June 5: Major League Baseball is working quickly to finalize and implement the plan to address the use of foreign substances by pitchers throughout the game, per ESPN’s Buster Olney. The new plan will require umpires to check for foreign substances during games, including random searches. The league hopes to put the plan in action “within the next 10 days to two weeks.”
June 4: Sports Illustrated’s Stephanie Apstein thoroughly explores the issue in a must-read column, which features on-record and off-record quotes from players, team executives and managers around the game. Charlie Blackmon, Richard Bleier and Adam Duvall each weigh in on the rampant use of foreign substances, with Blackmon in particular sounding off and voicing frustration.
Apstein quotes multiple big league pitchers who anonymously discuss their use of foreign substances, and the well-researched column also provides interesting data on which teams have seen the greatest increase in spin rate as well as the league-wide uptick in four-seam spin over the past few years. As MLB reportedly prepares to begin levying actual punishments, Apstein’s piece provides invaluable context and is well worth a full read.
June 3: Major League Baseball will begin to crack down on pitchers’ use of foreign substances “in earnest,” reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). Ball doctoring was among the topics discussed at today’s owners meeting, per Heyman, with the league and owners evidently deciding it was rampant enough to warrant stepping in. The league will remain in communication with the MLBPA, umpires association, and teams throughout the enforcement process, notes Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link).
Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported last weekend the league was planning on more stridently targeting and preventing foreign substance use in the coming weeks. It wasn’t precisely clear at the time what form that would take, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post now sheds some light on the situation. MLB’s current plan seems to involve three main areas of focus: placing a greater onus on teams to limit substance use among their own pitchers, empowering umpires to evaluate pitcher equipment (likely as they enter the game), and increasing enforcement in the minor leagues.
It’s not yet apparent how the league hopes to spur teams to self-check their substance use. MLB is leaving open the possibility of suspending players when provided proof of altered baseballs, Sherman notes. Fear of suspension could disincentivize some players from using grip enhancers, although there’s still no indication the league plans to levy suspensions and/or fines against anyone other than the offending pitcher himself.
Empowering umpires to examine players is a little more straightforward. In fact, we’ve already seen this in practice. Last week, umpire Joe West confiscated the hat of Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos as he entered the game, after making the determination that an illegal substance had been applied to the brim. Gallegos was not ejected, but Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was thrown out after voicing his displeasure.
The league has also begun to increase enforcement of foreign substance usage in the minors. Four minor league pitchers (Marcus Evey, Sal Biasi, Kai-Wei Teng and Mason Englert) have been suspended this year for the practice, notes Jake Seiner of the Associated Press. Those bans were each for ten games. The latter three players were all suspended last weekend, suggesting the league has increased its enforcement at the lower levels rather dramatically in the past few days.
Of course, foreign substance usage has become prevalent because of its performance-enhancing effects. Using a tacky substance to improve one’s grip on the ball correlates with increases in spin rate and accompanying pitch movements. Travis Sawchik of The Score demonstrated the impact of grip enhancers on spin this morning in a piece that’s worth checking out in full.
That’s become increasingly of concern for MLB as whiffs have continued to climb. The league entered play today with a .240/.316/.401 slash line (excluding pitchers), with an all-time high 23.6% strikeout rate. Certainly, foreign substance use isn’t the only potential contributor to the strikeout uptick. Pitch velocities are higher than ever, and the increasing lack of action on the basepaths incentivizes hitters to adopt more of an all-or-nothing approach at the plate. Nevertheless, MLB has concluded foreign substances have a significant enough impact to warrant further scrutiny.
This isn’t the first time the league has suggested they’d more aggressively ferret out substance use. MLB sent a memo to teams in Spring Training suggesting the league office would look for dramatic shifts in pitcher spin rates to identify potential infractions. The league also informed teams of plans to pull random samples of game balls to send for laboratory testing. In spite of those warnings, MLB has played things rather slowly over the first couple months. The league commenced an investigation into Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer in early April, collecting “suspicious baseballs” from his second start of the season. It’s not clear what, if anything, arose from that investigation.
Sherman notes the league has deliberately taken a hands-off approach over the season’s first couple months, collecting playing equipment and monitoring clubhouses and player video/data to determine which players it believes to be among the more egregious offenders. It now seems the league feels sufficiently prepared to intervene, which could result in more situations like the equipment confiscations with Bauer and Gallegos (and perhaps suspensions at the major league level).
Increased enforcement to curtail such a pervasive practice will almost certainly come with growing pains. Last November, Eno Sarris of the Athletic spoke with a group of team personnel who generally estimated that greater than three quarters of MLB pitchers were using some sort of grip enhancer. In April, Sarris and colleague Ken Rosenthal examined various challenges the league would stand to face as they ramped up enforcement efforts. Both pieces are well worth full reads for those interested in this topic.
This sounds familiar..
To me, it kinda makes sense for MLB to give pitchers a “MLB sanctioned substance” on the pitchers mound that pitchers can legally go to in order to get a grip on the ball. Nothing crazy, just something that gives them enough “grip” or whatever to make accurate, competitive pitches, if they need it. This way MLB can crack down on anyone using “something else” while still maintaining the argument that they offered something that works instead of having a constant scandal on their hands.
No foreign substance is needed to get a better grip on the ball, especially with every pitcher being an abnormally large human being with large hands. This was a lie they came up with to keep doctoring the balls
Yeah. Marcus Stroman and Luis Castillo. They’re gigantic
MLB doctors the ball. They rub up baseballs with a mixture of mud. How about they use the baseball right out of the box. While we’re at, no pine tar for the hitters either.
they don’t use mud anymore. rawlings was notified to make baseballs tackier
slide….while MLB did ask Rawlings to make a tackier ball the Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, harvested in only one spot in South Jersey, is still used today by every team as well as the NFL.,
One article here from a few years back…. si.com/mlb/2019/08/07/baseball-mud-rawlings#gid=ci…
and a Philly newscast from March of this year….. 6abc.com/magic-baseball-mud-mlb-ball-used-teams-ne…
The median height and weight for mlb pitchers as of 2019 is 6’3” and 215 lbs.
what kind of mockery is this. please get a life. you should be ashamed of yourself
Isn’t that just the rosin bag that every pitcher can use?
