The last few weeks in baseball have been a whirlwind. The trade deadline, the bench-clearing brawls, temper tantrums, pitchers throwing at batters and yelling at them for watching a home run, have all been in the news recently. As much as I adore watching the game of baseball, there’s some things that are in need of much needed changes.

My biggest issue lies with the pitchers plunking batters after a homerun that the batter might’ve gawked a bit too long for his liking.

As a competitor, you have to be better than that. If batters want to incorporate staring at the baseball as it leaves the yard, or if they want to pimp out a homer with a bat flip, so be it. As a pitcher, that should put a chip on your shoulder. Plunking the guy with a 90+ mph fastball because they’re upset at the batter is a lame duck move. Instead, they should be hungry for that next at-bat against them. The pitcher should want to strike them out, right?

However, baseball players are continuously allowed to be divas, more so than any other sport. Temper tantrums being thrown in the dugout, pitchers are launching the ball over the centerfield fence after being taken out of a game, and there’s guys charging entire dugouts for seemingly no reason at all.

Sunday night, Trevor Bauer, formerly of the Cleveland Indians, was taken out of a game against the Kansas City Royals. When he saw his manager Terry Francona on his way out, he chucked the ball 300-plus feet over the centerfield fence.

Thursday afternoon, Boston Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello strolled into the dugout after being removed and smashed two TV monitors in the dugout, which will likely be taken out of his paycheck.

This past Tuesday night, Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson walked out to take the Reds’ reliever, Amir Garrett, out of the game. Johnson took the ball, patted Garrett on the backside, and Garrett proceeded to charge the entire Pirates dugout, lone wolf style. A melee ensued. Both managers and multiple players were fined and suspended for the brawl, and deservingly so. Former Red, Yasiel Puig was traded to the Indians 20 minutes prior to the brawl, and literally went out swinging with his former team.

Let’s take a step back, baseball players. At the end of the day, they’re getting paid hundreds of thousands into millions of dollars to play a game.

Baseball is a beautiful game that doesn’t deserve to have its name tarnished because of a few knuckleheads. It’s not hockey and it never will be. The fights and the temper tantrums may spice the game up a bit for those that aren’t necessarily into baseball, but that’s not why people that enjoy it are tuning into games. As a pure baseball fan, this needs to be cleaned up a little bit, because it’s getting out of hand.