Jayce Tingler Should Be Fired
Last night the San Diego Padres had a 10-3 lead in the 8th inning. The bases were loaded. Fernando Tatis, Jr. came to plate. He ran the count to 3-0. And then this happened.
Thatās what happens when you throw a 92 MPH get me over fastball near the middle of the plate.
Baseball of course exploded because Tatis violated one of baseballās āunwritten rulesā for swinging on a 3-0 count. The Rangers of course took the absolutely least classy one possible and threw at the next batter, Manny Machado.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who clearly ordered that Machdao be thrown at in the above video, had this to say.
Nobody tell the Rangers about the day in 1996 Kevin Elster hit a grand slam in the 8th inning of a game the Rangers already led 22-7.
The Rangers being mad about the home run is one thing. I mean, maybe pitcher Juan Nicasio shouldnāt have thrown a hittable meatball down the middle of the plate.
What I did not expect was that Tatisās own manager, Jayce Tingler, would also throw him under the bus:
However, the "unwritten rules" of the game caught up to the 21-year-old phenom when he apparently missed a take sign on a 3-0 pitch with the bases loaded and blasted his first career grand slam. ThatĀ drew the ire of his own manager.
"Heās young, a free spirit and focused and all those things," said Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. "Thatās the last thing that weāll ever take away. Itās a learning opportunity and thatās it. Heāll grow from it.
"Just so you know, a lot of our guys have green light 3-0. But in this game in particular, we had a little bit of a comfortable lead. Weāre not trying to run up the score or anything like that."
Itās actually worse than that. Tingler said heād rather have seen Tatis take a strike than hit a home run.
This is one of the most galactically stupid things Iāve ever seen a coach at any level say. He said, on television, to reporters, that heād rather see his player not play to win the game instead of playing to win the game.
Itās not like a 7-run lead in the 8th inning is insurmountable.
Let us take you back to this Rockies 9-run comeback from 2010.
Or let us take you to this Reds 7-run comeback 9th inning comeback in 2018.
On top of it, real professional pitchers donāt see a problem with swinging at a hittable 3-0 pitch.
Major League Baseball players are played to perform and to win the damn game. When a manager stops telling his players to win the game, what good is that manager anymore? Even more so in a season where, due to the short season, every game takes on an added significance.
On top of it, what good is a manager who doesnāt have their players backs? This isnāt a situation where the player was doing anything illegal, doing anything stupid, or violating COVID-19 protocols. This was a player trying to win the game, and his manager threw him under the bus for it. If Tingler doesnāt have a playerās back when it comes to winning the game, how can any player on the Padres or anybody in Padres management trust him?
If thereās one thing we learned last night itās that Jayce Tingler is not a leader and not somebody interested in winning baseball games. The San Diego Padres would be wise to fire him immediately and replace him with somebody who actually cares about his players and cares about winning.