It going to be interesting to see which pitchers falter after this. Kind of like which hitters decline after a new substance is tested for in the PED tests.
Dude if we ONLY had such thing…… it’s called the rosin bag
StlSwifty
To me, it kinda makes sense for MLB to give pitchers a “MLB sanctioned substance”
=========================================================
It is so obvious that one would think it doesn’t need posting.
Have the umpire supplied with 5-10 different products. Each pitcher can choose what product they want to use. Get rid of the guess work. If the ump thinks a pitch has been illegally doctored with, he pulls the ball immediately for future testing. The umps get pre-addressed FedEx pouchers so they can be sealed an mailed in, so no chain of custody issues. The a month suspension for the pitchers that get caught.
only if they could put a rosin bag out there somewhere inconspicuous so as not to hinder a ball in play
You mean rosin?
It’s called “rosin” and every pitcher already has a bag of it on the mound.
If they can’t make the pitch what are they doing there? they already have basic “substances” to help with that.
the only thing i would give them slack on is if they where just batting and they had a bit of pine tar left somewhere on them.
Better idea. Empower managers to confront blind umpires whom continue to make crappy calls and throw them out, then suspend them. Angel hernandez, joe west, cb buckner wouldn’t get to go half way thru a game behind the plate they are so awful.
so what, is this the third time they’ve said this recently? smh. dont change the rules, just enforce the ones you have. this levels the playing field. dont make more silly rules like limiting the number of pitchers or changing the mound height, just enforce these rules, and maybe make one that actually puts punishments on these infractions.
Agreed
You are correct, and the commissioner’s office only has itself to blame here. This would have been enforced all along, but in too many cases the commissioner didn’t have the umpires’ backs. Umps just left it alone as a result. This will only work if Manfred pledges his support of umpires where foreign substances are concerned.
There are actually rules for this that have very rarely been enforced
I’m guessing the number of pitchers suspended will be the same as Astro players that were suspended for the trashcan scandal.
Bam bam bam!
Blame the players union for the Astros escaping punishment
1000% the players Union. Literally gassed 29 clubs for 13 batters.
As an agent,I feel bad for Sabathia.
No, they saved the other 29 clubs from going through the same stuff the Astros are.
It’s not the union. MLB learned the details of the Astros’ cheating based on players on the team talking on the condition of not being punished. Had MLB not promised not to suspend any players, there would be no proof, and without proof, no one could be held accountable. MLB chose to grant amnesty to the players in return for being able to punish staff and management and getting the truth out, whereby the Astros and their players are punished in the court of public opinion and the history books.
We’ll never know because the league made no effort to investigate without offering the immunity. Plenty of players on opposing teams seemed to have an idea what was going on; plenty to get started with, at the very least., MLB was able to correlate sounds with game videos to determine when cheating was and wasn’t going on. Also, the only reason there was an investigation to begin with is because Mike Fiers said something, is he really going to clam up if asked for specifics? They could have come down on team employees who they would actually be able to discipline or force to be disciplined without a union grievance.
Maybe all that still doesn’t get the story. Maybe it does. We’ll never know. My personal impression is that Manfred didn’t want to touch the players and didn’t want to get into it with the union, so he found a way that lets him avoid all that and provide an answer for why he just couldn’t that people will continue to repeat for him a year later.
The whole thing came from a former player on the team telling his new team about it. He did it twice and the league tried to sweep it away. He finally went to the press and told them how it was done. The league tried to cover up its complicity by offering immunity to confirm what they had already been told.
Why offer immunity before you ask a question. Why not ask it to all the players and if you don’t get enough players talking them offer immunity. Don’t give up before you start.
Because nobody can be required to incriminate themselves. Now ask a hard one.
If I asked why LA residents are as big of jerks as people from the East Coast. You would tell me no comment. If I told you I would never tell anyone and do it over a steak at your favorite steak house. What would the difference be you ask once declines to answer throw in something to persuade you. If you are vegan I would give you a gift certificate for you and someone other.
Units ous kind of like you don’t open with the stick. Ask nicely and see what you get. Doing
Sorry sent before proofread. Use Swype so go fast then fix.
Proofreading would not have made any difference. Your comment still would have made no sense whatsoever.
If you are a detective and you ask a offender a question and he won’t answer you then offer a reduced sentence or immunity. Give them all a chance to answer then give immunity. Did I dumb it down enough for you? The humor might have been too much hit your head on a surf board too many times?
Blue Skies–In a Court, yes. In a hearing, I’d like the opinions of lawyers.
You are going to have a hard time finding a more antiunion poster than I. I’m a building contractor. No love for those guys.
But, I can’t find it in myself to blame the player’s union on this one. As I also see a sanctity with signed contracts.
The union basically let it be known it would fight any real punishment tooth and nail. MLB, knowing it couldn’t win that fight, or at the least, how ugly it would get, just conceded. That’s why I say it’s the union’s fault.
But the union had to.
They were merely upholding the agreement they had reached.
That has to be honored. Completely.
I would love to make this the fault of the MLBPA. I’ve had plenty of posts blasting the them. I just simply – in this instance – cannot, however.
Good gravy.
From defending metsfan22 to now defending the damn player’s union. Didn’t see either of those coming, serious.
Perhaps I should schedule a check-up.
I get that that’s what union THINKS they’re supposed to do, but why? Why must they advocate for the non punishment of a guilty party just because they fall under their union? Especially when said non punishment could be seen as an insult to the other players in the union…. in any case the players union isn’t a normal union anyway. Unions are supposed to organize in order to give power to the otherwise powerless. It was never meant to be a tool for millionaires playing a game.
You will never convince me on this one, @Cosmo.
As soon as either side begins to free style off a signed contract, the only one’s that win are the damn lawyers. Hard earned life lesson.
If they suspended any players, there would have been a lot of finger pointing going on around the league. They were never going to go down that road and have the league full of replacement players.
Can you imagine how many players/teams would have gone down if any of the Astros players got suspended?
Matlock over here.
