Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times reports that it should be known Tuesday how long the Angels will be without their ace Jered Weaver after he threw at the head of Tigers catcher Alex Avila on Sunday.
The general consensus is that Weaver will probably get a six game suspension, which is essentially one start and a heavy fine. This would be pretty much in line with what Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco, got for throwing at the head of Kansas City’s Billy Butler on Friday.
Tensions ran high during Sunday’s 3-2 loss against the Tigers in which we saw a heavyweight battle between two of the American Leagues best pitchers of Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver.
Things started to escalate early when Weaver took exception to Tigers right fielder Magglio Ordonez watching a home run when in retrospect it appeared as though Ordonez was making sure the ball was going to stay fair.
After this Weaver was on edge for the rest of the game. He was often times jawing at Tigers players including Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera after at bats.
Later things really started to get heated when Tigers second baseman Carlos Guillen watched his home run then stared down Weaver. Home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt saw things starting to get out of hand and quickly warned both benches while Guillen was rounding the bases.
This still didn’t calm Weaver down who then threw at the next Tigers batter Alex Avila where he was promptly ejected from the game.
Weaver who’s third in the majors with 14 wins, second with a 1.88 earned-run average and hadn’t lost in more than two months before Sunday didn’t find much support in the clubhouse following his actions.
“You have to keep perspective,” Scioscia said. “Obviously, you don’t want a pitcher thrown out of a ballgame. You don’t want to lose him at any point of the season.
“We’ll deal with the aftermath.”
Angels outfielder Torii Hunter called the whole affair between the Tigers and Weaver as “stupid” and “unprofessional.”
“The way he reacted to Magglio, he’s my teammate,” said Guillen, who stood at the plate staring at Weaver for several seconds after his homer.
“A line needs to be drawn somewhere,” Weaver said.
As for a fine or suspension, “It would be my first one ever,” he said. “So what are you going to do?”
Source: LA Times
