Man, I think I might have made my Tool of the Week entry one day too soon. Mr. A.J. Pierzynski had another similar run in with a player when the roles were flipped flopped from that of the Michael Barrett incident. The other difference that it wasn’t a collision.

Craig Monroe of the Detroit Tigers hit a grand slam that put them up by a score of 5-2. I’ve watched the video of it a couple of times, and it’s hard to say who was really at fault. I’ll look at the story from both directions.

First, I will view the “ordeal” from Pierzynski’s point of view. In a literal sense, he did nothing for once. He was standing in the catchers square with his hands on his hips before Monroe crossed the plate. He did not move when Monroe crossed the plate. Monroe did run into him, more specifically his elbow. Monroe reacted with a “WTF” look back at Pierzynski. Nothing more than a few words were exchanged and some dirty looks. I’m sure Pierzynski could have said “Oops sorry” right away to let him know that any contact was inadvertant. I suppose could have let the players have their celebration. Many times, a catcher will go out and talk to his pitcher while he crosses the plate and celebrates with his time.

On the flipside, Monroe who, rightfully so, was very excited that he hit a grand slam, that proved to be the winning hit. I’m sure that he was not watching Pierzynski at all, and didn’t notice that he didn’t move out of his catchers box at all. He didn’t notice that he was in the box even before he crossed the plate. In turn, I’m sure Monroe overracted a little bit when he ran into Pierzynski. When Monroe bumped into Pierzynski, Pierzynski didn’t move around at all.

I would stay both players are little bit at fault. Pierzynski could have said something to let it be known that it was inadvertant. Likewise Monroe shouldn’t have overracted so much when HE ran into Pierzynski in the first place.