Player Suspensions in Baseball: Your Guess Is as Good as Mine

After Tuesday night's bench clearing brawl between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees, Major League Baseball handed down suspensions for the two main culprits—Jorge Posada and Jesse Carlson. For their part in Tuesday night's fracas, Posada and Carlson each got four-game suspensions. Their suspensions were reduced to three games because neither Posada nor Carlson appealed the suspension. If someone can explain to me how Major League Baseball came up with four games each, I would greatly appreciate it. When it comes to how many games a player gets for his actions, it’s anyone’s guess. It seems to me there are no set guidelines for suspensions. That is a huge problem in my eyes. Let’s take a look at some non-steroid related suspensions that have been handed out so far in 2009: Josh Beckett—Suspended for six games for intentionally throwing at Bobby Abreu. The suspension was then reduced to five games. Carlos Zambrano—Su...