Slickball or Baseball? Writer Wonders
ALSO: TEAMS ARE FOOLISH TO FURNISH PITCHERS WITH LONG-TERM DEALS
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Despite batting 40 points lower than Atlanta predecessor Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson is on pace for 65 doubles; the MLB record is 67 by Boston's Earl Webb in 1931 and the #Braves record is Hugh Duffy's 51 in 1894, with the Modern Era franchise record 49 by Marcus Giles in 2003 . . .
What idiot scheduled the New York Mets to play a home-and-home series — seven games out of nine — against the Miami Marlins, especially with Jesus Aguilar going on the IL just as the first series started? . . .
Congratulations to Pittsburgh rookie Jack Suwinski, who not only had a three-homer game against the Giants but delivered his second walk-off blast of the month . . .
When the Astros beat the White Sox, 4-3, last Sunday, it broke a tie between Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker in their long competition as managers, with Baker now ahead, 106-105 . . .
Rejuvenated by his shift from short to second, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees has more homers so far this year than in his last two seasons combined . . .
What were the odds against both New York teams losing to late-inning grand-slams on the same day? That’s exactly what happened last Sunday, when the Blue Jays beat the Yankees, 10-9, and the Marlins mangled the Mets, 6-2.
Leading Off
Slickball Is The New Baseball
By Ben Abel
Watching the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels game last Friday night, I was looking forward to seeing a few innings of baseball.
What I hadn’t expected, and how could I, was the play that occurred in the fifth inning when Angels pitcher Michael Lorenzen hit the Mariners’ Justin Upton in the head with the baseball.
A Hit Batsman To The Extreme
Having watched the hit happen, I was stunned having never seen that in a live or games on television. You could actually hear the knock of the baseball on the helmet. Upton lay on the field for several moments flanked by Mariners manager Scott Servais and two Mariners trainers.
Now to be sure, Lorenzen defended himself for what happened to him telling the Orange County Register that “I don’t know what Major League Baseball is playing with these baseballs, but that fully slipped out of my hand. It’s just crazy, man. As a kid you think Major League Baseball is the greatest thing ever, and you get here and you realize, what are they doing? All of a sudden they’re going to change the baseballs. I know [Kevin] Gausman had an issue in Toronto. So it’s a league-wide thing. These baseballs are slick. They did get someone hurt. So that’s on Major League Baseball for sure. I don’t know what’s going on. These baseballs are straight out of the package.”
Where There Is Smoke Is There Fire?
Interesting, right, as you think perhaps Lorenzen should have accepted responsibility for what he had done and that it was his fault for hitting Upton but if the above-mentioned pitchers had noted it and Robbie Ray, the Mariners pitcher, made a similar complaint in the same game where he threw seven no-hit innings.
Something is afoot here, right? This isn’t just a coincidence? It isn’t.
The balls being used in the game were scuffed — for lack of a better term — and I would never have known this but it makes sense. It’s done by someone, and it’s not going to be the same every time because well people aren’t perfect and it’s not an exact science.
Imagine the anger of fans being raised if Major League Baseball (MLB) announced the presence of scuffing machines or scuffers at games.
The point is here though is how slickball has become part of baseball and why.
It’s All Manfred’s Fault
Ray said that baseballs felt different in Seattle at the beginning vs. midway through the game and that he wondered if they have actually run out of scuffed balls during games.
The MLB did say in 2022 that they would only use balls in games that were made after 2021 and that the deadened balls in 2021 and associated production issues have been resolved.
The interesting thing is that the MLB has also been quite obvious in its crackdown on the doctoring of baseballs by pitchers. Have they decided with or without telling fans and more importantly the teams in the league that they are using the baseballs now as a way to further stop the use of sticky substances?
That’s hard to say without evidence to back it up and the recent Deadspin article I read said that “Hit batsmen are down to their lowest mark since 2018. Wild pitches are down to their lowest mark since 2014. All these numbers point to better control for pitchers, so why are pitchers saying it’s an epidemic that needs to be fixed?
https://deadspin.com/baseballs-really-went-from-sticky-to-slippery-in-less-t-1849090952
It’s very hard to find evidence for such claims unless someone or some organization sits down and actually sifts through all the evidence, testimony and accusations given by players and by observers of baseball.
