Defend your teammates, get suspended. That’s the message MLB is apparently sending to its players. Mark Feinsand is hearing a rumor that Kyle Farnsworth will be suspended for throwing at Manny Ramirez on Thursday night. It should be of the three-game type, though an appeal is almost certain. To me, this is beyond ridiculous.

Say what you will about the location of the pitch. It was behind him, but I saw it as being more towards the shoulders than the neck/head. Plus — and I don’t know why I haven’t read this elsewhere — Kyle Farnsworth has no control of his pitches! Have we not learned this over the first two years of his contract? It stands to reason that Farnsworth could have been aiming for the middle of the back, where they hit A-Rod, and just missed by a bit.

All this does is allow aggressions from one team to go unrequited. So if you want to hit someone, you’d better make sure none of your guys were hit recently. Because that’s retaliation, and you’re on the hook for a suspension. Hit the guy first, though, and you’re in the clear.

Does this make sense to anyone?