Elite Baseball League: Lack of discipline

In this article, I will address specific situations calling things by its name. But I will only do it because people watched it on TV or at the stadium. My goal is not to personalize, but quite the opposite.

On Sunday, Industriales’ starting pitcher, Raymond Figueredo, was about to reach the fifth inning in yet another quality start when home-plate umpire, Luis Figueredo, ejected him for protesting balls and strikes.

I will not say it was a strike, or a ball. Here, the most important thing is to handle emotions properly, as it may come with consequences.

Players are playing hard. But they need to control their emotions and stay cool headed, especially players who are the ones ejected. Umpires should have some patience too. But this time, Figueredo (the pitcher) made the call easier for Figueredo (the umpire) and there is no other way to see it.

I personally like this pitcher, but he needs to be more balanced in this sort of situations. I believe the umpire’s strike zone was actually shaky (wider sideward), but he made the call for every team. And in the worst-case scenario, but being upset was not the best solution for anyone.

He was two-outs away from earning the chance of winning the game, and he finally lost it. His team was left in an uncomfortable spot, as the reliever was not ready to face the mound. I was afraid since rookie Rafael Perdomo had been shaky in his most recent outings, and with no prior warm-up, I thought he would not even record an out. But baseball is sometimes unpredictable, and he threw the ball pretty well.

Another suspension occurred in this four-game series when Yoasniel Pérez used an illegal bat. He later stated he did not pretend to take advantage of it, as these types of bats do not help offensive that much.

I remember a similar situation in a postseason between Industriales and Matanzas with a broken bat. That time, the protest was ignored as it was proven the bat was already broken.

This time, the evidence was there, as it happened in the game Las Tunas-Matanzas. Here, the game was not suspended as the score was too disproportional and the game was not going to be suspended for one at-bat.

The red flag here is for the National Commission of Baseball. There must be someone responsible for checking the bats to avoid these issues. We have enough with tons of games suspended due to rain to deal with these situations as well.

I do not know if these situations are on any checklist. But it should be, for the benefit of all.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff