At the point of this still, Cousins has already begun his launch, and he is launching not at the plate, but rather right at Buster Posey.Īt this point, there may be a need for a rules change, but let us forget about protecting catchers from injuries. Cousin's path to the plate is actually reasonably unobstructed.īut Cousins is not sliding for home. Indeed, the path to the plate is even less obstructed than it was when Posey was awaiting the throw. Notice, though, that at this point Posey is still not blocking the plate. In the second still from the video of the collision, the ball has arrived, and although Posey has not caught it (that's the ball right next to his right foot), it is fair to say that both Posey and Cousins reasonably believe that he has caught it. Thus, at this point it is clear that Cousin's had the choice of either coming in head-first and going through Posey's leg to the plate, or sliding around the plate and attempting to reach out and swipe the plate with his hand as he goes by it.
This is technically correct: A catcher is not allowed to block the plate without the ball. I have taken the opportunity to take a couple of screen grabs from the video at MLB.com, which is available here.Īs to the first point, the first screen grab clearly demonstrates that Cousins is coming down the line hard as Posey is waiting for the throw from Nate Schierholtz.Īt this point, Posey has the plate partially blocked with his left foot, but his body is not in front of the plate. I have watched the play a few times now, and three things are clear to me: 1) Posey did not have the entire plate blocked.Ģ) Cousins did not collide with Posey on his way to the plate, but rather veered away from his path to the plate and collided with Posey instead of sliding towards home.ģ) Posey's injury was not necessarily a result of the collision. I kind of agree with those characterizations. The collision has been variously described as a collision between runner and catcher, in which the catcher was blocking the plate while he awaited the throw and in which the runner attempted to plow through the catcher in order to prevent him from making the play. In order to fully appreciate the issues at play here, it is important that we are all talking about the same play, as in: Do we all agree on what happened during the play? Was the collision between Scott Cousins and Buster Posey within the limits of the rules as they currently exist?
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