Giants and Cousins release statements on Posey fallout

Cousins:

I hope and believe that Mr. Sabean's comments were made in the heat of the moment and are based more on his fondness for Buster Posey than on any animosity towards me. This situation is still an open wound for many, including myself. As I have stated previously, nobody outside of Buster feels worse about his injury than I do. I have reached out to Buster to let him know how badly I feel about his being injured during our collision at home plate.

I do believe, however, that the play was clean and totally within the rules of the game. Explaining over and over that I would never intentionally hurt another player for any reason won't change the minds of those who doubt my sincerity or intent. I have a responsibility to myself, my teammates, and my organization to play the game hard. This is what has gotten me to the big leagues, and hopefully this is what will keep me here.

San Francisco:

This is a very emotional time for the Giants organization and our fans. We lost for the season one of our best players to a serious injury and we are doing everything we can to support Buster Posey through this very difficult time. We appreciate Scott Cousins' outreach to Buster Posey and to the Giants organization.

Brian Sabean's comments yesterday were said out of frustration and out of true concern for Buster and were not meant to vilify Scott Cousins. Brian has been in contact with Florida Marlins General Manager Larry Beinfest to clarify his comments and to assure him that there is no ill-will toward the player. He has also reached out to Scott Cousins directly...

We intend to move beyond conversations about last week's incident and focus our attention on Buster's full recovery and on defending our World Series title.

Echoing Janie, that didn't sound like much of an apology (In Rumsfeldian terms, it is the quintessential non-apology apology). I take the Giants on their implication that Sabean apologized to Cousins and Beinfest directly. Hopefully this issue will be fully resolved by the time the Marlins and Giants next play each other in August (though I have my doubts).

I still think baseball needs to address the rule which allows runners to plow into catchers (and catchers to block a runner's path to the plate), so I hope this round of statements will allow both teams to put the specific incident behind them and advocate for a rule change. Not that MLB will necessarily make a logical and needed change...

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LoMo Speaks

On Brian Sabean's dickbaggery:

First of all, it's wildly unprofessional for him to make any comment on the situation.  When has he played in the big leagues?  When has he played in the minor leagues?  Correct me if I'm wrong but he's never been in a situation like that.  It's terrible.  Why would you wish anything like that on anybody? … He's taking this very hard without the comments that [Sabean]'s made.  He's getting death threats from people.  This is his hometown, San Francisco.  He's worried about his family and his friends that are there.  And now he's going to make comments like that?  It's ignorant, it's inappropriate and he has no idea what the hell he's talking about.

Sadly, this story is far from over. Not that anything that happens from now on will un-injure Buster Posey.

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Marlins in violation of the MLB debt service rules

I have no idea what this means. Not literally, I understand what a debt limit is, but whether that will lead to sanctions or penalties is anyone's guess at this point.

Under the debt service rule, Selig is authorized to impose whatever remedial measures he sees fit. The rule lists 16 possible actions Selig could take, among them an order that a team raise equity, a requirement that all team expenditures be approved by his office and the suspension of the team owner.

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Sabean wants to be clear: He hates Scott Cousins' guts

Brian Sabean on Scott Cousins:

Why not be hard-nosed? If I never hear from Cousins again or he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy. ... (Cousins) chose to be a hero in my mind, and if that's his flash of fame, that's as good as it's going to get, pal. We'll have a long memory. You can't be that out-and-out overly aggressive. I'll put it as politically as I can state it: There's no love lost and there shouldn't be.

Two things:

1. I hope you guys love talking about the unwritten rules of baseball, because I bet it comes up next time the Giants play the Marlins.
2. "There's no love lost" never made sense as a phrase to me. There shouldn't have been any love to begin with, right?

Actually, third thing: Posey will not magically heal if the Giants were to initiate a passive-aggressive/regular aggressive fight to the death with Cousins. Sabean understands that he's losing sympathy right? Or does being a dick make you a great leader? I can't keep track.

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What Else Can Be Said?

Here's Dave's latest for NBCMiami.com, taking a look at even more quotes and thoughts from the Giants about the Cousins-Posey collision.

My take? First of all, I'm amazed this issue is still being discussed. Now I do think the rule needs to be looked at, and I'm in favor of some changes, but to still be debating dirty vs clean or whether a Giants pitcher should throw a dart aimed at Cousins temple the next time he bats is crazy.

Anyway, the rule. Why can you truck an unprotected catcher into next week, but must slide at other bases? And why is that catcher allowed to obstruct the path to the base unlike any other fielders/bases? The common answer seems to be, "well, that's just the way it's always been." That's a stupid reason for doing anything. Plays at the plate are super exciting, of course, but they can still produce that level of awesome without bone jarring collisions. Examples? The famous Sid Bream chug and slide to win the 1992 NLCS, and more recently the Omar Infante magic slide (also seen in 2003 World Series by Alex Gonzalez).

Seems an easy change to make, no? Well, this is MLB remember, and they care about purity! They don't want evil robots to take over the game and start making calls, so they barely have any instant replay. Changing rules is rare occurrence and my guess is this whole issue will blow over and nothing will change.

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