Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has expressed concern that one of his star pitchers, Trevor Bauer, has been singled out in the Major League Baseball’s renewed effort to curb the illegal use of drugs on baseball.
Bauer’s name appears in a recent report from The Athletic and says that several baseballs from his Wednesday outing against the Oakland Athletics were collected for inspection after they were visible and that they were visible. Bauer complained about the report via his Twitter account and criticized MLB for leaking information about “a suspected confidential process”.
“My understanding is that referees are collecting baseballs from all the pitchers and balls that were in play to collect monsters,” Roberts said Friday morning in front of his team’s home opener. “That’s kind of what I get out of it. I just hope our player is not singled out. That’s the one thing I want to guard against.”
MLB, which has been trying for the past year to get hold of the jugs that use foreign substances in an effort to maximize spider webs and generate more swings and dung, issued a memorandum to teams on March 21 in which three new policing methods have been set out.
This included having two employees – a day compliance monitor and an electronic compliance officer – at each bar who were partly responsible for identifying offenses with foreign substances. The league also said it would review Statcast data to determine worrying increases in the turning point, and that it would instruct staff on the field, including referees and verifiers, ‘balls out of play’ to the Commissioner’s submit office for further inspection and documentation. “
“They will prioritize baseballs that contain potential evidence of a foreign substance,” the memo reads, “but will also randomly select balls to ensure complete coverage.”
Some of the balls will be outsourced to a lab for further investigation, but sources told ESPN that the league will spend the 2021 season mostly in information gathering mode and that several season balls from multiple jars were collected in each game. Up to that point, Bauer is currently not being penalized by the league. But findings from the baseballs inspected can be used as supporting evidence for punishment on the road.
Bauer publicly criticized the league’s original memo and posted a 23-minute video on YouTube questioning MLB’s intent, saying foreign substances should be standardized and that the pitcher should be disciplined for substances on baseballs that collected during games.
“If I cast a pitch and it is thrown out and tested, and then has a foreign substance on it, how do they know that it comes from me and not from the glove of the catcher or the glove of the third glove or of a not a dirty ball? ” Said Bauer in his video. ‘What if it happened to hit the handle of a bat where a hit was teeming, or any other substance he wanted – which is perfectly legal, as long as it does not go too far in the bat? How are they going to tell this? that it was me and made me guilty of using a foreign substance if it could come from a number of other legal places? ‘
For years, Bauer has been by far the most outspoken athlete when it comes to the need for MLB to correct the issue that pitchers use substances such as pine tar and sunscreen, to get baseballs better and create more spin, a direct violation of a rule – 6.02 – it has never been strictly enforced. More recently, however, there have been speculations about Bauer as a potential offender, given the increase in the turning point of his four-seam-fast ball during his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2020.
MLB took its first step in policing the case last year by preventing coaches, coaches and clubhouse goers from making available or administering foreign drugs to pitchers, a new regulation that led to the controversial dismissal of the former Los Angeles Angels clubhouse guard Brian Harkins.
These sources are, according to MLB’s primary aim, to gather information on the issue and also punish the more serious offenders. Eventually, the league hopes to replace the traditional mud used to fold baseballs with a tougher fabric that will prevent pitchers from using other means to get a better grip on a ball that often feels too chalky. If the league succeeds – a pursuit that is very much throughout the industry – he hopes to police Rule 6.02 as it is written. Until then, however, that will not necessarily be the case.
Pitchers may technically only use the raisin on the back of the hill, but the vast majority of the pitchers apparently use other substances with different degrees of stick. In recent years, there has also been talk of teams creating their own substances to distribute to their pitchers.
Roberts, however, believes Bauer is singled out.
Why?
“I do not know,” Roberts said. “It’s the only name I’ve heard floating around.”