Will we can’t forget they had to protect MLBs version of America’s team. The NY Yankees. They would have had to dig deeper in all that. By the way NY and Dallas can think that all they want but saying it doesn’t make it true. NY you brag about all the World series you have won with multiple different names. Let’s subtract anything before blacks were allowed to play. Anytime before they wrote the flat glove used to stop the ball and catch with the other hand. The games were the fielders left the glove on the field so the other side could use it. Games that looked like a strobe light was used to film it. You get it maybe could be the current era. Wow that cuts your wins by 2/3rds? Moist of America hates you it is not jealousy it is the arrogant fans whom some were not born or still in diapers at the time.
oh yes nice, make ball go slip slip
Maybe they won’t throw the ball 101 every pitch and actually learn how to locate their pitches.
Exactly! If guys can’t get outs without throwing 98+, then you’re not a real pitcher, you’re just a thrower.
Batting averages are at an all time low and Ks are at an all time high. Sounds like these pitchers are getting a lot of guys out.
So…what?
We are now giving style points to certain pitchers outings?
Can’t say I’m onboard with all that.
If I could have jacked my FB up to 98, you’re damn right I would (gleefully) trod the path of MLB “thrower”.
Bet I’m not the only one on the board, either.
It is not thrower it is hurler. if you are going to be snarky at least be accurate.
Then…well, as a “hurler”.
No matter what term is used I would absolutely have done it & been happy cashing Big Checks & pitching in MLB.
Yeah because that’s the most important issue facing MLB today. Manfred is a buffoon.
Manfred is SUCH a hypocrite. For years he would get super defensive when a reporter would ask him if the ball was juiced. So then last winter he mentions the new balls will he wound looser essentially admitting the balls WERE juiced, and his denials were lies. It’s working (MLB BA at .236) which irritates him, so now he’s cracking down on pitchers. The man sucks at picking his battles.
Exactly. Manfred deadens the ball which helps pitchers. Now he will crack down on foreign substances and maybe move the pitching rubber back a foot to hurt pitchers.
When Manfred opens his mouth, the voice of the owners comes out.
So many fans seem to be completely confused by this, obvious though it is. Ownership loves it.
Ownership couldn’t care less about something like this. This is pure Manfred.
@getrealgone2
It was the owners who wanted steroids in the game after the baseball strike because they believed that more home runs would bring back the fans. Then-commissioner Fay Vincent issued a leaguewide memo calling for stiff penalties for juicing, and he was ousted by Bud Selig, Jerry Reinsdorf, Stanton Cook, Carl Pohlad, Peter O’Malley and William Bartholomay, the so-called Great Lakes Gang, and Bud got Vincent’s job. He then turned a blind eye to PEDs and instituted a new award, the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award, the first of which was issued jointly to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and the fifth of which went to Barry Bonds.
The owners want more offense in the game because they believe it boosts interest in the game and attendance, so it’s reasonable to think they want the dominance of pitchers to decline.
What I find strangely hilarious is the fans who seem to believe the commissioner is self-employed.
Here we f***** go! ManFRAUD is a fool & a clown, you can bet the baby’s milk money there WILL be a strike/lockout in 22. I’m going to put on an episode of Kenny Burns Baseball where at least there was some semblance to life & baseball. What a world. Ahahahaha!
Yikes
lmao why don’t you heat up a pan of warm milk and put on an episode of Lawrence Welk, gramps.
@rct
First off, I’m not sure who this Lawrence Welk cat is you speak of but I’m guessing he’s pretty hip & far out, kinda like you. Secondly, stove is on the fritz, I have plenty of pots but no pans & I only drink buttermilk. What a maroon!
You say that like warm milk and Lawrence Welk is a bad thing.
2022 headline: MLB to investigate why concussions to hitters on HBP have increases in record amounts.
2021 headline: MLB investigating why HBP is double the highest rate in MLB history despite illegal ball control substances used by pitchers.
Basically, there’s already a huge issue.
Well, duh. Pitchers who are trying to hit batters are now more effective at it. Which is, most pitchers.
I might be biased but I honestly don’t think Degrom uses anything. I’ve seen Castro and Diaz but I’ll try to see if I see any more use.
I sure hope he doesn’t. I also hoped Cole didn’t though….
Cole is a blatantly obvious example of foreign substance abuse. Just look at the color of his hat during games.
Guys who go to the same spot on their hat many times a game then touch the two fingers with the thumb and they slightly sick together is a sign. Hard to miss if you watch for it easy to miss if you don’t want to see it.
He’s seen about a 200 RPM increase since 2015, but he’s also seen a 5 MPH increase.
degrom is using pine tar as well, dude grabs and feels around his belt after every single pitch. nothing wrong with that, but he is using it just as much as Cole and Bauer.
Bauer and Cole are shaking in their boots.
They wear spikes. They’re both city boys
City slickers. Don’t tale kindly to those folks round here.
They’re Californians. They wear uggs in 70 degree weather
So you missed the part where it said three quarters or more of pitchers may be using grip enhancers?
@jdgoat
There are 41 pitchers with a higher fourseam spin rate than Cole’s and 152 with a higher fourseam spin rate than Bauer’s.
75 pitchers have a higher changeup spin rate than Cole’s and 159 have a higher changeup spin rate than Bauer’s.
285 pitchers have a higher slider spin rate than Cole’s and 28 have higher slider spin rate than Bauer’s.
124 pitchers have a higher curveball spin rate than Cole’s and 17 have a higher curveball spin rate than Bauer’s.
If you’ll tell me which team you root for, I can tell you which of your pitchers have higher spin rates than those two, if you’d like.
Spin rate does not necessarily mean foreign substance. Use your eyes and look how pitcher’s behave during starts and you can pick them apart. Cole is the most obvious IMO
“Spin rate does not necessarily mean foreign substance.”
Then why is MLB bothering to talk about regulating foreign substances?
What team to do you root for? I ask because your claim about Cole is suspect and might reflect homerism on your part.
Cole has no conspicuous dark spot on the bill of his cap like countless other pitchers. Craig Kimbrel has always licked his fingers and then gone to the dark spot on his cap before delivering a pitch. The other day, Collin McHugh went to the spot on his cap TWICE before every pitch. Cole is the most obvious? I don’t think so.
This is fantastic research, @Person.
I will shamelessly copy your homework.
Thank you kindly, sir. El gusto es mio.
