Trevor Bauer summons media, MLB inspected for sticky matter for baseball story

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer tried to get the media and MLB to focus on Thursday, as Bauer’s debut against the A’s on Wednesday sent some balls to the MLB to check for adhesives.

Bauer responded by tweeting A Story by Athletic Said that after being cautious the umpires collected several balls from the game which contained sticky substances. The athletic report did not specify who warned the umpires. It noted that MLB has given monitors to each team to investigate potential fraud.

Bauer called reporters “gossip bloggers” and blasted MLB for leaking information. He also noted, as The Athletic said, that umpires are sending balls from other sports to the league office as it attempts to enforce rules prohibiting the application of foreign substances.

Bauer has been alleging for years that pitchers increase the spin rate on their fastballs by using tar or other tackles, thus making the pitch more effective. In April 2018, he appeared accusing the Astro pitcher of using pine tar. He told Sporting News in May 2018 that he was not singing to any organization, but was criticizing the MLB and the people in baseball for ignoring the rules.

SN Q&A: Bauer on pine tar, spin rates and more in 2018

“It’s not something that (MLB wants) to address. It’s not something they want public. It’s part of why such a backlash has been made public on me,” he said. said. “Nobody wants to talk about it, but it needs to be talked about, especially when teams use more and more of this information to evaluate players and sign players and stuff like that. Are. It creates a largely inappropriate playground. “

Bauer told SN that he, his father, and staff at Driveline Baseball had been testing the relationship between viability and spin rate for years while training offshore.

He used a foreign substance for the innings to be started for Indians on April 30, 2018. His fastball’s spin rate increased to about 300 rpm in that innings, which Boer believes is the case when a pitcher uses pine tar or other viscous materials. He would not say whether he used foreign substances in the game.

In February 2020, he told HBO’s “Real Sports” that about 70 percent of MLB pitchers put some sticky on the ball. “It needs to be talked about more because it affects every single pitch. And it’s a bigger benefit than steroids,” Bauer said. “Because if you know how to manipulate it, you can do quite different things from pitch to pitch at the same speed to the ball.”

Bauer has not been the only one in the baseball complaint, though. There was noise about the fact that MLB announced last March that it would inspect the game balls more closely for foreign substances.

Bauer immediately suspected MLB’s plans. He said 25 March on Youtube That pitcher may be penalized for the use of foreign substances when the source may actually be fielders’ gloves or hitter bats.

“My question is: if I throw a pitch and it is thrown out (to play) and tested and then there is a foreign substance on it, how will they know that it has come to me and Isn’t the glove from the catcher’s gloves or from the third baseman? “He asked. “Or on the foul ball, what if it happened to hit the handle of a bat where a hitter has a pine tar or whatever other substance he wants, which is completely legal, as long as it’s a bat Don’t go too far? How? ” Are they going to state that I and I were at fault for using foreign matter, when it could have come from any host of other places?

He also questioned the effectiveness of MLB’s plans to analyze historical statecast spin rate data and examine key points in a game. He said pitchers can manipulate spin rates to avoid scrutiny, and added that they use sticky materials all the time or at any time.

He saw very little chance of the pitcher being punished.

“My prediction: Nothing changes. You’re not going to see anyone getting expelled or fined or suspended or something like that. Maybe some people try to send a message in really horrific cases, but my The prediction, (MLB) is in keeping with the public perception that ‘Hey, we’re solving this issue’ when they don’t really care to resolve it unilaterally or for competitive integrity reasons, “he said.

“Now they care about putting more balls into playing it and solving it to make the game more interesting or whatever the case is. But I don’t think they really care about competitive integrity,” he said.