Kansas City Royals: The Next Phase of Winning
By Paul York
Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija (left) fights with Kansas City Royals players – Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
Samardzija Was In The Eye Of The Storm
Other than the timing of it, and questioning his focus on the rest of the game, I had zero problems with Ventura plunking Brett Lawrie. I also have no problem with him popping off to Adam Eaton.
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I said this on Twitter, and I’ll say it here too. The KC Royals, and fans alike, better be careful what they wish for with regards to Ventura. Yes, he needs to tone down, or at least re-channel, some of his emotions, but Ventura wouldn’t be Ventura if he was made to start acting like a robot on the mound.
If you want him to just shut up and pitch, and show no emotion, lets see what Scott Elarton and Kyle Davies are doing. Maybe those guys are more your speed.
You have a young and exciting player, Kansas City, try not to mess this up. Ventura gets compared to Pedro Martinez quite a bit, and it’s not just because they’re Latin players, and very good pitchers. Some of that comp is because they both have that edge.
Ventura is a guy we’d all hate if he was on another team, but love that he’s ours. That’s the way it should be anyway.
You can huff and puff all you want about Yordano Ventura needing to shut his mouth, or grow up, or get his stuff together, but I’m going to go ahead and pull for Ventura to be Ventura. Some of you believe teams are baiting Ventura to this spats, and rattling him. I see it the other way around. I see the emotion he shows, and the occasional staredowns as Ventura’s way to rattle them.
Now seems like a good time to point out that if you think Ventura was the root of this brawl with the White Sox, you couldn’t be more wrong. The blame can squarely be put on Jeff Samardzija.
- Samardzija plunked Cain intentionally back on Opening Day after Mike Moustakas hit a home run, and followed it up by talking smack to Cain
- Samardzija started yelling at Christian Colon last night after he lined into a double-play
- Colon mentioned Samardzija running his mouth began back in the Wild Card game against the Athletics last year, at which time Samardizja was an Athletic, and ran his mouth to Ventura
- Samardzija made multiple attempts during the the incident last night to get to Cain to fight
The common denominator here is Samardzija, not Ventura. This fight was going to happen one way or another. It may not have happened in that game, or even in this series, but this fight was going down at some point this season.
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