Major League Baseball announced new rules and punishments on Tuesday for any player caught using foreign substances to manipulate the baseball. An automatic ejection and 10-game paid suspension were among the punishments, and umpires will frequently check pitchers for “sticky” substances.
This crackdown stemmed from the massive increase we’ve seen in spin rate the past couple seasons, and even in the time that teams received a heads up about the new rules, spin rates have declined a bit.
The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer is among the players seeing his spin rate affected by the new rules, and, well, it’s safe to say that he isn’t happy with how the league has handled this rule implementation. (Strong language)
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
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2021
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 bullshit @mlb. All you care about is the bottom line of the business, and public perception negatively affecting it.
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) June 15, 2021
In a Twitter thread about Tyler Glasnow’s comments on his UCL injury on Tuesday, Bauer lashed out at MLB for a “knee jerk reaction to shifting public perception.”
He claimed that MLB lied to the players about rule changes for this season and had serious issues with the league’s decision to enact those rules two-plus months into the season.
It is important to note again that Bauer had seen increases in spin rate this season and last season. But after the crackdown, he was down 200 rpm on his four-seam fastball on Saturday compared to last season’s average. His other pitches also saw 100-plus rpm decreases, according to Baseball Savant.
trevor bauer rpm without gorilla glue pic.twitter.com/aRShLCtxKe
— Eric (@eriiclindberg) June 13, 2021
So while he does make some fair points about MLB’s handling of the situation, the numbers don’t exactly help his cause.
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