This sticky stuff nonsense. Do these guys not get what they are doing to the game with the Constant cheating scandals? Like cut the bs already. What should be the consequence if they start catching pitchers?
It would go away if the players wanted it to, but they don't (and I mean hitters as well as pitchers, since the former like it when their own team's pitchers successfully cheat). Like virtually all athletes, they are too self-interested and short-sighted to care about concepts like "the integrity of the game." It's perfectly natural given the reward system, but it's not good for the sport involved. The fact is that, despite the recent increase of moronic fan behavior at games, it is the fans who are the true caretakers of any sport, not the athletes, and not the owners.
I don’t think the Batters want it. Within two weeks the umpires will start to be allowed to check the pitchers constantly throughout the game. That had to get the approval of the players association. So you’d think players are sick of the bs too. These guys batting average are down. There has to be a correlation. When they start checking let see what happens with these pitchers performances.
I heard something about Coles last outing how his spin rotation on his pitches was insanely slower (I guess that's how you would describe it?) than what it was earlier in the year. This came directly after the announcement that MLB will crack down on the sticky stuff.
I heard the same thing, @dawinner127 good point. The whole point of the "sticky stuff" is give pitchers enhanced spin/rotation on their pitches, which obviously adds a hell of a lot more movement to the ball as it is approaching the batter, so, theoretically, a dip in "spin" should correlate to a dip in use of the sticky stuff, and vice versa.
He’s 100% guilty. He pretty much admitted it. I don’t think deGrom has been doing it but heck you never know.
Jeez. How could he not be prepared for that question and have something ready to spit out that wasn’t so cringey?
Legit. That was such a terrible response. And the fact that he also tried to flex his Union or whatever board position he has too. What a joke. Tonight is a huge night for Cole. If his RPMs are down again tonight and he gets shelled, oh boy.
I said before that the hitters don't care about this, so this doesn't surprise me at all. Having said that, I couldn't disagree more. If pitchers couldn't use crap on the ball, ones who couldn't control their fastballs if they threw them 100 would either be out of the game or wouldn't throw 100. This is not like Joe Niekro using an emery board - this stuff totally changes the game. Ron Darling agrees with me 100%, and I'll go with his opinion.
Harvey once again bombed by the Mets - 3 IP, 7 earned runs, including home runs by Alonso and Pillar. All of the weeping and wailing about the seemingly apparent end of Harvey's career by Ron and Gary is slightly nauseating (to me, anyway). These guys are professionals, paid many millions of dollars. He is no longer an effective pitcher - he isn't dead.
This spider tacky stuff isn’t about holding on to the ball. It’s about getting a performance edge. That’s a lot different then a pitcher using rosin. Being able get a feel for the ball for control and trying to increase your spin rates is just different. I think MLB messed with the ball so more offense can be created. Now Pete is implying that MLB changes that base on the level of free agents year 2 year. that ball manipulation is so players have a bad offensive year so teams can point to a bad year as to why said players shouldn’t get high contracts. Which I’m not going down that rabbit hole with him. Michael Kay said he’s hearing how it is position players that are snitching to major-league baseball about what the pitchers are doing. With that knowledge MLB is telling umpires what they should be looking for. It would make no sense for position players not to care when they are the ones who are getting hurt by it. Also Pete seemed a bit in emphatic in the defense. Maybe it’s him being a good teammate because he may know that pitchers on the Mets staff are doing it? He is right about the ball. MLB shouldn’t have been tinkering with it in the first place.
I think the conspiracy theory Alonso is quoting is highly likely to be pure nonsense, and is clearly being pushed by people in the union who are guilty of this, like Cole. I heard Kay on the radio, and I thought he sounded like an idiot, railing about how players like Donaldson complaining about Cole are violating some sort of honor code. How about just doing what is right, not what is convenient? It makes perfect sense that hitters on the Yankees, for example, wouldn't complain when they know that the guy who is most responsible for them to have any chance to win a championship is a major perpetrator of the rule-breaking. The fact that a few hitters have finally decided to say something when it's gotten completely out of hand is hardly to their credit - by all accounts this use of goop has been going on for years, with nary a peep from any of them. There is a massive code of silence in locker rooms, just like in other highly regimented organizations (like the military and the police). Like I said before, anyone who thinks that players give a rat's ass about the integrity of the game is in my opinion sadly mistaken. There is nothing particularly wrong with that, but that's why you need a strong central authority that does care about it. Major league baseball obviously hasn't been that, but if they're going to do something now for whatever reason, I'm all for it.
