ATLANTA (AP) — Whit Merrifield got lucky. He wasn't seriously injured when a 95-mph fastball struck him on the head.
Still, the Atlanta Braves second baseman is livid about the state of pitching in the big leagues, saying it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or even killed.
“The way pitchers are throwing now, there's no remorse or regard for throwing up and in,” Merrifield said after Tuesday's game against the Colorado Rockies. “Guys are throwing as hard as they can and they don't care where the ball goes.”
Merrifield was struck behind the right ear with a pitch from Jeff Criswell in the seventh inning of Atlanta's 3-0 victory.
Fortunately, the ball appeared to catch a bit of Merrifield's helmet, though he was still forced to leave the game. He wasn't in the lineup Wednesday but expects to return in a day or two after passing the concussion protocol and getting a clean bill of health from a precautionary CT scan.
“I just took 95 right off the head,” he said. “I’m very lucky that it got me in a good spot.”
Elsewhere, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper had to leave a game at Toronto after he was hit on the left elbow by a pitch. Harper winced in pain and grabbed his elbow after he was struck by a 92 mph fastball from right-hander Bowden Francis in the first inning Wednesday.
Merrifield, who serves on MLB's competition committee, said pitchers must face some ramifications for hitting batters. He planned to discuss the issue on a conference call.
“Without being over dramatic, that was my life on the line out there," Merrifield said. “I’m sick of it. It’s happening way too much.”
The Braves have already had two players go down this season after being hit by pitches, and several others who had close calls.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies went on 10-day injured list in April with a broken right big toe after being hit by a curveball. Third baseman Austin Riley is expected to miss the rest of the regular season with a fractured right hand, the result of being plunked with a 97-mph fastball last month.
“Team are bringing pitchers up and they don't know where the hell it's going,” Merrifield said. “They throw 100 miles an hour so they say, ‘All right, we’ll see if he can get guys out. Just set up down the middle and throw it as hard as you can.’ It's driving me nuts. I hate where the game's at right now.”
In a different era, a team could expect payback when one of their batters was hit by a pitch. But MLB has cracked down on that sort of retaliation, and there's no way to go after the pitcher himself since baseball now has the designated hitter in both leagues.
“You can’t hit a guy back anymore, so there’s no fear that, ‘Oh, if I hit this guy, our guy is gonna get hit,'" Merrifield said. “And pitchers don’t have to hit anymore, so they don’t have to stand in the box.”
He noted that he had to leave the game after getting hit, while Criswell stayed in.
“It’s just ridiculous and it has to be fixed or, god forbid, something terrible is gonna happen," Merrifield said, “It’s frankly pathetic that some of the pitchers that are out there, they don’t know where the ball is going the majority of the time.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Philadelphia Phillies first base Bryce Harper holds his arm after betting hit by a pitch in the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)
Atlanta Braves' Whit Merrifield rounds second base after a hit by Gio Urshel in the third inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Tuesday, Sep. 3, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryson Stott, right, steals second past Atlanta Braves second baseman Whit Merrifield during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 10, 2025--
Homes.com, a CoStar Group leading online residential marketplace, today released a new report analyzing home prices in March (based on the data collected to date), price trends across major cities, and what the latest developments in the housing market mean for homebuyers.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250410980324/en/
According to the preliminary estimates, home prices continued to go up in March, but the rate of price increases slowed for the third consecutive month. Year-over-year, prices rose 2.2% in March, 2.7% in February, and 3.6% in January. In dollar terms, the median home price went up $8,000 from March of last year to March of this year, rising from $372,000 to $380,000. Prices have increased for 21 consecutive months, with price appreciation peaking at 5.6% in December.
In addition to the slowing price growth in recent months, there was an increase in the number of homes for sale and a small decline in mortgage rates in March. Lower mortgage rates make buying a home more affordable, and more homes for sale equates to higher leverage for homebuyers. Combined, these factors point to a slight shift away from a seller's market and towards a buyer's market.
The Northeast and Midwest continued to see the strongest price appreciation in March. Of the 10 markets with the largest price increases, four were in the Northeast, and four were in the Midwest. Cleveland led the way, with prices rising more than 10% in the past year, followed by Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh. By contrast, the South only had one market, Austin, among the 10 cities with the largest price increases, while five Southern markets were among the bottom 10. Four markets saw price declines in March, with the state of Florida accounting for three of the four. The four markets with declines were Orlando, Jacksonville, San Francisco, and Tampa.
The data shared in this report could change slightly once all home sales are accounted for. Melina Duggal, Senior Director of Market Analytics at CoStar Group and Homes.com, is available for interviews to provide insights on these data and the residential real estate market in general. For more information and insights on the latest home buying and selling market trends, visit Homes.com.
About Homes.com
Homes.com is the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace and the second largest portal in the United States. Homes.com is a brand of CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP), a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces, which acquired the platform in 2021.
Homes.com is the first major U.S. real estate portal to focus first on helping homeowners and their agents leverage the marketing power of the internet to bring more potential buyers to their listings. Homes.com’s unparalleled content and search capabilities bring millions of buyers and sellers to the site where they can seamlessly connect with agents. On average, Homes.com’s Members are winning 58% more listings* because they offer the home sellers a real estate portal that works for them not against them.
The Homes.com Network reached an audience of 110 million average monthly unique visitors in the fourth quarter ending December 31, 2024.** Consumer brand awareness skyrocketed from 4% to 33% in just one year since CoStar Group launched the industry’s largest marketing campaign to date in February 2024, reintroducing the platform to the market. For more information, visit Homes.com.
* Based on internal analyses comparing Members to non-Members on Homes.com.
** Homes.com Network (which includes Homes.com, the Apartments Network, and the Land Network) average monthly unique visitors for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, according to Google Analytics.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) is a global leader in commercial real estate information, analytics, online marketplaces and 3D digital twin technology. Founded in 1986, CoStar Group is dedicated to digitizing the world’s real estate, empowering all people to discover properties, insights, and connections that improve their businesses and lives.
CoStar Group’s major brands include CoStar, a leading global provider of commercial real estate data, analytics, and news; LoopNet, the most trafficked commercial real estate marketplace; Apartments.com, the leading platform for apartment rentals; and Homes.com, the fastest-growing residential real estate marketplace. CoStar Group’s industry-leading brands also include Matterport, a leading spatial data company whose platform turns buildings into data to make every space more valuable and accessible, STR, a global leader in hospitality data and benchmarking, Ten-X, an online platform for commercial real estate auctions and negotiated bids and OnTheMarket, a leading residential property portal in the United Kingdom.
CoStar Group’s websites attracted over 134 million average monthly unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2024, serving clients around the world. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, CoStar Group is committed to transforming the real estate industry through innovative technology and comprehensive market intelligence. From time to time, we plan to utilize our corporate website as a channel of distribution for material company information. For more information, visit CoStarGroup.com.
Homes.com Select Sales Example 1 March 2025
Homes.com Select Sales Example 3 March 2025
Homes.com Select Sales Example 2 March 2025
Homes.com Year-Over-Year Increases in March Home Sale Prices Nationally
Homes.com National Median Home Prices In The Month of March
Homes.com National Year-Over-Year Change in Median Home Price 2 March 2025
Homes.com National Year-Over-Year Change in Median Home Price March 2025
Homes.com National Median Home Price March 2025
