Suspend Chris Archer for more than 5-6 games, writes Hardball Talk's Baer
Will Major League Baseball punish Chris Archer for his role in Sunday's fireworks in Pittsburgh?
Bill Baer of NBC Sports' Hardball Talk writes that the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher should be suspended for throwing behind the Cincinnati Reds' Derek Dietrich during Sunday's series finale between the teams at PNC Park.
Archer was not among those ejected for his pitch and the benches-clearing incident that followed.
MLB needs to suspend Archer — and make it count. Oftentimes, starters are suspended five or six games for stunts like Archer's. It sounds like a hefty amount of games, but since starters only appear in one out of every five games, the punishment is effectively just a one-game suspension.
Let us not forget that a baseball, especially thrown in the mid-90's and above like Archer’s pitch to Dietrich was, is a weapon capable of seriously injuring or killing another person.
The suspension would need to be long enough to dissuade players from wanting to exact revenge on players who they perceive to have wronged them and/or their teammates. A 25-game suspension, for example, would effectively be five missed starts for Archer.
Others suggested via Twitter that Archer should be suspended:
More social media reactions about the incident were shared Sunday night.
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