MLB Foreign Substance for Pitching

[saevel25]

Looks like MLB is cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances to enhance their pitching. 

One pitcher blames MLB for his arm injury...

Tampa Bay Rays' Tyler Glasnow blames MLB crackdown on foreign substances for his UCL injury (espn.com)

Quote

"We had a union meeting, 36 reps were on there," Glasnow said. "And it was like, 'Does anyone have a problem with sunscreen and rosin?' No. Not a single person said there was a problem with it. Hitters said go ahead and use it."....

He added: "To be clear, the memo is fine long term, and it will serve to level the playing field. That is a good thing. But to implement it mid season when for 3 months you've promised players and teams that nothing about your chosen enforcement of the rules would change this year and actively encouraged players to continue playing how that have in the past, that's a lie. There's no integrity in that. So save it with the competitive integrity bulls--- ..."

 

[boogielicious]

On 6/16/2021 at 9:24 AM, saevel25 said:

Looks like MLB is cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances to enhance their pitching. 

One pitcher blames MLB for his arm injury...

Tampa Bay Rays' Tyler Glasnow blames MLB crackdown on foreign substances for his UCL injury (espn.com)

 

I just read about this. Weird that they waited until June.

[saevel25]

1 minute ago, boogielicious said:

I just read about this. Weird that they waited until June.

I think it is pressure from the media really. 

Honestly, I don't care about the use of resin (which is allowed), and sunscreen (which is a no brainer to wear for baseball). If it gets mixed together, so what. 

 

[mcanadiens]

4 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I just read about this. Weird that they waited until June.

Those guys just looked up the fact that the average batting average so far this year is an embarrassing .238.

Edited June 17, 2021 by mcanadiens

[saevel25]

Run per game is still above the 70's and 80's... 

 

Hits are down, Walks are pretty stable statistic. 

Strikeouts per game have been going up since 1980....

To me, strikeouts rising up accounts for only a part of the BA issue...

1. There might not be as good as players since baseball has declined as a popular sport. 
2. The shift implemented around 2006 has taken pull hitters out of play.

Here is a graph of strike outs as % of plate appearances and hits as a % of plate appearances. There is a trend, but hits have not gone down equally as strike outs has increased. Hits % has done down about 3% while strike outs have increased by 8% since 2005-ish. 

If you want BA to go back up. Do limit the substances used, but it would be unreasonable to take away rosin and the use of sunscreen. Also, get rid of this shift. The rule should be, you can't have more than 2 non-catcher non-pitcher players to the left or right of 2nd base before the ball is hit. You can have more than 2 outfielders as well. You can't have more than 4 players on one half of the field before the ball is hit. 

[TL308]

Good pitching will typically win over good hitting.  That being said, There should be some kind of crack down with foreign substances used by some pitchers.  I've seen everything from vaseline, sand paper, and files.