“Sticky Stuff” Pervasive!

As I posted in the general non-Phillies thread:

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June 5: Major League Baseball is working quickly to finalize and implement the plan to address the use of foreign substances by pitchers throughout the game, per ESPN’s Buster Olney. The new plan will require umpires to check for foreign substances during games, including random searches. The league hopes to put the plan in action “within the next 10 days to two weeks.”

another way to slow down the game?

An article in today's LA Times showing Dave Roberts attempting to act like he doesn't know that the Dodgers have been messing around for several years with this stuff. Their spin rates have been off of the charts compared with other MLB clubs. Kind of interesting that the club that barked the loudest about Houston's trash can bashing is twisting the game their way in a different manner.

The Dodgers look to have been caught in the spin rate scandal. However Dave Roberts has interesting ways of trying to wiggle out of any responsibility in this mess. Despite Roberts' attitude on the subject, it is as big of a deal as the Astros' trash can bashing. It attacks the integrity of the game.

This is a lot more like PEDs than the trash can, because every team is doing it (every team was also stealing signs, including the Phillies, but not all to the same extent).

Considering Bauer was with the Reds and our new pitching coach last year and the Reds are the #2 team mentioned in the SI article after the Dodgers, I wouldn't necessarily expect the Phillies to come out of this unscathed if there's a true crackdown. How's our spin rate data compared to last year?

I went over to baseball savant to look.. and i might be confused.. but it looks like Ranger Suarez and Hector Neris are #2 and #3 in WORST spin rate. Wheeler ranks 185 and that appears to be our #1. Nola 401.

Im just not sure im looking at the chart right.. I assumed I was because Bauer is #3. But DeGrom is in the 140s.

Heres the link to the chart if anyone wants to check to see if I am looking at the right thing:

yeah I couldn't quite navigate the interface.

spin rate or not I would have to say that if they are cheating, they aren't doing it well enough! (like, Bradley was in Cincinnati last year and would be an obvious candidate to compensate for decline in velocity that way. And obviously our failed 4 & 5 starters weren't throwing unhittable pitches).

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.”

What Ive heard and that makes sense.. is that when the baseball changed (and started flying out of the park in record numbers) one of the changes was that the stiches became tighter. And this made the baseball harder to grip. And thats when the sticky stuff started. I think the increased spin rate was a unexpected side effect of pitchers just looking to be able to grip the ball the way they used to.

Gerrit Cole on if he ever used Spider Tack while pitching:

"I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest...If MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that's a conversation that we can have" pic.twitter.com/2fR1AUeOQX

— Yankees Videos ( @snyyankees ) June 8, 2021

“ One suggested sticky stuff might be good, as it could protect hitters...something like it's hot and pitchers are sweaty and the sticky stuff helps them maintain their grip. I'm not currently buying that argument.”
It also can help pitchers grip the ball when they throw as hard as they can. It works until it doesn’t and someone like Harper gets hit in the face by an overthrowing stiff. This season there have been too many pitchers cutting loose with pitches that they can’t control.

It is super important to note, and I think has been severely undercovered, that teams directly encourage it by unofficially providing substances that enhance spin as well as judging performance (to at least some degree) by spin. The players are under pressure to do this. https://t.co/sWv7SpzxqP

— Rob Arthur ( @No_Little_Plans ) June 9, 2021

from the piece: "Several of the pitchers who spoke to SI said their teams had encouraged them to use foreign substances to make their pitches spin faster. Some clubs make their preferred formula available to players. At least two have employed chemists, according to one pitcher."

— Rob Arthur ( @No_Little_Plans ) June 9, 2021

Unfortunately, teams that don't cheat rarely win. That is on the Commissioner.