Yeah I’ll believe it when I see it. I’ll also believe that mitigating something that’s been in the game for literal decades, in every modern era, will have any actual effect on the game. I mean, they’re only even talking about it because offense is down which means the game’s ability to actually entertain the fans is down, which isn’t anything new for the sport. They wouldn’t care otherwise, just like the never have and it won’t make a difference just like absolutely none of the other rules changes they’ve instituted in the last few years have made a difference.
I’m not for a minute going to say it wouldn’t be nice to get cheating out of the sport. But it’s a cheater’s sport, always has been and no one’s ever really cared until now, and that’s only because of declining interest which will eventually hurt the bottom line. Even if they do accomplish anything, it won’t matter and it won’t help.
If I was a MLB pitcher, I’d never let a Front Office examine my balls.
After a certain age it becomes part of your yearly check up.
“turn your head & cough”
I’ll be back. Bet your nuts I’ll be back
Cole had poor control today. I wonder if it’s related to this new enforcement threat.
Nah, its more the Rays are just beating up on everyone right now – TB is the hottest team in MLB by a million miles. Austin Meadows took Cole deep, because he’s doing that to everyone at the moment.
MLB network media narratives:
“Whoaaa! A 15 K game! What a legendary, iconic game!”
and
“This pitcher isn’t any good, his K rate is “only” 5. If he were better he’d K more hitters.”
Ok what about those hitters though?
“The game is so bad now, hitters strike out too much”
It’s like beating your head into the wall with this crud. I love the game right now, there’s a nice mix of big offense and big pitching performances, but also there’s bad offense and bad pitching, seems to me that’s pretty much the same in every season? Stop making every slight wavering of the “norm” into some dumb narrative and just admit small samples exist before making claims about the entire game as a whole.
We live in this era of “instant” and 10 second attention spans, but the people who hate on baseball in 2021 cant see the forest from the trees in how clueless they sound in there being “too many homers” and “too many Ks” (but also commending homers and K’s as those two things pretty much represent the soul and core of the game) but also it’s only 2 months into the season and we should all know better by now that May does not = October.
Brevity.
I’m going to assume that the Angels pitchers don’t use any foreign substances because, boy, do they suck.
Lol
Maybe they do, but they forgot how to use it properly after their club attendant got fired.
“Am I doing this right?”
“I dunno man, just keep putting it on my cleats.”
“Okay…just remember to put that stuff on my socks when your done.”
Luis Castillo is missing the juice he got from Bauer
Here’s my two cents.
Oh wait…that’s only worth half a penny now.
Screw Manfred. Go baseball!
Start with Karinchak. Dude doesn’t even try to hide it
A hand full of minor leaguers and Gallegos. White noise when 90+% of pitchers are accused of using substance. No names go 9 innings weekly and There’s never been so many hitters batting below 200 in my life this late into the season all while mlb wants faster games. Connect the dots. More mlb lip service.
Want to crack down ? Check velocity rates vs pitchers history and investigate when all the sudden they are at career highs. Check their belongings and search them regularly. Playing in mlb is a privilege right ??
@bot
No, it’s a job. Sounds like you’ve bought into the phony piety of Major League Baseball. It’s a business, not a religion, all hokum to the contrary notwithstanding.
I think you mean ‘stringently’ not ‘stridently’.
Even though he meant “stringently” instead of “stridently” or even “regularly”
you, me, and EVERYONE ELSE who read the
post got AND UNDERSTOOD the point they were making.
Actually, stridently means ‘with force’ basically, so it could work as well.
I love that it is “in earnest”. It sounds like they said “No, but for real, we are super serious about this”.
The valuation of batters and pitchers modern baseball made it so this would come to a head. Its more financially responsible to use a foreign substance as a pitcher than PEDS, I would say it’s akin to a corked bat nowadays.
MLB was late to the show for steroids and they are just as late to the show for this issue. But at least they can go into labor negotiations saying “we took steps to combat this”, while probably pointing to strikeout rates to lower batter arb. prices and cheapen strikeout totals as a league-wide occurrence to tamp pitcher arb deals.
Or, maybe they won’t. But, I would. Im not saying there’s an easy fix, but when everyone knows something is being used for years trying to correct it that long after the fact is just pathetic.
Classic case of closing the corral gate after the horses are gone
Riddle me this :
What are 2 things musgrove Rodon Miley turnbull kluber and means have in common ?
1. A desire for a guaranteed contract for multiple years
2. They are all pitchers.
They are ALL men… why are males more inclined to cheat in the MLB???
I think you’re on to something here Fletcher. After you enlightened me to this corn syrup epidemic, I would think a blood test for corn syrup should be on the horizon for many of these guys.
To think I was wearing blinders for so long.
They’ve all sucked almost their entire careers?
Capricious capitalization and a lack of commas?
I’d say “NUTS!” to the whole thing.
Heard this before
I think it was totally chicken what they did to the 4 minor leaguers (part homer bias because Englert is a Rangers’ farmhand), but hear me out…
What kind of league makes it clear and obvious that you can “cheat” in this way while they collect league-wide data about what’s going on with foreign substance, and then proceed to ENFORCE the foreign substance rule on a couple of unsuspecting victims because of some example they’re trying to make of them? NOW they have the balls to say they’re going to enforce the rule from this point forward after the data collection they completed.
I just don’t get it. Before the season they said that while data collection was taking place, no players would be punished. They had never changed their stance on that until now, yet they proceeded to suspend a few players as “examples” before they even said they’d start enforcing the damn rule again!
It’s was a shameful decision by MLB to suspend those four players – even for only 10 games – because of the precedent they had set before.
Either enforce the rule or don’t, and make it clear what you’re doing.
Yeah I think I’m hearing an echo
Why does this feel like a child being giving false threats?
The pitchers that did not cheat were severely handicapped. Their numbers were worse and they lost pay for it
Ask the hitters if they mind pitchers using sticky substances at 100 mph? Of course they don’t mind. They don’t want to end their careers by getting beaned. Its common knowledge in the game. If course Manfred has no idea…
Nick Castellanos just said on the Chris Rose Rotation that that thought just isn’t true anymore. The substance is what’s helping them get to triple digits, and if they can’t control it then slow it down to a point where they can.
