WASHINGTON -- Major League Baseball’s sticky situation has quickly escalated this month, especially this past week after Rob Manfred's office sent a memo saying it would be cracking down next week on pitchers who put foreign substances on balls.
The pitchers are the ones under the most scrutiny right now, but they aren’t taking all the blame.
“I feel like this is just a problem that was created by Manfred by changing the ball every year,” Tyler Anderson said after his start Tuesday night. “Pitching has been missing barrels for a long time. When they start putting in balls that fly and guys have to figure out how to miss barrels, all of a sudden instead of missing barrels, they have to try and miss bats, to try and fight.”
It wasn’t just Anderson this week. Tyler Glasnow blamed his UCL tear this week for not being able to use sunscreen to better grip the ball. Max Scherzer said “we don’t want to see balls flying at our heads,” citing fears that less grip could lead more erratic pitches. Recently retired veteran Jerry Blevins explained he used sunscreen for the grip. According to research conducted by The Score, sunscreen has a minimal effect on spin rate.
That is important to remember in baseball’s latest scandal. Not everyone who was using these substances was doing it for extra spin. Some were just trying to get a grip on the baseball that rosin alone can’t provide.
That's especially true with the baseballs currently in use by MLB. If baseballs are anything, they are consistently inconsistent, and not just in terms of if they are juiced or not, as Anderson referenced.
“Guys are just continuing to hunt for some consistency and feel for the ball,” the Pirates' bullpen coach, Justin Meccage, told me this week in D.C. “I think that’s what all the pitchers want, just some consistency of the ball so they can feel normal.”
Last weekend, Chad Kuhl compared the baseballs to “pearls,” saying he couldn’t get a grip. The Brewers weren’t as vocal, but the usually reliable Corbin Burnes was wild the same day as Kuhl. Asking about it in Washington, the belief among Pirates players and coaches is the balls weren’t rubbed up for that series. It wasn’t the first time a Pirates pitcher complained about the ball. That had happened behind the scenes instead of over Zoom.
Rubbing up the baseball sounds like something that would be fairly uniform across the league. After all, MLB has used more strict guidelines to store the balls starting in 2018, laying out humidity and temperature parameters. Getting the ball to the stadium is mostly the same for every team.
Actually preparing the baseball changes from team to team. It’s common for a pitcher to do a pregame bullpen session or get warm in the bullpen with one type of baseball, then get to mound on the field and the ball feels different than what he had prepared with all day. I was told there have been times where the bag of balls provided for bullpens had the dirt at the bottom of the bag because they hadn’t been rubbed up for so long and just sat dormant.
“You go to this place or that place and they rub them up a certain way,” Meccage said. “You go home, they’re rubbed up a certain way. You go some places, they’re not rubbed up at all. That’s what players get frustrated the most about. That’s probably what got some of the stuff that’s in the game, in the game, because of the inconsistency of the ball on the mound.”
Meccage is hopeful that once pitchers adjust to MLB’s new rules, they will actually have better control and use all quadrants of the zone more. You know, do more actual pitching.
But as MLB navigates this issue -- which will probably lead to some sort of compromise -- getting a consistent feel for the baseball would go a long way.
MORE PIRATES
• The Pirates had an off-day Thursday and have another one coming up Monday. They better make those count, because they do not have another scheduled off-day until the All-Star break. This upcoming stretch of 20-straight games is their longest scheduled stretch this year. Barring a rainout, it will be the first time they’ve played 20 games in 20 days since Aug. 11-30, 2015. That’s going to put more pressure on the bullpen, especially since the Pirates rank 28th in innings pitched from starters at 319 1/3. They’re only ahead of the Orioles (311 1/3) and the Mets (301 2/3), who have played six fewer games. Meccage thinks the bullpen’s depth is going to be a key factor in these upcoming three weeks, not just in terms of quality, but that they have multiple pitchers who could fill multiple roles. That could be beyond late-inning use or going multiple innings. The Pirates also do a good job making sure when a pitcher starts getting warmed up, they usually don’t waste the effort. In Derek Shelton's time as manager, Meccage said there hasn’t been a time where a pitcher got warm twice and they didn’t enter the game. “That's what hurts relievers, the up-down, up-down on a consistent basis without pitching,” Meccage said. “I think that’s where relievers get abused, when you just see the game usage and not this type of usage.” -- Stumpf
• Since we’re nearing the trade deadline rumor season, this is a reminder you’ll probably see the names of players such as Bryan Reynolds and Jacob Stallings pop up in the not-so-distant future. June is traditionally the month where teams swap information and get a feel of what areas they’d like to address, not when there are serious discussions. So if a team needs outfield help, of course they’d want someone such as Reynolds – a player who is cheap, under team control for four more years and is having a great season. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to happen, because that player will have an astronomical trade value. It’s why a player such as Chris Archer was constantly on the trade block before he eventually came to the Pirates. Through all those years of rumors, nothing came close until the Pirates sold the farm for him in 2018. The guys who are most likely to be traded are the ones you would expect: Adam Frazier, Richard Rodriguez and Anderson. -- Stumpf
