Around Baseball 2021

[Jimcanuck]

If all of that is true, then Glasnow hurt himself because he decided to cheat. Everyone knew coming into the season that the league wanted to crack down on illegal substances. He had plenty of time in spring training to prepare. The only sympathy I would have is if he was pressured to do it by the team.

 

But an estimated 75% of pitchers were using some type of substance, it had been going on for years, and the league was aware. There was a better way to handle this then make a significant in season enforcement change.

[Spanky__99]

But an estimated 75% of pitchers were using some type of substance, it had been going on for years, and the league was aware. There was a better way to handle this then make a significant in season enforcement change.

 

s*** happens Jim, they were warned in ST. f*** them anyhow, rosin and sweat work.

[Laika]

"I'm choking the s*** out of my pitches"

 

Sounds like Glasnow doubled down on the stupid and was trying to retain some of his lost spin by gripping the ball harder? That's on him, not MLB. Nobody said he had to compensate for the lack of tack by squeezing harder

[Jimcanuck]

Will be interesting to see if pitcher injuries spike in the next while

[Grant77]

But an estimated 75% of pitchers were using some type of substance, it had been going on for years, and the league was aware. There was a better way to handle this then make a significant in season enforcement change.

 

The league told the players that there were going to be changes before the season started. We heard about it at the time, it's a fact. They had part of the offseason, spring training, and 2 months of the season to adjust. Glasnow is the employee that got written up a dozen times for being late and is now freaking out because he was disciplined.

 

What part of that are you not understanding or disagreeing with?

[Brownie19]

Did anyone post the video of Bauer sticking a ball to his palm with just rosin and sweat?

[BTS]

If all of that is true, then Glasnow hurt himself because he decided to cheat. Everyone knew coming into the season that the league wanted to crack down on illegal substances. He had plenty of time in spring training to prepare. The only sympathy I would have is if he was pressured to do it by the team.

 

Yeah. If Glasnow has to “choke the s*** out of the ball” to the point where his UCL snaps after 50 pitches to get results without cheating, then he’s just not that good.

[The Cats Ass]

For all of you siding with Glasnow on this, it was stated before the season that they were going to be cracking down on the use of foreign substances. These pitchers all had plenty of time, if anything the league gave them a little bit of extra leeway to begin the season.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31127060/mlb-memo-warns-teams-crackdown-use-foreign-substances-baseballs

[Brownie19]

For all of you siding with Glasnow on this, it was stated before the season that they were going to be cracking down on the use of foreign substances. These pitchers all had plenty of time, if anything the league gave them a little bit of extra leeway to begin the season.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31127060/mlb-memo-warns-teams-crackdown-use-foreign-substances-baseballs

 

Why didn't MLB establish this new protocol/suspensions/fines at the start of the year?

 

They thought if they asked nicely that people would just stop using it?

[The Cats Ass]

Why didn't MLB establish this new protocol/suspensions/fines at the start of the year?

 

They thought if they asked nicely that people would just stop using it?

 

There were always suspensions for getting caught. Pineda was suspended 10 games for pine tar back in 2014. And there are no fines.

[Jimcanuck]

For all of you siding with Glasnow on this, it was stated before the season that they were going to be cracking down on the use of foreign substances. These pitchers all had plenty of time, if anything the league gave them a little bit of extra leeway to begin the season.

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31127060/mlb-memo-warns-teams-crackdown-use-foreign-substances-baseballs

 

For the record, no one is siding with Glasnow. And no one should side with the league either. There are problems with both sides.

[DigitalRock]

 

 

 

Lots of message board MD’s in this thread lol. Of course removing a tacky substance from the fingertips that are supposed to rotate a 5 oz baseball at RPM’s north of 2000 is going to create a brand new stress on the flexors that protect the elbow.

 

MLB dropped the ball again. Manfred is a clown and is embarrassing the league.

 

The league did nothing wrong here, Glasnow had ample time

[Jimcanuck]

The league did nothing wrong, gimme a break. The league knew about this for years and did nothing, effectively waiving the rule. Pitchers will act accordingly and did for years. Then in the space of a few months, they warn, and then start a mid season crackdown. Quite frankly, if there is a spate of pitcher injuries in the next while, the league may have a liability issue.

[Laika]

The league did nothing wrong, gimme a break. The league knew about this for years and did nothing, effectively waiving the rule. Pitchers will act accordingly and did for years. Then in the space of a few months, they warn, and then start a mid season crackdown. Quite frankly, if there is a spate of pitcher injuries in the next while, the league may have a liability issue.

 

lmao okay Jim

 

the rule against foreign substances his existed forever

they have enforced it historically

they tried more passive enforcement measures this year and pitchers ignored them (MLB officials are saying this in the articles)

[Jimcanuck]

lmao okay Jim

 

the rule against foreign substances his existed forever

they have enforced it historically

they tried more passive enforcement measures this year and pitchers ignored them (MLB officials are saying this in the articles)

 

Enforced it historically? Like every 7 years someone gets a suspension, when 75% of the pitchers are breaking the rule. lmao

[Brownie19]

I'm with Jim on this. Although it was in the rule book, they have been blatantly ignoring it for years - just like they did with steroids (although I guess one might argue that 'not using steroids' wasn't technically in the rule book at the time).

 

We've all seen videos of pitchers applying sunscreen in the bullpen during a night game - the league has seen that - they did nothing about it for a very long time. I was preaching like 2-3 years ago that teams would be developing something even better than sunscreen and rosin and it would become a competitive advantage. I'm not that smart so clearly the league aught to have expected this.

