Keegan Thompson suspended for throwing at Andrew McCutchen

Major League Baseball announced late Monday that Cubs righthander Keegan Thompson was given a three-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for throwing at the Brewers’ Andrew McCutchen during Saturday’s game.

To review, here’s what happened [VIDEO]. (Via Brewers broadcast)

Cubs manager David Ross was also suspended for one game and fined. Since managers can’t appeal fines, Ross will serve his suspension during Tuesday’s game in Pittsburgh. There’s no word yet on whether Thompson will appeal his suspension.

If this all sounds familiar, it should, because a similar event, and suspension, happened last April in Milwaukee. That time it involved Ryan Tepera and Ross. Similar suspensions were issued.

I suppose Brewers fans are happy about all this. I’m not going to point fingers or say “He started it!” here. I will point this out:

It should be noted that graphic appeared before the incident with McCutchen.

Willson Contreras has been hit 15 times by the Brewers in his career. Brewers manager Craig Counsell said it’s “because we play them a lot.” Well, the Cardinals, Reds and Pirates play the Cubs as much as the Brewers do and none of those teams has hit Willson more than seven times.

Granted, Willson can crowd the plate at times. It would also seem to me that Brewers pitchers like to work inside. That’s perfectly allowable. Hitting guys this often? I dunno, I have looked at all the Cubs/Brewers HBPs over the last two-plus seasons and the results are inconclusive.

What I will say is that this really ought to stop, on both sides. I’m not one of those people who agrees with “the players will police it,” because that just leads to retaliation. Whether Thompson was retaliating or not is a subject of conjecture. The league obviously feels it is. If Thompson elects to appeal, the suspension likely gets reduced by a game and is served when convenient.

I’m just tired of seeing all the HBPs. The Cubs and Brewers will meet again in just about three weeks’ time, April 29-30-May 1 in Milwaukee. Maybe the league should issue warnings to both teams ahead of that series.

In my view, it’s time for this nonsense to end.