The MLB handed down a couple of eight-game suspensions within the past week to Milwaukee Brewers' reliever Will Smith and Baltimore Orioles' reliever Brian Matusz for using foreign substances to improve their grip on the baseball. Does the league need to adjust this policy?
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell think so.
The two veteran managers are familiar with such situations. Girardi witnessed starter Michael Pineda get banned for 10 games last season after he was using pine tar (an illegal substance) on the ball while he was pitching. In 2013 Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz was accused of "doctoring" the baseball and later admitted he used rosin (a legal substance) to improve his grip.
Smith was allegedly using a mixture of pine tar and sunscreen while Matusz allegedly applied a "sticky substance." The two plan to appeal their suspensions.
It's no secret that it can be difficult for pitchers to grasp a baseball on some nights. After all, brand new baseballs are coated with a slippery gloss and pitchers must deal with using new balls multiple times during an at-bat. Prior to game, clubhouse attendants are required to rub eight dozen balls with a special mud to remove the gloss, but even that isn't enough sometimes.
"The expectation is that the umpires rub up baseballs with mud before each game, to roughen the smooth surface and give pitchers a better chance to grip and control the ball," writes ESPN Insider Buster Olney. "But the reality, club staffers say, is that more often than not, a clubhouse attendant is left the task of rubbing up the baseballs. 'Some do it better than others,' said one staff member. 'But some [clubhouse attendants] don't know anything about how to do it. You might get a clubhouse kid who's never done it before.'"
Take former MLB pitcher Dallas Braden's firsthand recollection regarding the issue. He remembers his days on the mound when he would use just about every advantage to get the best possible grip on the ball. Check out what he has to say by clicking here.
Sure, some pitchers may abuse it and view a substance's usage as a competitive advantage, but most are simply looking to get a better grip for control purposes.
Pitchers grip the baseball differently almost every time the ball is in their hands. There are many complex grips, including ones for split-finger fastballs, some curveballs and some changeups - not to mention knuckleballs and other lesser-known pitches. MLB pitchers have previously said it's tough to grip the ball when the weather is cold, dry or windy, and that's not factoring in a poorly rubbed ball.
In fact, Girardi and Farrell don't believe batters would have a problem with an approved substance that helps pitchers better hold on to the baseball. It might even make them more comfortable.
"I think a hitter wants to know that a pitcher knows where the ball is going and that it's not slippery," Girardi said, via the Bergen County Record. "If [umpires] want to check pitchers before they go out, make sure there's nothing on them, go ahead. You don't want to get in a situation where you're having players suspended for eight games."
"I would like to see an approved substance that pitchers can use," Farrell told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. "Because when we take a manufactured baseball and rub it with dirt, it's going to create a slippery feeling to it. The mud residue leaves a film on it that you don't necessarily feel a good, consistent grip. Unless you go to a ball like the one used in Japan where it's got a tacky feel to it. But I'd like to see something that's approved that everyone can use. I think if you poll any hitter, the hitter wants to know that the ball's got a grip. The ball's not going to get away from [the pitcher]."
Per Farrell's suggestion, Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NBP) uses Mizuno baseballs, which are said to be easier to grip because of the lower-elasticity rubber that encases the cork center.
"It breaks better, moves more advantageously for the pitcher," Hisashi Iwakuma of the Seattle Mariners (but at the time of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles) told Brad Lefton of the New York Times back in 2011. "Whether you throw a fork or a curve or a slider, the break is bigger. Even your fastball doesn't have to be perfectly straight; you can make it miss the sweet spot of the bat."
Perhaps that would be too drastic of a change for Major League Baseball, but it's possible they at least consider a different ball or at least a different mechanism to make the ball less slippery.
The MLB and MLBPA will likely sit down and address this issue, but it's unknown when. Commissioner Rob Manfred has already been tasked with a number of issues affecting the game of baseball, so this will be nothing new to him.
Because really, should the MLB be suspending Matusz and Smith (eight games) longer than Kansas City Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera (five games)? Matusz and Smith were attempting to improve their grip on the baseball while Herrera beamed Oakland Athletics' third baseman Brett Lawrie with a 99 mph fastball following a home run and then hurled a 100 mph heater behind his shoulders in retaliation for Lawrie's "dirty slide" on Herrera's teammate Alcides Escobar.
But hey, Herrera said he had a bad grip on the fastball, so who knows.