[Laika]

Enforced it historically? Like every 7 years someone gets a suspension, when 75% of the pitchers are breaking the rule. lmao

 

It's a tricky rule to enforce, Jim.

 

Everyone has trace amounts of pine tar on their equipment

Reasonably players have sunscreen and lotions on their bodies

Do fans want to watch umpires patting down players every game?

There was no evidence that foreign substances were actually creating vicious pitching weapons until rather recently

There was little evidence that batters even cared until fairly recently

It only became a large PR issue recently, with the extreme dip in offense and some of the reported stories (Angels clubhouse guy, etc.)

[King]

https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/1405197406883483662

 

This guy is posting a lot of interesting s***, right now.

[L54]

The league did nothing wrong, gimme a break. The league knew about this for years and did nothing, effectively waiving the rule. Pitchers will act accordingly and did for years. Then in the space of a few months, they warn, and then start a mid season crackdown. Quite frankly, if there is a spate of pitcher injuries in the next while, the league may have a liability issue.

 

You’re absolutely correct Jim. For the league to turn a blind eye for years and then all of a sudden half way through the season begin enforcing it is insane. If more guys start dropping like flys MLB is going to have a real “sticky” situation on their hands.

 

I don’t care if they said they were going to monitor it more closely this year. They chose to do nothing until they felt the external pressure from the industry. They keep f***ing with the baseballs in some desperate attempt at parity. This is 1000% on the league and their years of negligence.

 

I’m amazed how many guys are taking the side of the corporation and not the side of the actual dudes who play the game who are clearly the ones who understand the impact the most.

[Laika]

You’re absolutely correct Jim. For the league to turn a blind eye for years and then all of a sudden half way through the season begin enforcing it is insane. If more guys start dropping like flys MLB is going to have a real “sticky” situation on their hands.

 

I don’t care if they said they were going to monitor it more closely this year. They chose to do nothing until they felt the external pressure from the industry. They keep f***ing with the baseballs in some desperate attempt at parity. This is 1000% on the league and their years of negligence.

 

I’m amazed how many guys are taking the side of the corporation and not the side of the actual dudes who play the game who are clearly the ones who understand the impact the most.

 

Hitters play the game too

[TwistedLogic]

https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/1405197406883483662

 

This guy is posting a lot of interesting s***, right now.

 

- The Royals were the first team with a full analytics and video department close by their dugout, doing so in 2015, their World Series Championship year. How they used it, I do not know.

 

- This one hurts to say... my favorite player ever... "Chase Utley was the biggest cheater of all-time."

 

- As insane as this sounds, I've heard this from multiple players, Adrian Beltre had a buddy with binoculars in dead center who would wave a beater (undershirt) if he was getting something off speed in 2017.

 

I'm laughing my ass off at some of these "accusations." If I ever tweeted out unsubstantiated garbage like this, my outlet would fire me within the hour.

[TwistedLogic]

If anyone should be fined or punished over this ABSOLUTE SCANDAL it should be every team the Rangers faced at home in 2017.

 

How the f*** did you not notice Adrian Beltre's naked friend waving around his tank top in dead center in this ballpark?

 

 

I guess they must have missed him camped out on the grassy knoll or dancing on the rafters.

 

If this is true and Beltre actually got away with it, he deserved every extra hit he came up with.

[Grant77]

It's crazy how this lie about them enforcing the rule 'all of the sudden' keeps getting brought up as the main point in support of pitchers.

 

This has always been a rule. It never would have been enforced if pitchers stuck to sunscreen and rosin. Fans and hitters were generally indifferent. It wasn't particularly bad for the game.

 

Recently, they pushed it too far by essentially applying glue to their hands. MLB really had no choice but to take action and gave the pitchers warnings and an overly gratuitous, consequence free, amount of time to adapt. This wasn't 'all of the sudden'. Enforcement had to start at some point.

[Scion]

 

[Scion]

This subject is a bit more nuanced than I realised at first glance. If the issue pitchers have is not differentiating between spider tack and sunscreen and rosin than I sympathize with them. This is something that pitchers have been using for decades and if the hitters don't have a problem with it I don't see why fans should.

[wilko]

 

 

[Ray]

Yasmani Grandal has a .149 batting average and a 127 wRC+

 

Equal parts absurd and hilarious.

[Jimcanuck]

Enforcement had to start at some point.

 

Agreed, and MLB f***ed up in how they went about it.

[Laika]

This subject is a bit more nuanced than I realised at first glance. If the issue pitchers have is not differentiating between spider tack and sunscreen and rosin than I sympathize with them. This is something that pitchers have been using for decades and if the hitters don't have a problem with it I don't see why fans should.

 

I can see this argument and at first my thoughts were that the obvious solution was to have one MLB sanctioned foreign substance that is allowed. Players can use MLB brand sunscreen but nothing else.

 

But on the enforcement side something like that may not be workable. Cheaters would probably just formulate Sun-Tack, the spider tack that looks and smells like sunscreen! Then umps and officials can't really enforce the rule without, like, lab testing whatever the icky stuff is.

 

I wouldn't be shocked to see something get approved in the next CBA though. Maybe it's a tube of MLB brand sun screen that is sealed at the start of the game and never leaves the playing field - sits there beside the rosin bag.

[RobinThicc]

This subject is a bit more nuanced than I realised at first glance. If the issue pitchers have is not differentiating between spider tack and sunscreen and rosin than I sympathize with them. This is something that pitchers have been using for decades and if the hitters don't have a problem with it I don't see why fans should.

 

Apparently the umps said it would be too complicated to check for sunscreen and rosin if it was still allowed.

 

Pretty much it would be easier to check if something is there or not, rather than check if there is a certain something there or not. So the league decided to get rid of everything.