More from Gammons
But never has it been as widespread, as consistent, as institutionalized, as explained in this superb piece here on The Athletic by Eno Sarris in which an experienced pitching coach stated that “almost everyone is using something.”
Last week, I had all nine pitching coaches I talked with say virtually the same thing: “The word to underline in this is something,” said one experienced coach. “The clubhouse guy in Anaheim may have had one recipe for a grip substance, but I’d guess there are about two hundred different recipes being used around the game right now. That’s one of the reasons it’s going to be so difficult to detect and break down.”
(The Sarris piece was last November)
Also worth noting, the subtle potshot at Driveline
The power/spin rate era, then, comes back to what one scouting director whose specialty has been pitching calls “the Driveline Bazooka method of pitching. The sell, especially with the proliferation of the showcases, is velocity, velocity, velocity, not pitching.” In fact, one current pitching coach says, “I think this will change, probably soon. I’m not sure this obsession with spin rates won’t end up hurting a lot of arms, as they try to pronate to get the spin. I had one pitcher who hurt his arm because he worried too much about his spin rate.”
“I think we’re going to see a turn away from this concept,” says one pitching coach. “First, there are too many young pitchers who are blowing out their arms. The second is that we can’t continue to survive with pitchers throwing four or five innings a start.”
