Dodgers and their fans don’t like the Joe Kelly suspension

This is part of SB Nation Reacts, which conducts surveys of baseball fans each week, on various topics. If you’d like to join, please sign up here.

As you might imagine, the suspension of Joe Kelly this week was a hot topic around baseball, and especially among Dodgers fans. Kelly was suspended eight games by Major League Baseball for throwing at Alex Bregman and taunting Carlos Correa on Tuesday night in Houston, and is currently appealing the suspension.

SBN Reacts asked five questions regarding the Kelly incident and suspension, and here are the results.

Kelly’s actions

Dodgers fans were overwhelmingly in support of Kelly buzzing Bregman, articulated here by our Blake Harris. The sting of losing the 2017 World Series is still fresh, especially after details of the Astros’ sign stealing emerged in January.

“This is something that’s been built up over the course of seven months, after the findings,” manager Dave Roberts said on a conference call on Wednesday. “I think it just kind of released [the tension].”

Bad blood

Dodgers fans also overwhelmingly think there is still bad blood between the Dodgers and Astros, which should make for an interesting series on Sept. 12-13 in Los Angeles.

Toss ups

The answers that weren’t so one-sided regarded Kelly’s intent (for what it’s worth, Kelly after Tuesday’s game said, “I wasn’t feeling the greatest, I wasn’t the most comfortable. Took me a while to get into my mechanics.”) and if the suspensions (Roberts was also suspended one game) were worth it.

Length of suspension

There was a sticker shock to the eight-game suspension for Kelly, since it’s hard to find a suspension of that length for a non-starter even in a 162-game season. The full-season equivalent would be 22 games.

Nearly half of Dodgers fans thought a more appropriate suspension would be 1-2 games, while almost 40% said Kelly shouldn’t have been suspended at all.

Dave Roberts said the eight-game suspension was “too aggressive,” and outfielder A.J. Pollock on Thursday said Dodgers players were shocked at the length.

“It seemed very, very harsh, and I don’t think anyone’s too happy about it,” Pollock said. “We’re hoping that gets significantly reduced, because I think eight games in a 60-game season is pretty outrageous.”

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