A report from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) has stated that Major League Baseball has started their new crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances with the least surprising name, Trevor Bauer. Rosenthal reported that umpires in Bauer’s last start took multiple balls out of the game that were flagged. The balls reportedly had a sticky substance on them and are to be inspected further.
If this is not being petty I do not know what is. Bauer has previously stated on multiple occasions in regards to pitchers using foreign substances to increase their spin rate and effectively improve their performance. Well, MLB decided that they were going to use some questionable methods in order to police this matter and they decided to start with Bauer.
The problem is that does not seem to be a universal standard for this rule. Major League Baseball appears to be specifically targeting Trevor Bauer after he raked them over the coals multiple times for their lack of action.
Here’s the deal, if you believe that only one or two pitchers use foreign substances you probably believe Santa Claus is real too. In fact, use of foreign substances is not limited to just pitchers. Catchers, shortstops, second basemen, they use something to improve their grip that can make the difference between an out or a runner reaching base.
If MLB really wants to police this situation, do it across the board. Do not pick and choose which players to enforce this on while ignoring others who also violate the rule. The fact that Trevor Bauer was flagged by this rule first is hardly a surprise. MLB could have at least waited for one or two others to violate the rule before going after Bauer if they wanted to pretend that he was not a specific target. Although, that would mean that their methods were thought out and ideas fully formed, two things that are not synonymous with Major League Baseball.
At the end of the day this just seems to be another botched process by an organization that seems to be very mistake prone. Just like so many times in the past, MLB is in damage control mode due to an error in their own judgment.
