And the funniest part of your complaint was that I was neither talking about base stealing – nor this season.
It was early last year and a player gaming the pitch clock rules by facing the pitcher to appear like he was in the batters box but not putting his second foot in the box so he technically wasn’t ready. So Jansen got called for two balls because he got set to pitch when the batter wasn’t ready.
Honestly, I hate Guardians of the Game/Unwritten Rule Assholes as much as the next SoSH-er. Jansen, to his credit,
made no excuses in the aftermath and owned that it was his responsibility to have understood the rules better (tho i guess he did
raise some concerns about the pitch clock and pitchers’ health a bit later). I would also add that Jansen was probably at least as much undone by overthrowing during his 400th save appearance – that was two appearances earlier IIRC.
At any rate, yes, there’s no excuses now for not knowing any of this two seasons in. And of course I was bummed it not only occurred against my team but contributed to an important new player being derailed from what to that point was shaping up to be an awesome season. But I still don’t think it was the most sportsmanlike play a month into the season or what MLB intended.