The 7 Dirtiest Players in MLB

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Baseball has always been a game where the players police each other.

If a teammate gets hit by a pitch seemingly on purpose, an opponent's player will get hit sometime in the near future.

There are also other unwritten rules that apply, such as don't slide with spikes up, don't run across the pitcher's mound after an at bat and many others.

Just because a player doesn't follow all of these rules doesn't necessarily make them dirty. What does make them dirty is the fact it has happened on multiple occasions.

The following are the seven dirtiest players in the game today.

Chase Utley

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Recently, Utley was named the second-dirtiest player in baseball.

There is a fine line between being dirty and playing the game “hard” or “the right way.”

Most of the players that voted seem to take exception to sliding hard into second base or taking out catchers.

But according to manager Charlie Manuel, Utley plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played. (Tim Malcolm, Phillies Nation, 1998).

A.J. Pierzynski

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Pierzynski is well known for being a dirty player—but, like Utley, is he really dirty or does he play the game the right way?

I think most people would lean towards dirty, as he has a tendency to slide with spikes up (Justin Morneau 2006), knock his own trainer in the ‘beans and frank” (spring training 2004) and the countless times of running up the baseline trying to get hit by the ball being thrown from the catcher.

I personally think Pierzynski is a guy you’d love to have on your team because of how he seems to be a great teammate but a holy terror to play against.

Milton Bradley

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Since this is a public forum with possibly some young readers, we will leave the explicits out when describing Bradley.

What is widely perceived and mostly accepted, Bradley is a spoiled brat who can’t hold down a job in the major leagues for the life of him.

He has been known to go off on teammates, take out opponents for no apparent reason except for the boulder-size chip on his shoulder.

One can dream, but if he and Carl Everett would have ever hooked up, in the immortal words of Keith Jackson “Oh, Nellie!”

Carlos Zambrano

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I don’t if Zambrano is really a “dirty” player, but he definitely is a teammate’s worst nightmare.

He’s quit on his team. He’s fought his team. He’s threatened too many times to count to “retire,” but then turns around and says he loves being a Cub.

He’s also thrown at batters on numerous occasions, which makes a player “dirty” in his peer’s eyes.

Vincente Padilla

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Padilla proved how damaging he was as a pitcher for the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Phillies and Rangers.

In the 2006 season during a game against the Chicago White Sox, he hit catcher A.J. Pierzynski twice.

Later in that season, he caused a bench-clearing brawl after throwing at several Angels batters and hitting Vladimir Guerrero.

In 2007, he hit Athletics OF Nick Swisher and caused another brawl.

He also hit former teammate Mark Teixeira twice. I’m sure he just lost his grip on his fastball.

Alex Rodriguez

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A-Rod is dirty from the standpoint that he believes he is above the game.

He is very childish and unappreciative of the game itself.

It’s almost like his is “entitled” to play.

Exhibit A—while in Oakland, A-Rod decided to run across the mound after an out, much to the dismay of Oakland starter Dallas Braden.

Braden and A-Rod exchanged words, and it carried over into the media, where A-Rod basically called out Braden.

His most famous play, though, may have been in the 2004 playoffs, when he purposely hit the ball out of then-Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo’s hand. Classing it up, as always.

Nyjer Morgan

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The thing with Morgan is that he is definitely a polarizing figure. Some people love him because of how he can get under people’s skin and take them out of their game. Other people hate him because of the way he “plays” the game. Case in point: last year in Florida, Morgan was rounding the bases and railed Marlins’ catcher Brett Hayes separating his shoulder. The next pitch was thrown behind Morgan who decided to charge the mound. This is a small example of Morgan’s antics. He also this year called out Albert Pujols on Twitter much to the dismay of his teammates.