While many in the baseball community are discussing cheating in the eyes of the Astros sign-stealing scandal, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer wants to discuss a different type of cheating that's rampant in MLB.
Bauer, appearing on HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel," explained his frustrations with how pitchers are using pine tar. This is a subject Bauer has discussed in the past, and it's something he spoke with Sporting News about in 2018. Speaking to HBO, Bauer says he believes about 70 percent of pitchers are cheating.
This is a number he's used before, most recently in an article for The Players' Tribune.
"But eight years later, I haven’t found any other way [to increase the spin on my fastball] except using foreign substances," Bauer wrote. "Baseball will never address that problem unless it has to, though, because I would guess 70 percent of the pitchers in the league use some sort of technically illegal substance on the ball. It’s just that some organizations really know how to weaponize that and some don’t. So the Astros are super advanced analytically and they know how to weaponize it."
Bauer echoed those sentiments to HBO in Tuesday night's episode of "Real Sports."
"It needs to be talked about more because it affects every single pitch. And it's a bigger advantage than steroids ever were," Bauer says. “Because if you know how to manipulate it, you can make the ball do drastically different things from pitch to pitch at the same velocity."
Pitchers using pine tar isn't exactly a secret. As Bauer points out in this HBO piece, opposing managers won't call it out because their pitchers are likely doing the same thing. Some batters have even said in the past they don't mind pitchers using pine tar because it gives them better control of the ball, meaning less hit-by-pitches.
MLB rules deem pine tar illegal; Section 6.02(c)(4) of the rulebook states: "The pitcher shall not apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball." Section 6.02(c)(7) adds, "The pitcher shall not have on his person, or in his possession, any foreign substance."
Yet, even when a pitcher gets blatantly caught using a substance, typically, nothing is done about it. Bauer says pitchers can sneak these substances in by putting it in their glove, hat or inside their belt buckle.
But the point Bauer is making is that pitchers can use these substances to add extreme spin to their balls. There's using pine tar for better control of your pitches, and then there's using pine tar (or other illegal substances) to enhance your pitching. Bauer says he doesn't use these substances because he has "morals," according to HBO.
In 2018, some speculated that Bauer may have used pine tar in a single inning to prove that using pine tar helps pitchers with spin rate. In the first inning of his start vs. the Rangers on April 30, 2018, Bauer's spin rate jumped by about 300 rpm — the same number that Bauer said spin rate can raise to when using a sticky substance. Bauer's spin rate lowered back to his average after the first inning.
In addition to all of the foreign-substance talk, Bauer spoke about his career in general. He said he's good at two things: pitching, and pissing people off.
"I've had coaches along the way that actively go out of their way to make sure that I don't succeed," Bauer says. "They don't like me."
Bauer has a unique way of training because he believes that's what works best for him. When coaches tell hiim to use more traditional methods such as icing your shoulder after a start, or run a mile for conditioning, Bauer says no, because he feels it's a waste of time.
"Ice your arm, after a start, pitchers will put the ice bag on their elbow and their shoulder. Makes no sense," Bauer says. "It makes a lot more sense to do isometric activity, movement based recovery than to just put your arm in ice. I just won't do it."
