I don't think Alex is far wrong on the Herrera/Lawrie mess, though I place the blame less on Herrera himself than on baseball -- that is, I think the title of Alex's piece ("Kelvin Herrera is a disgrace to baseball") is inaccurate because Herrera is a reflection of the disgraceful macho culture of baseball rather than an exception to a normally decent society.

That's a minor quibble, though, because I'd have written much the same thing that Alex did, with just that slight change in emphasis.

The only other thing I'd say is that I think MLB has long since established the discipline available for throwing at players, instigating fights, violence, etc., and a 15-game suspension isn't that. Yes, it would set precedent, but precedent isn't available to be set anymore -- it's already been set, and the MLBPA would have an incredibly easy grievance to win if MLB tried to unilaterally massively increase the suspensions for this behavior.

That said, I think there's just as much a player-safety issue here as there is for performance-enhancing drugs, such that if MLB wanted to bargain a higher set of penalties for brawls and intentional HBPs, I think that's something MLBPA should be willing to talk about. You can't legislate away a culture (unfortunately, in this case) but maybe a little here and a little there can help.