Doolittle Mad at Maddon
In the ninth inning of the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals game, Cubs manager Joe Maddon began to question the Nationals pitcher’s delivery. This caused two separate stoppages in play, resulting in Maddon playing the game in protest.
The issue that Maddon was questioning is the toe tap Sean Doolittle has in his delivery. Per rule, once a foot leaves the ground to begin a delivery to home, that foot should not touch the ground again until the ball is released.
Joe was even more adamant about this because earlier in the season, Cubs pitcher Carl Edwards Jr was told his delivery was illegal because of that foot touched the ground again.
Doolittle took offense to the display, even going as far as to say Joe has to remind people how smart he is sometimes.
Sean Doolittle on Maddon/Cubs protest: “In that moment, he’s not doing anything other than rattle me. It was kinda tired. Sometimes he has to remind people how smart he is”
— Jamal Collier (@JamalCollier) May 19, 2019
While I would normally agree without Doolittle in the sense that Joe tends to like the spotlight from time-to-time, on this occasion Sean was missing the context. Joe was doing two things here…
1. Sticking up for Carl Edwards Jr
2. Holding MLB accountable to their own rules
Marc Silverman from ESPN had an interesting take on this.
Gonna be so awkward when Theo trades for Doolittle. #Cubs
— Silvy (@WaddleandSilvy) May 19, 2019
That certainly would be awkward…
The Cubs played the game in protest because the umpires didn’t correct the issue. Maddon elected to play in protest as he believed the umpires were misapplying the rules in this case. Here is how MLB defines a protested game.
Managers can protest a game when they allege that the umpires have misapplied the rules. The umpires must be notified of the protest at the time the play in question occurs and before the next pitch or attempted play begins. If the play in question ended the game, a protest can be filed with the league office until noon the following day. No protests are permitted on judgment calls by the umpires.
Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations later determines whether the protested decision violated the rules, though the game will not be replayed unless it is also determined that the violation adversely affected the protesting team’s chances of winning.
It is unlikely that anything is replayed, and perhaps the best outcome for the Cubs would be MLB office’s tell the Nationals Doolittle cannot use the toe touch.
