The BASEBALL itself is the real issue for me. Between the grip issue and the league changing the composition of the ball itself this winter, players said they hope to have more input in the future.Įnforcement combined with a new universal substance sure seems like the best approach, but MLB is only going halfway. While MLB has explored creating such a product, it has yet to formulate one that serves as a grip enhancer while not being a performance enhancer. Multiple players said they were hopeful that MLB would differentiate among the substances and buy time before the potential issuance of a legal, universal substance pitchers can use for grip. I’m good with eradicating the worst substances from the game – the ones that jack up spin rates 200+ RPMs – but I was assuming that the old tried and true sunscreen+rosin was gonna be fine.Īgain, I know, I know, you just have to adjust and deal with it, but I don’t want to see a bunch of batters hit during the adjustment process or in the future. Might’ve been partly related to the misting at the park, but we know that pitchers are trying to adjust to what’s coming. And I tell you, I see a night like last night, where virtually every Cubs pitcher’s spin rate was waaaaay down, and all of them were badly losing pitches to the arm side … it just feels like there were serious grip issues, which led to control issues, which is concerning for reasons that do go beyond performance. But I just see the comments from so many pitchers (and some hitters!) that the baseballs are sufficiently inconsistent in their level of tack that it’s unreasonable to expect pitchers not to want to improve their grip on the mound, just to be able to safely pitch. And maybe that’s right, and maybe I’ve been duped by Big Sunscreen. I know what the response will be: anything that helps you grip better is still cheating because you could just throw a little softer and you wouldn’t have to worry about losing your grip. And according to Passan, even that could get you busted. But the problem for pitchers is that something like clear, spray-on sunscreen (mixed with rosin) has been used for years and years as a legit grip assist, rather than an attempt to increase spin. The problem for umpires, understandably, would be trying to wade into the gray area of “how much is too much, when is a little of this substance OK, but that substance is never OK, and can I tell for sure if this is a substance or not,” etc.
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