Jake

Is it possible he used a slur towards Latino players? I doubt it, but worth considering

It's possible I'm giving MLB way too much benefit of the doubt to assume they're punishing over the N word and not the word that refers to something you can put in your soup

I can go along with a policy against it, but it would be news to me if there is one. I don't think this would be the time to create one.

FYI the NFL started penalizing players for saying the N word (at least in earshot of the refs) a couple years ago

So chances are he said something along the lines of "you [n words] ..." Has there been any explicit ban on this language by black players like the NFL has done?

He said the N word

Well Ricky started charging like a wild bull so he had a kind of physical involvement that Tim didn't

Were they also ejected from the game they said it in?

See if it was that — and I agree this seems like the most likely magic word to get him in justified trouble — I'm not sure if what has been done is adequate. If I was an opponent I'd be upset he isn't getting named and shamed for that as several other players have been

The thing I think about is if Anderson said something bad enough to earn a suspension, it would almost certainly have to be something bad enough that you can't wave it off with a 1-game suspension and no comment about what was said

The K/BB/HR numbers look good, which is the most useful in small samples. I doubt Santana would have anything like that in AAA.

Watch the world turn on him when we find out what he said ?

I also was hoping (in vain apparently) that Dale Sveum would be held accountable for instigating both the first and second flare-ups

There are some things a player could say that I'd support punishing him over. Question is whether we'll get to find out and judge for ourselves whether what he said is acceptable

Renteria also suspended 1 game

Hopefully somebody leaks what was said to a beat writer so we can judge for ourselves

One thing I've been wondering about since the post-game: Did any reporter ask Tim if he said anything that earned an ejection? Usually you'd expect a player to deny or just not answer, but always a chance a guy admits to making a mistake and then you have no confusion.

I do think I've heard the umpires are mic'd up to document these things, although it is under a promise to not publicly release any recordings

Jeff Passan reports it's for language used. Keller suspended 5 games.

I would like baseball to have the same amount of celebrating as the NBA. Homers = dunks. The beauty of baseball is you have little pauses in play where what you do has no effect on the game. One of the most intense games I've seen in many years was the Puerto Rico vs Netherlands World Baseball Classic game, in which damn near every single hit and out prompted a major celebration and the fans were feeding on all of it. I don't find the "it's April"/"it's early in the game" stuff very compelling. We'd be furious if a player came out after the game and said not to get on them about their bad game or out or whatever because it's early and the games don't matter much. Most people go to one game a year, if that. Everything that happens in that game is super important to them. Players owe it to the fans to be all the way in the game and if that means the emotions come pouring out in some harmless way, great. As for this specific situation, there are a few things that really piss me off: Tim Anderson was thrown out of the game despite the fact it was clear he was just trying to go to 1B. Both the first "fight" and the second flare-up with Ricky happened because the Royals bench and coaching staff taking the field. If the MLB is in Tim's corner and wants to make him the poster child of the "Let the Kids Play" stuff, they need to punish Keller more than having him ejected late in his start. You need to regulate the celebrations, the retaliation, or both. MLB has made clear they're not going to regulate the celebrations.

Where's Madrigal?

Not a good AB for Tim

Nice AB for Eloy.

Per Statcast, with neutral luck Jose would be at roughly his career averages this season