Manfred’s misguided attempt to fix Baseball’s offensive woes. Critics have said that the three outcome Baseball is boring because while a Pitchers duel can be fun, watching professional hitters swing violently at horrible pitches isn’t interesting to anyone. Manfred keeps trying to fix something that isn’t broken
It is broken, Manfred made sure of that.
Manfred is nothing more than ownership’s mouthpiece. Keep at least that much in mind as you gripe about him breaking things.
Are you in these meetings between Manfred and the owners? No you aren’t. So, stop acting like you know more than everyone else. Because if you did you’d either be working for MLB or you’d be a reporter instead of some random know-it-all in a comments section.
No idea who you are responding to here, but it sure seems like you are one of the confused fans who believes the commissioner is self-employed, that he makes major decisions on his own without knowing if they further the objectives of the people who give him his paycheck. Because that’s how it works in the real world, right?
Manfred made a promise at years start that the league would start cracking down on the players.
Fast-forward to now and you have
– a historically great year for pitchers/bad year for hitters
-fans theorizing what could be legitimate evidence (spin rate bumping, videos of pitchers touching their caps or thumbing from inside their glove before gripping the ball)
– Notable MLB players saying that the league isn’t doing anything about the issue at all
-media outlets posting articles that are focused on at least 2 of the above topics
Fun fact: Did you know, MLB removed spin rate information prior to the 2020 season for certain pitchers off Statcast Savant?
Manfred and the league intentionally ignored a bomb set for 1 minute, that they are just now defusing; with 10 seconds remaining. They were hoping for the issue to become a wash and that everyone would drop and forget it. That didn’t happen and now he is scrambling to appease the public with half-truths and lies.
Even if it proves difficult for the league or umpires to catch players in the act, Rob Manfred only has him and his “League of Nations” decision policy’s to blame.
Until Manfred stands in front of a podium and announces to the world, “Umpires will be enforcing the anti-ball doctoring rules aggressively. You have been warned.”, like with the balk enforcement in ’88, instead of all these pussyfoot “leaks”, I won’t hold my breath.
I would love to hear some names of players you all suspect of using sustances
Dolis and Manoah on the Jays both have the uncanny ability to glisten with “sweat” from one forearm while otherwise having bone-dry skin everywhere else.
Likely sunscreen they keep applying, which is one of the “approved” substances and a minor one no one has questioned…until now. How would they even enforce a ban on sunscreen?
@bullred Do you mean that honestly? Or are you trying to say something else?
If you wouldn’t mind clarifying your comment, please.
I would download all statcast data for pitchers. Then just sort at by greatest increase in spin rate by year, then maybe get fancy and look at how close each pitcher was to free agency or even cracking the majors when they experienced that jump.
But I have other reports to build so maybe an article here???
The man they call “Bauer Outage”
USA Today article is behind a paywall. It would be helpful if that were indicated.
So the rosin bag is fair game for better grip why you need anything else
I suspect foreign substances are partially to blame for the increase in velocity and almost entirely to blame for the increase in spin rate. It does no good to throw 101mph fastball if it’s going to be a wild pitch 1/3 of the time, so having a better grip helps your location. Rosin helps, but only so much.
Or to put it another way, if foreign substances didn’t help, why would so many pitchers break the rules to use them?
I’m not in any way defending their use. You’re right, it should be rosin bag and that’s it. I’m just saying there is a reason they are being used.
And if a pitcher who throws 100 mph can’t throw strikes, they will be in the minors learning to throw strikes, or throwing strikes at 95 mph.
Except in Oregon where everything goes.
Its a bargaining point in the contract negotiations.. Ball doctoring has been going on since the invention of baseball.. If you want to do something about lack of action.. teach the Hitters to hit.. There is no reason every player ( or the vast majority of them) swing like they are trying to hit a home run.. a simple line drive is the most effective hit in baseball.. and its not that hard to teach hitting line drives..
The current state of the game would suggest other wise. Pitching is so ridiculous right now that the ‘swing hard in case you hit it’ is a truism. It’s too hard to get multiple hits in an inning.
It’d be interesting to see how a game with 4 out innings would play. Make the game 7 inning, it’s only adding one more out to a game.
There’s some point to this and I agree in principle that contact hitting is becoming an uncommon skill, but when you look at the velocity increase over the last 20 years as well as the spin rate increase, hitting has undeniably become more difficult.
I think hitters should learn how to bunt (save for your top power hitters) and beat the shift (especially for situations where there’s at least one runner on), but I’d want to see how much cracking down on these foreign substances helps hitters before I demand the hitters adjust anymore. If it were a matter of pitchers just getting better, fine, but when they get better by cheating, it’s not the hitters that need to change.
That there are fewer hits leads me to believe that batting average is currently being undervalued in the algorithms for player values.
The main reason it’s been casually allowed is it keeps the pitchers from accidentally plunking dudes in the head. It’s kinda like steroids in that it’s fine and MLB doesn’t care up until it starts turning the game into a carnival act. Pitchers and analytics nerds took it to the extreme and it’s broken baseball. Everything in moderation as they say, but alas there’s too much money to incentivize gaming the game.
@smacky
…except that it hasn’t.
I’ll say it again. What a stupid waste of energy
Minor leaguers can easily be suspended if they’re suspected of using a foreign substance on baseballs; major leaguers, however, can not simply be suspended 10 games. There needs to be an agreement on what constitutes proof and acceptable penalties with the MLBPA, which I don’t believe exists.
Cracking down on this makes sense as more advanced substances are being used, but they’ll probably have to start with warnings while working toward agreed-upon penalties.
MLB has tacitly approved use of substances for better grip for decades and decades. That’s forced more pitchers to adopt it just to keep up. I do enjoy reading the righteous comments from fans who are convinced their favorite pitchers would NEVER doctor the ball, while equally convinced pitchers on other teams do. Face it, 95% are using something.
Well, there goes Lucchesi’s ‘churve’. He puts something at the base of his glove snd touches his fingertip to it with each new ball received.
