Do these slides support Chase Utley's case in appeal of his suspension?
Chase Utley has been suspended for his now infamous takeout slide of Mets SS Ruben Tejada. He will appeal the decision, but how strong is his case?
Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley has been suspended for two games by Major League Baseball for what MLB called an illegal slide in Game 2 of the NLDS. It resulted in a Ruben Tejada broken fibula. Here's the play:
Now, CBS Sports baseball insider Jon Heyman confirms that Utley will be appealing the decision based upon a lack of precedent:
OK, so we've seen the play, we know about the appeal and here's a still photo (via USA Today Sports Images)

Knowing that, will Utley's camp find enough plays that are similar to win the appeal? Let's try to find a few. We need to stick with recent years, because Hal McRae from the 1970s doesn't carry much weight in today's game.
We know the Royals didn't like this one from Brett Lawrie back in mid-April:
Does that look the same as Utley's? You make the call.
How about Matt Holliday in the 2012 playoffs taking out Marco Scutaro? Here it is.
That seems at least remotely similar, but what if MLB determines Utley's was more egregious?
Will Utley's camp use examples of players going far away from the base instead of over it? If so, there are thousands of plays like this one:

That's Jung-Ho Kang, whose season ended on this one:
That Chris Coghlan slide isn't nearly as bad as the Utley slide and it happens in nearly every game, but maybe the fact that Kang was injured spurs Utley and his representatives to include the play in the appeal.
Multiple reports indicate that Utley's appeal will be heard Monday before the Dodgers-Mets NLDS Game 3, so we'll soon find out if the appeal works. For now, we know there are some videos that can be used to say that MLB set the precedent of no punishment on this front. But will MLB be able to prove that Utley's slide went above and beyond where some of these other slides did?
That's what will determine what happens with the appeal.















