Written by Nino Colla

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Well Sunday was one for activity... That's for sure. We had a benches clearing situation in the Indians and Rockies game, a possible contract extension, and oh yeah, the roster was finalize... Where should we start?

[UBALDO OUT FOR VENGEANCE?]

A few weeks ago, we talked about the comments made by Ubaldo Jimenez about his time with the Rockies. He seemed a little bitter, upset he had not been extended when guys like Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez were.

Little was made, the story lasted about a day, it didn't seem to be a big deal anywhere else. If anything it gave us something to talk about for a boring day.

Then this happened on Sunday.

Ubaldo uncorked a first inning pitch to old teammate Troy Tulowitzi and chaos followed. Jimenez was not ejected from the contest for hitting Tulowitzki on the elbow, but the benches cleared, there was some jawing back and forth, yadda yadda. There is no video, no picture, no available media on the incident. And reportedly Ubaldo challenged Tulowitzki to charge him because Tulo was "calling him a chicken."

Now how are we to know if it was intentional or not? You ask me, based off what he said, the fact that it was early in the game, and the fact that there may be some bad blood between the two, then I probably say it was. You ask me based off Ubaldo's control and the fact that I root for the Indians then I don't think it was.

With no video (or at least, we think...), it's hard to tell for sure, but even if you did, you still don't know if it was intentional because there root word of intentional is intent and we'll never know his true intent. Just what he says to the media.

"It's one pitch that got away," Jimenez said. "That can happen in a thousand games. It's one pitch."

Oh... But Tulo did say something, so I find it very likely there was some intent to at least throw inside.

"If someone doesn't want to be here," Tulowitzki said Friday, "We always say, 'Please, go up to the manager and tell him you want to leave or that you don't think this is the best place for you.' That was kind of the case with him.

"He has come out and said there were some contract issues after CarGo and me got paid. It doesn't make any sense to me. He had signed his deal and had years left on it. Why would we give him something new when we didn't see anything out of him?"

Those are fightin' words really. Basically saying that Ubaldo wanted out then went on to say that "we" shouldn't have given him anything because he wasn't performing. Nice Tulo.

And Jimenez claims, he didn't mention any names. And to his credit, he didn't.But he was clearly specifically talking about Tulowitzki and Gonzalez... Let me take you back.

"I read in the paper that the Rockies said they were only going to sign two guys, they couldn't do three guys," Jimenez told FOXSports.com. "I was the third guy. They signed the two guys they were going to sign and they gave them more (years) and bigger (salaries). "

No names, right, who else was he talking about? So you could understand if Tulowitzki was a little upset at getting thrown in to that. But whatever.

Jimenez contends he was wild. Five walks in four innings, a wild pitch, a hit batter. You could really say he was...

"I didn't have good control of my fastball," Jimenez said. "You guys could see. I walked the first guy probably on four pitches. [Tulowitzki] is one of the best hitters in the game. You have to try to go inside on him and that's what I tried to do."

If you think that is the end of it though, you're crazy, because Jim Tracy had something to say.

“It’s the most gutless act I have seen in 35 years of professional baseball. I have lost all respect for him. To do something like that and walk down off the mound, and if there’s any suggestion whatsoever that the ball got away, I don’t want to hear any of that (expletive). He intentionally threw at him. He should be suspended. I am going to be very disappointed if he doesn’t get suspended. He deserves to be,” Tracy said, his voice rising in anger.

“Are you kidding me? Five days before opening day and you are going to take a potshot like that? It was the worst I have seen. I have lost respect for him and that’s a very difficult thing for me to say.”

Oh he's not done...

“It’s (expletive). I watched exactly took place,” Tracy said. “I give our player all the credit in the world because he looked out at him and asked him what the (expletive) he was doing? And that’s exactly what I would have said to him. Now this guy starts marching down off the mound. And you don’t think there was some intent when we were warming up to pitch this afternoon’s game? That’s intent right there. That’s intent.” 

“Look at where we were at last spring. At what took place after the 2010 season and what we did in the beginning of the 2011 season without him. Waiting for him. Taking bullets for him. All the different things. And to pull that (expletive). Out of line. Out of character. As I have said, the most unprofessional thing I have ever seen since I started in professional baseball.”

So did he lose respect for Ubaldo Jimenez?

Okay look. Was it the right thing to do? No it wasn't. It's never right to throw at someone, but here's the thing. Anyone who is anyone involved in baseball knows that, like it or not, this is "part of the game" and is one of those "baseball codes." It happens, people do it. Is it the most decent thing to do in spring training? Probably not and that's when the code's lines start to get blurred. You also have to account as to why he's throwing at Tulowitzki.

But here's the thing. The most gutless act in 35 years of professional baseball? Did Jim Tracy see Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire? Did he see the fact that players have been caught cheating in multiple ways? How about every other pitcher who has intentionally thrown at someone?

You mean to tell me Jim Tracy that you've never instructed someone to throw at the opposition?

Right. Right. Okay, if you can tell me you haven't, then you can probably call it gutless. And on top of that, you must have been wearing blinders for you're entire 35 years in baseball (some Pirates fans may almost say that he at least did so when managing Pittsburgh).

I'm not arguing for Ubaldo here, or defending him, or saying it's right to intentionally throw at someone. But Tracy looks like a complete hot head and that rant was completely unnecessary.

Now there's still another piece to this.. Tracy mentioned a suspension. Could it happen? Maybe. With no video (or so we think), it's hard to judge, but you have first eye accounts, including... Bud Selig.

Of course. According to Tracy Ringolsby, Selig was in attendance and saw Jimenez throw the pitch, then beat his chest after throwing down his glove. I don't feel good about this. Someone call Kevin Slowey, spoiler alert.

[ASDRUBAL EXTENDED]

It's not, as you would say, official, but if the Indians are letting it get posted on their website, then I'm sure it won't go down in the Bobby Abreu history of trades not happening. Asdrubal Cabrera has been locked up for an extra year after he and the Indians came to an agreement on a two-year deal. This has nothing to do with 2012, but rather, 2013 and 2014.

Cabrera's extension is worth $16.5 million over the two years. One year is his final arbitration year, the other is his first free agent year. Basically, Cabrera gets a nice little raise without the need for arbitration and in-return, the Indians get him for an extra year.

This seems to be a happy medium and a nice way to kind of monitor Cabrera. You aren't playing it year-by-year, but you also aren't locking yourself in to Cabrera. The Indians haven't commented on it because it is not official, but Manny Acta kind of did anyway.

"I can't comment," Acta said. "I'd be happy for him. I'd be happy for the franchise. It's good to have one of your best players locked up and have him the next few years here without having to worry about arbitration hearings or anything like that. Yeah, it'd be nice."

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