Seems like MLB is regulating this game to death, and wondering why it is losing the younger generation of fans. Recent article in Athletic, Donny Baseball even said sometime baseball is unwatchable. I’ve been watching baseball for 65 years, and have seen the interest in young folks has been dwindling steadily. Heck, I’d bet a large majority wouldn’t even know how to mark a scorecard without an “app”. So, MLB, take a step back, it’s time to “reset the game to its last stable version”. In the guise of speeding up the game to appeal to people to more people, you’ve done the exact opposite.
So what’s your solution? Allow all foreign substances, allow any steroids or other PEDs, and allow any use of tech to steal signs? I’m glad that they’re trying to clean up the sport. If they want to reel in the younger generation, enforce the pitch clock and have balls put in play more than once every four minutes. This three true outcome approach is great when it results in a HR, but pretty boring most of the time. Hopefully, banning foreign substances will tip the scales back toward the hitters a bit. Offense has always been more exciting than a pitcher’s duel.
And pitcher duels are always more exciting when they’re the exception, not the rule.
My solution is enforce the rules that are on the books, specifically the pitch clock. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I like a good pitchers duel much better than a “football score”. I grew up watching Bob Gibson, Drysdale, Koufax, Ford, Spahn, Seaver, etc. Pitchers that pitched more than five innings.
Meh. It’s just like jaywalking.
So pitchers should just stop using batting gloves when they hit. “What do you want me to do, Joe? I just batted and got pine tar on my hands and sleeve.”
Listen, make ALL substances illegal. Pine tar, rosin bags, everything.
Now, something I’ve never seen talked about: batting gloves.
Gloves like football players wear are incredibly tacky just from the material used. Allow both hitters AND pitchers to use them. I’m sure somewhere pitchers have experimented with these. Let the pitcher cut out areas of the glove for ‘feel’, however he wants. NOW you have an even field.
I think a lot of catchers are doing the doctoring. I forget who it was, but someone used to drag the ball off his shin guard or cleat! Not to mention catchers use a ton of pine tar when they hit.
Has anyone else noticed the illegal bats this year? No pine tar from the end of the bat to a point no smaller than the width of the plate. The width of the plate is the template. Remember George Brett? As far as I know, it’s still in the rule book.
Sure Manfred, let’s just start enforcing it in the middle of a season after ignoring it for years. You are SO GOOD at your job…
Somehow I can imagine Manfred putting out a memo to all teams threatening to reinstate the juiced ball if pitchers don’t stop using foreign substances. I wonder if he could go a whole year without relentlessly tinkering with the game.
Nothing new here. MLB has at various times cracked down on foreign substances used by pitchers. It will do this for awhile, then when it seems like it has the problem under control it will relax. Then slowly pitchers will start using stuff again and the cycle will repeat. Seems to me if this is really a problem they will actually develop something that will be sustained. We’ll see but not holding my breath.
It is not coincidence that this is coming at a time where scoring is down. But foreign substance use is likely not the big culprit. And no matter the culprit, the weather is warming and that usually brings with it more offense.
There’s a man who leads a life of pitching
To everyone he meets he stays bewitching
Oh, with every move he makes another chance he takes
The odds are he won’t live to pitch tomorrow
Foreign Substance Man
Foreign Substance Man
They’ve given him a number and oh, they’ve taken ‘way his name.
I will believe that MLB is really serious about cracking down on doctoring baseballs when suspensions are handed down to the Coles, Bauers, and Verlanders of the game..not just minor leaguers and fringe MLBers.
A college chemistry professor, Vernon Simpson (Ray Milland), invents a substance that keeps insects away from wood. But after a baseball crashes through the window and gets coated in the fluid, Simpson discovers that the ball repels wood. To further his experiment, Simpson tries out as a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals and becomes a master of the screwball, propelling him into the spotlight as a star player, much to the confusion of his fiancée, Deborah (Jean Peters).
“Dial S for Spitter”
“The Incredible Two-seamed Fastball”
Just like the NHL made goalie equipment smaller – right. Looks good on paper. Does Manfred like baseball? It can be difficult to tell.
So they’ll empower umps to check pitchers when the pitchers enter? Seems like a starter could just muddle through the first, get some sticky stuff between innings, and be fine for innings 2-6. Same with a reliever coming in for multiple innings. There needs to be a mechanism to at least allow for a quick check in other innings.
after 100’s of hit batters manmoron will change his mind.
I’d bet that pitchers will slow down after their wildness costs games.
and when every game score 15-13 taking 51/2 hours manmoron will change his mind.
This is a joke…spending 6 years playing and pitching in MiLB every pitcher uses a variety of things to try to gain an advantage like the following:
* rubbing mink oil on your glove between innings to reduce your grip for off speed pitches
* not cutting your nails on certain fingers to raise stitches
* filing the eyelits on your glove to cut the ball
* vaseline on the palm of your glove hand/mix with rosin to shade a side of the ball
There is about a dozen more little tricks but it’s no different than what hitters do between tacky gloves, pine tar, sanding down bats and applying wood hardening finish etc.
What? MLB is taking a break from being woke to deal with actual baseball issues?
Just what we need. A bigot’s eye view.
I am left with Hockey and Lacrosse in my old age, not fair. I always wanted to be the fat, bald, old guy sitting in the cheap (not lower priced) bleacher type seats down the first base line behind the dugout in spring training (so, anyone under 50 has NO IDEA of what I said), getting too much sun. All this just SUX. NFL attendance is for Alcoholics, MLB is for noise freaks (oh, and yuppies who just want to be seen there, then leave), NBA is free tickets outside the arena PLEASE TAKE THEM so you can see guys play 1 on 1, if even that many are actually trying at all. Let’s see how fast Lacrosse becomes the number 2 sport behind Hockey, in spite of Google’s attempts to make Hockey non-existent.
I am left with Hockey and Lacrosse in my old age, not fair. I always wanted to be the fat, bald, old guy sitting in the cheap (not lower priced) bleacher type seats down the first base line behind the dugout in spring training (so, anyone under 50 has NO IDEA of what I said), getting too much sun. All this just SUX. NFL attendance is for Alcoholics, MLB is for noise freaks (oh, and yuppies who just want to be seen there, then leave), NBA is free tickets outside the arena PLEASE TAKE THEM so you can see guys play 1 on 1, if even that many are actually trying at all. Let’s see how fast Lacrosse becomes the number 2 sport behind Hockey, in spite of Google’s attempts to make Hockey non-existent.
