The news that MLB finally plans to take steps to police the use of super-sticky substances by some pitchers is welcome. Still, as in just about everything else MLB has done under Commissioner Rob Manfred, their plan going forward doesn't seem to be well thought out. By instituting this crackdown effort 2-1/2 months into an ongoing season, there will be unintended consequences that could have been avoided by taking these steps before the start of the season.
There's an excellent reason for attempting to rid the game of this sort of cheating by pitchers. By all accounts, the use of sticky substances is quite rampant in the game. The exaggerated spin rates that can be achieved with some of the most extreme substances used is causing pitches to break more sharply, making them more difficult to hit. With MLB offense experiencing significant slippage in recent years, it would certainly be a step in the right direction to take away this one large advantage pitchers who cheat have over hitters. Obviously, anything that would tip things back a little towards the hitter would be welcome.
This recent piece in Sports Illustrated did a terrific job of explaining why many pitchers are cheating with sticky substances and the tangible benefits derived from their use, which go deeper than just increasing spin:
...says one of the NL relievers, gluing the ball to your hand gives you more control over when and how you release it.
"I think that a good portion of the increased velocity is because guys can throw pitches at 100% all the time," he says. "They can rear back and literally throw with everything they've got and still have a reasonable amount of control because of the sticky stuff. I think if the ball feels a little slick, your mechanics have got to be a little better; you’ve got to stay within your means a little bit more."
But the biggest benefit of using sticky stuff is the way it contributes to spin. The faster a baseball spins, the more potential for movement it has... the most effective means is to produce friction, and the best way to do that is to smear gunk on the ball.
For hitters, all this suddenly acquired extra movement is catastrophic. What was an elite spin rate in 2018 is now average. The added spin means that the average four-seam fastball drops nearly two inches fewer this year than it did in '18, according to Statcast, making it appear to hitters as if it’s rising. So far in '21, facing fastballs down the middle thrown at 2,499 revolutions per minute or fewer, hitters have batted .330. Facing fastballs down the middle thrown at 2,500 rpms or more, they have batted .285. And the percentage of high-spin fastballs has increased threefold since '15.
So, while a pitcher making a drastic improvement to his spin rate is one benefit of cheating, not to be overlooked is the idea that the extra control in pitcher's hands allow them to throw the ball with maximum effort and still retain enough control to get the ball over the plate. There are probably a number of hard-throwing pitchers in the Major Leagues who owe their success to the use of substances. And I certainly agree with the worthiness of the effort to eliminate this artificial boost to pitchers' effectiveness. However, the problem in doing this in the midst of an ongoing season is what happens when we take this boost to the control of some of these pitchers.
If a hard-throwing reliever has built his career on being able to throw with max effort and still retain control, what happens when they take the sticky stuff away from him and he's still trying to throw his fastball as hard as possible? I still remember the horror that I felt when Kevin Pillar was struck in the head by an errant 94.5 mph fastball. I'm worried that I will see this happen more often once the crackdown gets into full swing.
1 comment:
Wear a full helmet up there.
Post a Comment