I think social media may explode with laughter if there is an official inquiry by the league about baseball but Slickball is here and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
Ben Abel has been an avid sports fan since the 1980s. He has contributed to Sports Betting Dime and the IBWAA Newsletter and has written about hockey, baseball, and football as well as other sports. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. Contact him on Twitter @lebaneb or via email at info@abelmarketing.ca
Cleaning Up
Handing Pitchers Huge Multi-Year Pacts Is Pointless
By Dan Schlossberg
Max Scherzer returns to action with the New York Mets in Miami tomorrow but still carries a ridiculous salary that never should have gone to a pitcher — let alone a 37-year-old who refused to take the ball in the last elimination game the Los Angeles Dodgers played in the 2021 playoffs.
Even Steve Cohen, who doles out dollars to anyone who asks, should have known better than to pay $43.3 million per year to a man of such advanced athletic age. Never mind that he won’t even make the 32 starts he signed up to make.
Paying big bucks to pitchers is simply not a wise investment. While Wayne Garland remains the poster boy for bad contracts, Kevin Brown hoodwinked the Dodgers years after that. Brown got seven years but produced only for three.
Stephen Strasburg has been even worse. The 6’5” right-hander, once Washington’s top pick in the amateur draft, has gone 1-4, making just eight starts, since signing a seven-year, $245 million pact with the Nats on Dec. 9, 2019. That’s an annual average of $35 million per year.
No wonder the Lerners want to sell the team.
Getting back to the Mets for a second, consider the case of Jacob deGrom. By the time he’s ready to pitch next month, he will have missed a full year. Yet he’s been vocal about wanting to exercise the opt-out clause in his five-year, $137.5 million deal.
Had Cohen not signed Scherzer, or even kept the veteran’s contract reasonable, he wouldn’t have to worry about deGrom wanting to break the bank too.
They aren’t the only pitchers with ridiculous contracts.
Three of the worst are left-handers David Price, who never justified his seven-year, $217 million pact; Chris Sale, who gave the Boston Red Sox only limited return on his five-year, $145 million deal; and Madison Bumgarner, signed by Arizona to a five-year, $100 million contract even though he was well past his prime.
Baseball history suggests pitchers are more susceptible to injury than anyone else.
The list of those who missed 12-18 months after Tommy John surgery, which involves an elbow ligament transplant, is long. And only one of those — John Smoltz — has reached the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Maybe Greg Maddux had the right idea; he won 355 games, more than any living pitcher, by parlaying perfect location with finesse. He didn’t throw hard, never pitched a no-hitter, and didn’t strike out Tony Gwynn even once in their many encounters. All he did was win, averaging more than 15 victories a year over a 20-year span.
Mr. Dependable, Maddux almost never missed his turn in the rotation, never had Tommy John surgery, and was probably the best free-agent signee in baseball history — with the possible exception of Barry Bonds.
But Maddux was an exception rather than the rule. Most general managers, anxious to add arms, will still pay through the nose for the great unknown, with history staring them in their faces.
Just watch and see what happens when deGrom goes free agent this fall.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ now does most of his writing for forbes.com, where he is a national baseball writer. His byline also runs in USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Latino Sports, and elsewhere. Contact Dan by emailing ballauthor@gmail.com or check out his work at www.danschlossberg.net.
Timeless Trivia
The Mets were so bad in 1965 that Ellen Dietz, a secretary in the team’s farm department, quit her job to join a convent . . .
Waite Hoyt was in the Hall of Fame before he was in the Hall of Fame; a Hoyt oil painting called “Retired” was hanging in Cooperstown before the pitcher, an accomplished artist with membership in the Cincinnati Art Club, was elected . . .
Tough relief job: when Warren Spahn filled in for Leo Durocher on ABC’s Game of the Week in 1965, his debut was rained out after two batters. Luis Aparicio and Russ Snyder of the Orioles hit singles before the skies over Tiger Stadium opened . . .
San Diego fell out of first place in the NL West the minute MVP contender Manny Machado joined Fernando Tatis Jr. on the injured list . . .
Erstwhile star center-fielder Lorenzo Cain, once cut by his high-school basketball team, has now been axed by the Milwaukee Brewers too . . .
Mild-mannered Mel Ott was the first manager tossed from both games of a double-header (Pittsburgh beat Ott’s New York Giants in both).
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.