The issue isn’t so much substance use as it is a terrible offensive approach. No one works on the art of hitting anymore or their approach at the plate. It’s become a 3 true outcome game thanks to analytics and laziness. Guys don’t work on going to opposite field and they don’t care if they strikeout. Plate discipline is just pathetic. The game is getting harder to watch because of so many poor at-bats. Give me a team of Tony Gwynn and Chipper Jones type players over a team of Giancarlo Stanton and Adam Dunn types any time.
Well said!
What presumptive non-sense. The average pitch is 4 mph faster than just a decade ago and all it takes is a few fun gifs of an ace “tunneling” with the enhanced spin rates of a doctored ball and it’s easy to see why the average batting average is just a tick above .230.
People act like everyone is choosing not to hit like Wade Boggs. Not only is such bat control a rare gift, but from an era when Nolan Ryan was the exception, now every team runs out relievers touching a 100.
Yea launch angle revolution is a thing, but have you considered it may be responsive in nature? If it’s that much harder to put the bat on the ball, why not hunker down on the back leg and add some lift just in case that 99 mph fastball isnt really a nasty 92 mph slider.
unfortunately, angels don’t seem to have anyone touching100.
Players are choosing to hit a certain way. Everyone is pull happy and tries to kill the ball. Very, very few have a hit it where it’s pitched and take a base hit approach. And why do you act like pitchers haven’t always thrown their breaking pitches from the same arm slot? It’s nothing new to try to have to pick up a big break on an off speed pitch. It’s also not like these players aren’t used to fast pitches. It’s all they’ve known. The one comment you got right was that it’s easy to see why the avg has declined and it’s my original comment.
Tunneling isnt a phenomenon, but the lethality of a consistent arm slot seems to be. Again, the 82 mph slider of the 80’s and 87 mph slider of the 2000’s is the 91 mph slider of today. Yet the infield diamond and rubber is the same dimensions while you expect similar results?
Hitters face specific shifts and are pitched against accordingly. Baseball has become faster, stronger and smarter, but you just assume its methodology based failure. You should give advancements in performance more credence before you miss the chance to tell those kids to get off your lawn.
Foreign substances have always been present in baseball. But with spin rate technology pitchers have been able to experiment and refine their repertoire in the offseason. This year the amount of foreign substance abuse is ridiculous all you have to do is watch any game and pitcher’s hats are stained to the point it’s a completely different color in the first inning and they touch their hat in between every pitch. A suspensions needs to happen. Most fans are not watching 20-30 strikeouts total per game type of baseball
Three true outcome hitters.
I’m willing to bet technology could be used to detect foreign substances in a millisecond. Any number of gameshow sounds could be utilized. Better yet, if the batter makes contact the defense can’t move for three full seconds. Thousand one, thousand two, thousand three. OK, fetch the ball.
I know a lot of hitters have quotes related to substances which improve a pitchers grip in terms of preventing taking a fastball to the face, but have recently opined the new versions of sticky substances out there primarily benefit spin rates and ball movement. Still, you do have to wonder how much added control there is as well considering MLB pitchers today often struggle to throw strikes and HBP’s are at an all time high.
Has the availabilty of these substances contributed to how pitchers are drafted and developed? It seems at least somewhat likely an MLB team could intentionally focus on super high effort, high velocity pitchers knowing ball control can take a back seat with the addition of illegal sticky balms and the lack of need for a starting pitcher to go more than 5-6 innings.
Apparently this is Manfred’s “steroid era” issue. This is a show of force ahead of the CBA to prove MLB is tough. I imagine like steriods most of the players that get disciplined will be minor leaguers with the odd major leaguer now and then.
As Eddie Harris said in “Major League”: “I haven’t got an arm like yours; i have to put anything on it i can find. Someday you will too”
*Enter gif of Gary Busey giving the thumbs up.*
Likely story…
The pitchers, the coaches, and the GM’s are all encouraging sticky stuff.
The hitters are using video to steal signs.
MLB is afraid to punish players and teams.
If they do crack down, Kevin Gausman better burn his hats.
Playing baseball and being a doctor never did make sense either way. You have to go to school for years to become a doctor. Poor baseballs
Ahh the best pitch in baseball, the Ol Screwball. Named after the word scrutiny, right,?
a pitch thrown to the spot… hit you spots and you can pitch 90MPH and get guys out.. provided the umpires can call it… go Electronic Strike zone.. Equality, Liberty and Fraternity.. all in one rule..
Ok, so now I’m assuming Dodgers pitchers are going to be booed just as much as Astros hitters, or are MLB fans going to continue to be a “pick and choose” fan base
If anyone believes for a second that MLB had to give immunity to the players to talk you are eating the BS they are feeding you. Any investigator worth their salt could have proved that without the players statements. Christ, a guy on YouTube figured it out.
The SI article is a very good and very discouraging read…
The fact that they’ve identified it as a problem is good. They’ll fix it.
I will believe it when I see it. In spring training MLB sent out a memo to the team saying exactly this, confiscated balls from several pitchers including Bauer and Cole and then did exactly NADA.
Its already in the rule book. The possible penalties are already in the CBA. MLB could have been penalizing pitchers all along. That they didn’t makes this pronouncement suspect to say the least.
What you know about rollin down in the deep?
Rosin bag is the only foreign substance that Mlb legalize , anything that’s not thing is illegal.
But didn’t Mlb just changed the ball last year in the playoffs because it produce too many homeruns and caused some extra 5-10 feet of travel then a ball used in 2014-15? You could tel last year playoffs that the ball was different. The one person who would tell you is the pitcher. But don’t blame pitching for just dominating this thing about “doctoring” a baseball been in the game for many generations of baseball, and “now” people are complaining. Why not actually fixed two rules in the rule book that does not have a define definition like the “check swing “ and “balk”.
This just shows how dysfunctional MLB is. They are considering changing the game substantially – bigger bases, no shifts, limiting pickoffs, even lowering or moving back the mound – all in the name of generating more offense. But they have been turning a blind-eye to doctored balls for years, which has only emboldened the cheaters. Maybe before changing the fundamentals oh the game, MLB should actually enforce the rules it has on the books. Crazy…I know.
