Toronto Blue Jays Catcher JP Arencibia Verbally Attacks Radio Host Over Twitter
To say that Toronto Blue Jays catcher JP Arencibia has gotten off to a slow start would be an understatement. In 32 at bats this season, Arencibia has two hits resulting in a horrific line of 063/118/156. Yes, that’s right, Arencibia isn’t even slugging his own weight. While his defence has improved over last year, it’s still a mess, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to break out of his slump any time soon.
Worse for the Jays is that the backup catcher, Jeff Mathis, isn’t a real threat to Arencibia for playing time. Mathis is off to a fantastic start, but it’s unlikely he’ll steal any play time away from Arencibia. Although if he keeps hitting like this, they just may have to turn to Mathis.
As a major league player, Arencibia is expected to be a professional through all this. Yes, it’s been a lousy month, but he should be able to rise above and ignore the criticisms. Eric Milnis mentioned this earlier on today, simply making an observation about just how bad Arencibia has been this season:
Scary bad stat line:
@jparencibia9 ranked behind guys like Mike Morse and V-Mart so far this season…and they have not played.
Unfortunately, Arencibia wasn’t able to rise above his criticisms, and his response to Eric Mirlis is nothing short of disgraceful:
@jparencibia9:@themirl please have one more donut, looks like u need it!#HowManyChinsYouWorkingWith
Mirlis didn’t say anything people didn’t already know – Arencibia is having a lousy year. This shouldn’t have been news to Arencibia, as I’m sure he’s well aware of his strugges. And if Arencibia wants to prove Mirlis wrong, the best way to do it is on the field. Catch a guy stealing and then tell the reporters he was inspired to prove Mirlis wrong. String together a few good games with the bat and make a joke about how he’s now better than Mike Morse or Victor Martinez in 2012. But making those ignorant statements just proves that Arencibia doesn’t understand the opportunity he’s been given here. He’s a major league baseball player. Arencibia is a role model to fans young and old, and he’s in a position to show people what to do when people criticize you for your failures. Instead, all we see is an athlete lashing out against the media, when JP Arencibia is the only one to blame for his struggles.
Instead of doing the smart thing and brushing it aside and using it to help him perform on the field, Arencibia dealt a low blow to Mirlis based on his physical appearance. What are we, 12? The 90′s called, they want their fat jokes back. In all seriousness, Arencibia dropped the ball here.
I lost a lot of respect for JP Arencibia today. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have all of your failures broadcast around the world, with random people criticizing you for every mistake you make. But that doesn’t excuse Arencibia for what he said. In fact, it means Arencibia must be looked at by a higher standard, because of his position as a professional major league baseball player.And because he has such a passionate fanbase following him, it was important for him to not only send the right message, but be a role model for how to deal with adversity. Instead, Arencibia buckled under the pressure, gave into his anger, and showed kids exactly what not to do when faced with criticism. He lashed out and insulted a man based on his physical appearance.
I can only hope that in the future, JP Arencibia and the rest of baseball can learn from this experience. It’s a privilege to play this amazing game of baseball, but as a wise man once said, “With great power, comes great responsibility”. If you can’t handle the responsibility of being a positive role model, or dealing with criticism in a positive way, then you don’t deserve to be a major leaguer. Because the stunt Arencibia pulled today on Twitter was something I’d expect from a bush leaguer. And certainly not from a player who was as likeable as JP Arencibia.
Edit: It’s worth pointing out that Mr. Mirlis shouldn’t have include Arencibia in the tweet. He could have gotten the point across without sending JP the tweet. Clearly, it was an attempt to bait Arencibia, and it worked out quite well for Mirlis. But that doesn’t excuse Arencibia for his response, and as I have pointed out he should have risen above this and simply been the better man here.
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The media all stick up for each other.They’re vultures and when an athlete fires a shot back,woah you can’t do that.way to go JP!The internet and titter allow anyone to tell us their wonderful opinion,well don’t be surprised when you’re garbage comes back to yuou.
Like I said, the guy in the media was clearly baiting him. There’s no reason why he should have included Arencibia. But he has to be the better person here, and rise above it.
It’s very simple to just insult someone back when they hurt your feelings. But the better person doesn’t give in. And unfortunately Arencibia gave in.
This would have been a non-story if Arencibia hadn’t responded, and simply said after last night’s game “Now I have to be more valuable then Morse/V-Mart, right guys?”. He would have turned it into a joke, ignored the comment altogether, and used it to inspire him.
That’s what he should have done. It’s just disappointing that Arencibia couldn’t take the high road here.
Baited him? Really? The media have all conspired with MLB and their pitchers to get this guy to hit .063.
Brian,
He baited him by including him in the Tweet. The only reason to do that was to get the attention under the hopes that Arencibia made a negative comment, which he did.
This is ridiculous. Arencibia hasnt been “given” any opportunity. He worked very hard to get to the major leagues, and he is doing something that Milnis could never do. Milnis comment was not merely “making an observation”, he was going out of his way to show up Arencibia. If you, the author can’t see the irony of someone who is overweight (I am making an assumption here, never having met Milnis, but based on Arencibia’s taunt)publicly taunting Arencibia on twitter, when he could never go out and do what Arencibia get paid to do, then I feel like you should probably not be covering baseball. As someone who plays college baseball, I understand the level of talent required for this sport, and I too, would be upset if someone criticized me unnecessarily when they were not capable of doing what I do. Props to Arencibia for standing up for himself and not letting someone with a spare-tire mock him for his lack of athletic skill.
Yes, Arencibia has been given an opportunity. While he’s worked hard and most definitely earned that opportunity, it’s an opportunity to be a positive role model for younger players/fans. Yes, I know Mirlis went out of his way to insult Arencibia, but the fact of the matter is that Arencibia shouldn’t have taken the bait. Arencibia would have been better off just waiting until after the game and saying “Now who’s better then Morse/V-Mart” or something to that effect.
The difference between the two, is that in the first one Arencibia sunk to the level of Mirlis, which makes Arencibia look bad. The second one shows that Arencibia can handle the pressure, handle the criticism, and turn it into a positive. There’s a significant difference between the two approaches, and by making the fat joke Arencibia proved that he doesn’t get it.
It doesn’t matter that Mirlis is skinny or fat. Just because someone can’t play at a major league level doesn’t mean they can’t criticize them. I’m a terrible actor, but I know when I see a poor acting performance or an awful movie. I know that Good Will Hunting is a fantastic movie, just as easily as I can tell you that Daredevil was terrible. I don’t need to have the skill to be an actor to recognize a bad movie when I see one, just like someone doesn’t need to be a major league player to recognize someone is having a lousy season.
I certainly hope that if you do ever make the Major Leagues, that you would take a better approach to this problem then Arencibia did. Players are always going to struggle – a good player succeeds 3 out of 10 times in baseball. It’s how you handle the adversity and the struggles that show whether or not you’re capable of handling the game at a major league level. And like I said before, Arencibia dropped the ball when he lashed out at someone criticizing him. I understand the need to want to defend yourself, I understand how much it sucks when people are criticizing you. But you have to be the better person here when you’re a public figure like JP Arencibia.
I don’t think we should ever give props to one person for insulting another person. That goes for both Mirlis and Arencibia.
One thing is that when a player is in a slump. He shouldnt be reading the papers or on the internet, That would solve one problem.
This reporter goes after JP when you have 2 $20 million players hitting a total of 4 home runs so far this year. Now thats something to talk about