• The Pirates' list of candidates for the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft next month is known to have been pared to four, as we reported in this feature a week ago, and that isn't expected to change for at least a couple more weeks. I've been told that Ben Cherington, Steve Sanders and the amateur scouting staff will convene near the start of July for what promises to be the standard spirited discussion about that choice, as well as any broader approach to take toward the draft. One thing that can't be ruled out -- though I know for a fact it's far from the preferred option -- is the team taking a path that allows for better spread of their draft cap in lower rounds. That'd only occur if the player selected is someone who might be seen by others -- but not by them -- as a reach. We'll see. Again, nothing's set yet. -- Dejan Kovacevic
STEELERS
• The Steelers have submitted their plan to the NFL to hold training camp at Saint Vincent College. But as of yet, they haven't heard back as to whether it will be approved or not. "I had an expectation," Mike Tomlin said when I asked him if he thought the league would have told the team by now. "I thought I would know by now. We don’t always get what we want, as we know, when we are dealing with policy and global decision making and things of that nature. I had hoped to get some clarity prior to now, but I haven’t." The Cowboys, who play the Steelers in the Hall of Fame Game, earlier this week got the OK to return to Oxnard, Calif., for their yearly split camp. You'd think since the Cowboys and Steelers go to camp first because of their Hall of Fame game participation, they would have been given approval at the same time. Only the league knows what the holdup might be at this point. But the Steelers need to know sooner rather than later if they'll be headed out Route 30 for camp or if they'll be forced to do it at Heinz Field again this year. There is, after all, planning involved. -- Dale Lolley at Heinz Field
• There's no doubt Steelers rookie punter Pressley Harvin has a strong leg. He led the NCAA in punting average in 2020. But that won't be the only thing he's asked to do to make the Steelers' roster. Harvin has been working on his holding on field goals and PATs, something he didn't do a lot of at Georgia Tech. "They had a situation at Georgia Tech that they used two kickers," Steelers special teams coordinator Danny Smith said this week. "It was much like a pitcher and a catcher, one had a holder that he liked and the other one had a holder that he liked, so you could call it part-time holding. When his guy kicked, he held. When the other guy kicked, the other guy held. So yes, he has experience holding. Yes, he's quite capable. Yes, he has a lot to learn to perfect it." Placekicker Chris Boswell didn't join the Steelers at OTAs until last week, but has obviously been at the team's mandatory minicamp. That's often an overlooked part of winning a punting job, but Harvin should be OK. As the Steelers showed last year, they're not afraid to move on from Jordan Berry, even if it didn't work out last season. -- Lolley
• If there was any question as to whether the league's new COVID rules would have an effect on players getting vaccinated before training camp, Dwayne Haskins' statement this week on getting the shot should help clear some of that up. "The rules are the rules. That’s the NFL’s business," Haskins said. "I wasn’t the biggest fan of the vaccine at first. But I’ve gotten it. I’ve been able to be around my teammates. We’ve been able to be around each other without social distancing and other things like that. The biggest thing is to do what’s best for each other and what’s best for the team." Part of Haskins' issue in Washington was him flouting the COVID rules. But if you're a player who isn't guaranteed a roster spot come training camp time, you're getting the shot. You don't want to give a team another reason to move on from you. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• Ron Hextall and the Penguins' amateur scouts have been meeting this week, discussing the merits and minuses of the prospects who will be available in the draft, which is scheduled for July 23-24, and putting together their rankings of those players. Those sessions also have given the scouts and opportunity to get to know Hextall, who has been on the job for a bit more than four months. Assistant GM Patrik Allvin noted recently that other members of the staff still are learning precisely how Hextall wants things to operate, something that undoubtedly was impeded by pandemic-related restrictions on travel and gatherings. "I think Ron definitely has a different approach in how he wants to do things, compared to Jim (Rutherford)," Allvin said. "I anticipate that we'll sit down as a staff this summer and go through how he wants it to be run here moving forward. In general, Ron is coming from a scouting background and really puts a lot of emphasis on details and scouting. I'm looking forward to getting to know those personalities (of Hextall and Brian Burke) even more and work together with them and learn the different perspectives that they have. Up to this point, it's been great." -- Dave Molinari
• One of Hextall's more interesting decisions this summer will be whether to engage in contract talks with Bryan Rust, who will be an unrestricted free agent in 2022. Rust, whose cap hit is $3.5 million, is versatile and a reliable offensive contributor during the regular season. But contrary to his reputation for producing in high-stakes games, he has just six goals in his past 26 playoff games (and only three of those in the past 14). If Hextall determines that a major overhaul is needed to try to get the Penguins back to being a serious Stanley Cup contender next season, it wouldn't be a surprise if he'd be willing to consider parting with Rust in a trade to fill something Hextall regards as a major hole in his lineup. Adding a significant contributor generally involves relinquishing an asset of considerable value (John Marino acquired for a sixth-round draft choice being one obvious exception), and Rust is a guy whose talents and intangibles likely would appeal to a number of other clubs. -- Molinari
• Allvin considers winger Jonathan Gruden, who was acquired in the Matt Murray trade with Ottawa last year, to be a promising under-the-radar prospect, saying that "he made the most of his first season as a pro player in Wilkes-Barre." Gruden was a fourth-round draft choice by the Senators and had six goals and eight assists in 32 games with the Penguins' top farm team. Although his size (6 foot, 172 pounds) is less than ideal, Gruden seems to have the potential to develop into a capable member of the Penguins' supporting cast someday. He is 21 and has two years left on his entry-level contract. -- Molinari
