After His Moves This Week, We Have To Talk About Manny Machado Acting Like A Baby.....Again
https://twitter.com/sportingnews/status/1052430859213639680
You all know the play I'm talking about in this blog, Jared highlighted it and called Manny Machado a scumbag, that it is partially true. Manny plays like an absolute scumbag player when things aren't going his way. He plays like a baby. If he is in a slump or doesn't hit the ball 400 feet like he wants to, instead of hustling and becoming Johnny Hustle to try and beat out a ball or put pressure on the first baseman.
He talked about it yesterday, but he isn't the guy who is going to lead by example and leg out balls, run out pop flys to the pitcher, put in that extra effort. Maybe its because he doesn't want to tear up his knee on a base again like he did in 2013, maybe its because that is the type of person and player he is.
He has had his issues with several other players in the past, Dustin Pedroia, Yordano Ventura, and Josh Donaldson and the A's. Most of the time he is the issue, whether it's a hard slide into second, grabbing a guy as he's sliding, throwing a bat after thinking Josh Donaldson tagged him too hard, hitting a catcher with his long backswing, or if he is crying about now getting granted a timeout call like he did last night in the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/PitcherList/status/1052396004564189185
When he was on the Orioles I would defend Manny to the death. I still will. He is my favorite Latino son, but man is he a crybaby. With the Pedroia incident I can see why Boston fans were upset, I thought it was a hard slide. With the Ventura incident I thought the fight was justified because no one like Ventura, Macahdo had been thrown at in two earlier at-bats so this was just a matter of time for him to fight Ventura. With the Oakland incident he acted like such a pussy, getting upset because Donaldson tagged him with some force? Get out of here. I am trying to find that blog but I think DevNest got rid of it, I ripped Machado for that.
So last night in the bottom of the 10th when he grounded out to short and kicked Jesus Aguilar, it wasn't good obviously. Was Aguliar's foot all over the bag? Yes, but just cuz you've struck out twice, grounded out, and almost got tossed for talking crap to the umpire for not calling a timeout for you, that doesn't mean you have to kick him. Aguilar did keep his foot on the bag a little long, but it's not against the rules, he can do that. That play is 100% avoidable, Manny did that on purpose, you can tell by how he handled it. His quotes, his little smirk, this is just who he is. I'm not trashing him because he's not in Baltimore anymore, I've always said this about him. I love him as a player, but there are times when he'll do something and just think "What on earth are you doing kid?", this is one of those times. He's lucky he didn't fall and injure himself, wouldn't that have been a story.
He did the same thing against Oakland, he says it wasn't on purpose, but lets be real. Thats a chickenshit move that will likely earn him a free trip to first base via a 95 MPH fastball. Machado and Aguilar got into it a bit and the benches cleared, but nothing happened. It's obvious Aguilar was pissed about it, because who wouldn't be. Even though his foot was all over the bag, Machado can't do that, but he acts like entitled baby so he did it. He's not going to change next season either, so the first time he does something like this in New York, Philly, Los Angeles, or wherever he goes, people shouldn't be surprised.
They kissed and made up later on at first after a Machado single with Aguilar actually hugging Manny and them getting over it, but I don't think this is dead. I'm sure the Brewers will retaliate, just look at how fiery Christian Yelich was in his postgame quotes, it's obvious they aren't happy with Manny. I'd love to know how Jonathan Schoop acted in the Brewers locker room. He's Manny's best friend so I'm sure some of the Brewers talked to him about it.
https://twitter.com/ByJamesWagner/status/1052459519073296385
He calls Manny a dirty player which is hard to dispute at this point because again, it's happening over and over. You don't want to be labeled a dirty player, stop kicking people when you are grounding out. You get a timeout for that if you do it in Little League, you get one in the earhole if you do that in the Bigs.
Machado is and always will be an entitled baby. Growing up he was the king in the castle who knew he was going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, so he was above everyone, or he felt like that. He's a bit of a hothead, and it's obvious he was upset about not getting the timeout call, striking out twice, and grounding out again. Instead of acting like a child, he needs to act like 98% of other MLB players and suck it up. That is the great thing about baseball, you fail 4 times and can be the hero the next time up, he ends up getting on base in the 13th, advancing to second on a wild pitch, and scores the game winning run. That should be what everyone is talking about, but they're not. They're talking about how Manny acted like a baby for the 100th time.
Instead of smirking and saying "if thats dirty, it's dirty I don't know" in the press conference, man up and say "I was frustrated and took my anger out in a bad way. I know Jesus Aguilar from the minors and have apologized to him. It won't happen again." Instead he just smirks and makes the target on his back even bigger. He always have an excuse on why he did it, or why it happened, but it's all BS.
He's 26, he has to grow up eventually, but until then, he is going to keep doing stuff like this, keep getting thrown at, and people are gonna keep calling him dirty. He is a top 5 talent in baseball, but people will always dislike him because of the stuff like this that he pulls. I don't know if this affects how much he gets paid this offseason, because regardless of his antics like this, he is still a guy you want on your team. He just HAS to mature, he HAS to know this shit won't fly, because he'll be eating out of a straw for 6 months if he keeps doing this.