Major League Baseball outlined plans to end the widespread use of grip-enhancing products by pitchers and will suspend any player caught with foreign substances, the league announced Tuesday.
Enforcement of the new rule on foreign substances will begin on June 21. Under the plan, any pitcher who “possesses or applies” sticky substances will be ejected from the game and automatically suspended in accordance with the previous discipline. Repeat offenders will be subject to “progressive discipline”, and clubs may also be sanctioned for non-compliance with the rules.
The plan also allows major and minor league umpires to regularly check all pitchers, whether or not opposing managers request it.
Pitchers can continue to use rosin bags on the mound, but MLB said players “may not apply foreign substances of any kind to the ball.”
“Based on information collected over the first two months of the season…there is a prevalence of foreign substance use by Major League Baseball and minor league pitchers,” MLB said in the release. . “Many collected baseballs had dark, amber-colored marks that were sticky to the touch.”
It is believed that pitchers began applying sticky substances to the ball in an attempt to increase their spin rate, which coincided with a year that saw a decrease in offense at the MLB level and an increase in the strikeout rate, leading the league to crack down on the problem. .
MLB said in the memo that “pitchers who use these substances (have) an unfair competitive advantage over hitters and pitchers who do not use foreign substances, resulting in less action on the field. Additionally , the consumption of foreign substances appears to contribute to a throwing style in which pitchers sacrifice location for spin and velocity, particularly when it comes to elevated fastballs.
This memo comes amid a league-wide conversation about the significant use of foreign substances by pitchers.
THE Dodgers‘ Trevor Bauer, which has been associated with foreign substances, he was asked if he had used it on June 6; THE Yankees‘ Gerrit Cole I dodged questions about using Spider Tack last week; and in May, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was ejected for arguing with umpire Joe West after West asked the St. Louis reliever. Giovanny Gallegos has change hat due to the presence of a foreign substance on the brim.
Shildt called the use of foreign substances “baseball’s dirty little secret” after the game.
In March, MLB announced that it use Statcast data to analyze changes in turnover rates and increase monitoring of dugouts and clubhouse spaces in an effort to reduce pitchers’ use of foreign substances on baseballs. Despite this, problems with its use emerged after the start of the 2021 season on April 1.
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To what extent will the repression change the tone?
MLB Senior Writer Eno Sarris: This will have broad ramifications for pitchers in the big leagues. There’s probably the immediate effect of removing a point or two from the league’s strikeout rate and adding less than half a point per game, but then there will be cascading effects.
There may be a loss of command or more injuries as throwers attempt to compensate for the loss of spin with more speed. There can be interactive effects between throws as the spin changes.
Expect more offense in general, but knowing exactly how much of that is due to the sticky stuff will be complicated by the fact that offense peaks in August anyway.
Is the league serious?
Sarris: The league seems serious about this, but seriousness is in the eye of the beholder. They’ve known since Bauer exposed the practice. in these pages in 2018, maybe even before.
Since then, they’ve tested a sticky ball in spring training, had a few meetings with Bauer on the subject, asked managers to control the practice (before the 2020 season), and then this year, released two memos on the upcoming application.
It’s a lot ? It’s not nothing. Now we look at how many players they actually suspend.
How will players react to the memo?
Brittany Ghiroli, MLB Senior Writer: As with everything else, there is no one-size-fits-all answer for a few hundred people. There is a group that believes that unless real punishment is meted out, a strongly worded memo is just that.
Still, the league seems serious and it’s not a stretch to think that one or two guys caught would be enough of a warning shot for the rest. No matter what they support, players can’t say they were blindsided by it. It will take about a month between AthleticismIt is initial report and the application.
(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
