MLB had its first unintended consequence/victim of their crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances to increase their grip and movement on baseballs when Tampa Bay Rays star Tyler Glasnow went down to a partially torn UCL. And though Glasnow himself said that he wasn't blaming his injury on MLB and the leagues desire to reduce the use of these substances, he did take issue to how suddenly it was implemented and, subsequently, how abruptly he had to change his pitching style.
"I'm not trying to blame anyone, I'm not trying to say like, oh, this is MLB's fault," Glasnow said. "They got thrown into this situation, too, they're doing the best they possibly can to navigate around this. They're trying to make this fair for people, I understand that.
"...Whether you want us to not use sticky stuff or not is fine. Fine, do it in the offseason, give us a chance to adjust to it. But I just threw 80-something, 70-whatever innings, and then you just told me I can't use anything in the middle of the year. I had to change everything I've been doing the entire season. Everything, out of the window, I have to start doing something completely new."
Related
And this, too, seems to be what is irking fellow starter Trevor Bauer about the rule change. He went on a similarly lengthy rant, albeit one through text on social media, and explained his frustration with the league. And he wasn't as kind, let's say, as Glasnow was.
"To be clear, the memo is fine long term, and it will serve to level the playing field. That is a good thing," Bauer continued. "But to implement it mid season when for 3 months you’ve promised players and teams that nothing about your chosen enforcement of the rules would change this year and actively encouraged players to continue playing how that have in the past, that’s a lie.
"There’s no integrity in that. So save it with the competitive integrity bullsh-- @mlb. All you care about is the bottom line of the business, and public perception negatively affecting it.
"While we're at it, @mlb please tell us how umpires who have never been trained to know what a 'sticky' substance is or isn't are supposed to automatically enforce that uniformly? What is the standard for what is 'sticky' and what's not? Might want to clarify that, ya know, for the 'competitive integrity' of the game. It would be really unfair to have one crew think sticky is one thing and another crew to think it's another thing. Rules are supposed to be uniformly enforced right? Almost like you should've used an off season to define that."
Interestingly enough, Bauer likes the memo in the long term, as he explains above, but the somewhat sudden implementation of these new rules seems to have caught him off guard. NBC Sports Edge host Matt Williams, among others, had similar thoughts.
This isn't going to be an easy process for MLB — what has been, recently? — and we're already ironing out the issues now. But overall, getting rid of unfair advantages ultimately seems to be what's best for the integrity of our national pastime, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram