek your level regardless. Stuff like that is very short lived. Otherwise, the Oakland Raiders would be 16-0, right?"
Showalter on whether they might be carryover tonight: "It's one of those things where you go out there, play the game and try to score more runs than they do in the nine innings. If something happens along the way, you deal with it. That's why I said last night, you bring it on. I do think that where you get in a problem is when both clubs think they have just cause, and they're both right. That's where things like this continue to bandy around.
"You never know what beats in the hearts of men and what they actually think. You may have 23 people that feel one way and two people feel the other way, then things like that happen again. You deal with them. We'll deal with them right now, and our focus is right now trying to beat them on the field. They're good. That's why they were the last team standing last year."
Showalter on who's responsible for stopping it: "I don't talk (Chris Tillman). Believe me, I know Chris pretty well. There's a strong competitive fire there, but he's really good at funneling it toward the competition. Sometimes, you worry about it going too much the other way, where guys get too emotional with it and don't focus on the task at hand.
"This game counts tonight. The game counted last night. Which way are you more proud of, the way our club responded in the game of baseball or the other stuff? The biggest payback is beating them. That's really where you get the most, I don't even call it revenge. In the whole scheme of things going on in this world, what did Doc Holladay say? Something like it's not the revenge you're after, it's the reckoning. There's too many people in that organization and on that team that I and we respect to try and throw a blanket over all of them. We're all guilty by association, right?"
Yost rushed to Ventura's defense today, sounding a different tone from last night. For example:
"There was no emotions involved with it. The second at-bat, his plan was to try to pitch Manny inside and then breaking balls away. He threw two pitches inside and Manny didn't like it. He was screaming and yelling, 'Don't pitch me inside.' Well, if you're a pitcher, of course you're going to pitch inside. And the one that got away. But even when Manny was yelling and screaming, Ventura didn't look at him.
"Ventura didn't do anything. He handled it well. Tried to start him off with a fastball inside, just got too far inside. He's got a reputation that's always going to haunt him here, and anytime something like that happens, he's going to be guilty right off the bat without looking at the entire situation."
Yost on how Ventura can deal with his reputation: "It's just time. Just go out and pitch your game. You can't worry about it. I mean, even when I talked to him, you know, if you do something like that on purpose that's on you. That's on you. But if you do something, and try to pitch in and hit somebody and it's totally unintentional, you can't worry about that because last year we got to a point where after all that mess, he didn't want to create any more controversy. He tried to stay away from pitching inside and got ripped to the point where we had to send him to Triple-A, and we don't want that to happen again.
"We want him to continue to stay aggressive. He's got to use the inside part of the plate. There's nothing easy about it, but this is the big leagues."
Coming up next: Showalter on Davis, Caleb Joseph and Yovani Gallardo. Also, I'll pass along quotes from Gallardo, Mark Trumbo and executive vice president Dan Duquette.
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