In a recent interview with The Athletic, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred expressed satisfaction with the league's new and controversial crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances, arguing that the first two days of inspections went "really well."
But some pitchers are decrying MLB's implementation of sticky stuff checks, and Zach Gelb understands why.
"Pitchers are looking right now at Rob Manfred and they're saying, 'You're making a big deal out of this when it really doesn't really need to be made a big deal in the middle of the season,'" Gelb said during Wednesday's edition of The Zach Gelb Show. "It's one thing if you said before the season, 'We're trying to eliminate this, this is what's going to happen if you get caught.' It's another thing if you wait until after the season. To make such a big-time push and a big-time change in the middle of the season? It makes no sense.
"This though, is the definition of Rob Manfred's tenure -- or let me call him by his proper name, Clown Manfred's tenure. He was embarrassing with the pandemic, getting baseball back. He couldn't even speak when he was handing out that 'piece of metal' -- his words, not mine. He was horrible in that postgame presentation. And now, he's making a joke and mockery of the game with this farce...
"I can't stand this incompetent commissioner. He makes Gary Bettman and Roger Goodell look like they're the greatest commissioners of all time. And this is Clown Manfred. He isn't a leader. He doesn't have a backbone. And he takes little things and makes them into bigger issues than what they need to be. That's what we currently have right now with Major League Baseball. This is a circus, this is a joke."
Under MLB's new guidelines, any player caught in possession of foreign substances will be automatically ejected and suspended for 10 games. Starting pitchers will undergo at least one mandatory check per game, and relievers must be checked either at the end of the inning when they enter the game or when they are taken out of the game.
According to Baseball Reference, batters are hitting a scant .238 this season, the second-lowest league average since the mound was lowered following the 1968 season. In addition, the current 24-percent strikeout rate is the highest in major league history.
Gelb's complete thoughts on Manfred and MLB can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.