Brewers GM Doug Melvin is upset:
Melvin said he thought there should be a committee to decide scoring decisions like the one that may have cost Sabathia a no-hitter in the Brewers' 7-0 victory over the Pirates on Sunday. One official scorer is used in all baseball games until the World Series, where a three-person panel reviews scoring plays.
"There could be possible reviews to see if there's a better way of doing it where there's not all the pressure put on one individual," Melvin said before his team's game Monday against the New York Mets.
Melvin said representatives of both teams put a lot of pressure put on scorers when controversial calls are made...
"I thought of it before this play," he said. "It's not just because of this. There's becoming too many changes and too many people involved."
So the solution is... to get more people involved? Nothing makes a controversy worse than waiting for a panel of judges to make a decision. Again, it draws attention to the decision-making process, which no one wants. Would Doug Melvin feel any better about the situation in the eminently possible event that a three-person panel would've reached exactly the same conclusion that the official scorer did? I would guess not, and it would just make baseball look bad for making three people make a decision that half of fans are going to hate no matter what. One person can do that perfectly capably.
I think the Brewers have every right to appeal the decision and I would too if I were them, but the complaining should stop. The official scorer made a judgment call on how to apply a stupid rule on a close play. His call wasn't wrong. It was simply a very close call. Make the appeal, and get over it.