Should Joel Peralta Be Suspended?

Stuffing pine tar in your glove for a better grip and an unfair advantage? That's a clown move, bro. But that's what Tampa Bay Rays ace Joel Peralta was accused of on Tuesday when his team took on the Washington Nationals. He was thrown out of the game by umpires. The result on Thursday? Peralta has been suspended eight games by Major League Baseball. Now, he's appealing the suspension with support from Rays manager Joe Maddon.

“I just know that we're appealing right now, so I have to sit tight and see,” Peralta said to the media. Peralta says his former Nationals teammates have been supportive of him about this whole thing, but this isn't just some crazy coincidence that there was pine tar and a baseball glove. Maybe this was Peralta's first time using pine tar and he didn't know it was against the rules to put it in his baseball glove.

Maybe Peralta did know and just chose not to care. Perhaps, Peralta knew it was against the rules and had been doing this before -- only to finally get caught. We don't know the answers, but what we do know is what he's accused of is clearly against the rules. So by default, Peralta is technically a cheater, right? Whatever you call it, this definitely isn't good for Joel Peralta's image -- or his reputation as a player.