Tens of thousands of glass houses just went up for sale in L.A.
Manfred<Kuhn<Selig
I like how the union brothers stick together through thick and thin. Thanks Charlie.
Every foul ball, ball in the dirt, etc is directly handed to a MLB official documenting the baseball. If the players see the guy there taking baseballs that night, why doctor the baseballs with a foreign substance?
by the time it gets to home and out in play people really wouldn’t notice though the ‘stickies or whatever are so slight on their hands they don’t need much to make a huge difference
Might be worth watching catchers to see if they throw it to the ball boy instead of handing it to the ump….
joew……from the SI article……”One ball made its way into an NL dugout last week, where players took turns touching a palm to the sticky material coating it and lifting the baseball, adhered to their hand, into the air. Another one, corralled in a different NL dugout, had clear-enough fingerprints indented in the goo that opponents could mimic the pitcher’s grip. A third one, also in the NL, was so sticky that when an opponent tried to pull the glue off, three inches of seams came off with it.” si.com/mlb/2021/06/04/sticky-stuff-is-the-new-ster…
Seems like there is plenty of sticky left to examine.
my bad, they got a lot worse than they used too.
maybe thats why that ball stuck to Molina’s pads a while back.
This is a massive problem and Bauer put the spotlight on himself.
Hope MLB cracks down on this soon. Great SI piece.
bout time. I know the pirates havn’t had great luck with pitchers but seeing a pitcher go from a bottom of the rotation one year and the very next year be a cy young candidate or what have it is very suspicious.
maybe they just didn’t want to spend money on Elmer’s and got dollar tree glue
Random checks? Rules cannot be randomly enforced.
I am sure they are going to crack down on the highest paid pitcher in the game. Everyone knows he does it, let’s see if the league ever figures it out, or if they remain the only people that still have no idea. This reminds me of double secret probation from animal house. How many times are they going to say it is against the rules and allow every fan watching on tv to watch him go to it before pitches.
For those wondering what the difference is, or why anyone cares. I used to throw a sinker at 93 mph. On really humid days I used to put pine tar on my bill and use a little rosin. I would get an extra 2 to 3 inches of drop, and you could literally hear the ball sound like a sizzle. I used to say the same thing they all are saying. So it would not slip out and hurt a hitter, but in reality, it was filthy. It made the curve bite later, the sinker look like it was a strike to the hitter, and meanwhile it would bounce back if the plate, and the four seamer would keep it’s plane up in the zone. It’s not a little advantage. The kicker is, the harder you throw, the more it works.
William, Thanks for the insight. You are the kind of person the media needs to seek out when covering this story. It’s put a bad taste in my mouth, even when watching my favorite team, the Dodgers. Those guys do not seem innocent.
They should crackdown on their dbag of a commissioner
Lets name Names: Maeda of the Twins has this particular habit of rubbing the ball for certain pitches.. on the inside of his glove… Now if I was an umpire I’d look at the glove for a tack or similar device coming from the inside to the palm where he is rubbing the ball in a strange manner.. Why do guys have jewelry on the mound… it used to be considered a distraction and illegal.. now it is a place to reach to and get that extra little something.. the little Blue pill that gets them up on their opponents… but while your at it.. bring in the electronic strike zone.. I’m tired of tired old umpires deciding who gets the meatballs in the middle of the plate and which guy get struck out on a ball 4 inches off the plate.. fact is I doubt Glavine would be in the hall of fame with the electronic strike zone.. he lived so far off the plate that it was in a different zip code.
So let’s change the game for pace of play but let’s slow the game down with random searches? Manfred is all over the map.
Cole is screwed. Guy’s on his hat all the time.
He’s not close to the only one. Fans need to be objective about the team they watch because those guys are doing it, too. It reminds me of the Detroit Pistons in their championship days. Commit a foul on every play because they can’t call everything.
Just the suggestion of rampant cheating is a black eye for the game. Between this and the unprecedented run of injuries, this season has become difficult to watch.
Tonight, there were 305 strikeouts versus 251 hits. On the season, there are 2,015 more strikeouts than hits at what is essentially the 58-game mark per team. During last years’ 60-game season, the difference was 1,147. MLB is on pace for 5,654 more strikeouts than hits. That’s ridiculous and it will keep getting worse.
As a one-sport person, I’m watching what’s being done with great interest. With other sports, I woke up one day knowing it was time to let go. I’m starting to think this will end the same way. The idea of attending a game is totally unappealing to me. As for the 2021 season, it cannot end soon enough for me.
If MLB is cracking down on pitchers using substances for better grip, spin rate, etc. isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black since MLB is always altering the baseball?
Why don’t they just juice the baseballs more?
Let these pitchers spin HR derby balls.
If the goal is get offense back in the game, then cracking down on cheating pitchers makes much more sense than moving the mound or handcuffing the defense.
Sure they are
As far as I can tell, MLB investigations are headed by Mr Magoo, so I’ll be shocked if anything comes of it
It will be interesting to track whether or not the performance of pitchers change once this is implemented. Looking at evidence such as spin rate, movement, speed, etc for both individual pitchers and pitchers as a whole. As a data geek, this could be interesting.
I thought the focus was to shorten game length and not have umps going out and investigating players.
Instead of worrying about this just go to a computerized strikezone. That would fix everything. Right now pitchers get too much help from umps and their bad strikezones. Hitters know the strikezone yet get called out a lot when a pitch is a ball. Doing this would make pitching harder. No more fooling umpires.
How are you going to prevent a pitcher using substance on a ball. Short of searching each pitcher every inning, the umpire walks the ball out to the pitcher and the pitcher can only throw it once and they change the ball after every pitch.
I heard a broadcaster a former MLB player admit that when he played 1st base base he had a pad of some substance in his back pocket, the pitcher threw the ball to him, he doctored the ball and tossed it back.
MLB surely should be smart enough to recognize this has been happening for decades, you can’t stop it, and given MLB’s history of punishment it would be interesting, do you suspend Max Schezner, or any of the top pitchers the same as you do the rookie or aged pitcher who is barely hanging on.