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Brad Thomas in Save Controversy

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Brad Thomas in Save Controversy
Brother Elephants pitcher Brad Thomas found himself unwillingly in the middle of a controversy after "earning" his 23rd save of the season and the title for most saves in the CPBL this year. He entered the final game of the season trailing Lin Yueh-ping of the President 7-Eleven Lions by one save (23 to 22) but would get the title based on a lower ERA.

With the Elephants leading the Leos 4-0 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, pitcher Yeh Yong-jie deliberately walked and hit two Lions batters (putting runners on first and second base) creating a save situation for Thomas.

Thomas got the final out to earn the save, but the CPBL decided it wasn't "ethical" and thus no award for the most saves in the league will be awarded this season. Elephants manager Chen Rue-chen Yeh and the home plate umpire were all suspended three games each (to be served next season from Opening Day).

The Lions' manager, along with hitter Lee Yu-Ru, were also suspended three games. Lee was suspended for "deliberately swinging at pitches outside the strike zone."
Comments
Re: Brad Thomas in Save Controversy
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Oct 2, 2012 9:04 AM | YBS Fan ]

That was a highly entertaining recount. And with the "ethical" issues that the CPBL has had the past several years, I kind of like the idea of penalizing players and the head umpire for deliberately setting up a situation artificially.

Was Lee Yu-ru the final batter for the Lions? And are they claiming that he deliberately threw the game (swing at bad pitches) to allow Thomas the save? Or was this a different situation that looked like something out of the ordinary?

Thanks for the great report from Taiwan.
Re: Brad Thomas in Save Controversy
[ Author: mondejoe | Posted: Oct 3, 2012 2:01 AM | YOK Fan ]

I think all of them were fined as well. The umpire was suspended for "not doing more." I guess that meant not ejecting Yeh.

Deng Zhi-wei was the batter that got hit after Lee. I don't know why Lee was suspended. He was just trying to prevent the obvious from happening.
Re: Brad Thomas in Save Controversy
[ Author: Guest: Kuan Lin | Posted: Oct 3, 2012 7:10 PM ]

Thanks for the post and translation.
Video Clip
[ Author: kuanlin | Posted: Oct 4, 2012 1:16 AM ]

There is a video clip of Lee's swing at 06:40 in the following video: YouTube.
Re: Video Clip
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Oct 5, 2012 8:55 AM | YBS Fan ]

Thank you for the link to the video, Kualin-san. That made everything much clearer. Lee was the third batter of the inning, coming up with two down and nobody on.

At 6:20, my first impression was that Lee was fooled by the low and away pitch. It wasn't a terrible pitch to swing at, except that the count was 3 balls no strikes. But throwing the bat at the next pitch away made it clear what he was doing. But in the end, he did take the walk instead of throw the game, so it seems rather odd that he would be penalized.

I think the game fixing scandals of the past several years have created an environment where anything not left to skill and random chance has become punishable. I fully understand why they would take such a stance. But I also don't see any wrong doing on Lee's part.
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