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Ex Indians update

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Remember Alex Ramirez? Ended up having a fantastic career in Japan.
 
Going after the guy who called baseball out for this... Classic.
Bauer's exactly the kind of guy who would do this on purpose, because it was so rampant.

I wouldn't be shocked at all to see a long article released from him saying "Oh, good. You noticed" where he details his own pitches, and what tipped MLB off to the fact that he was using foreign substance on some of his pitches... then to follow it up with a laundry list of all similar examples from other pitchers and put it on MLB to actually crack down on everyone else as well.
 
I'd believe anything with regard to Trevor's motivations, but it sounds like a suspension in the offing.
I can see this as a logical acceleration of his anti-stickum campaign, and would see no reason to disbelieve him if he doubles down during this investigation.

Who else would be so bold?
 
Bauer's exactly the kind of guy who would do this on purpose, because it was so rampant.

I wouldn't be shocked at all to see a long article released from him saying "Oh, good. You noticed" where he details his own pitches, and what tipped MLB off to the fact that he was using foreign substance on some of his pitches... then to follow it up with a laundry list of all similar examples from other pitchers and put it on MLB to actually crack down on everyone else as well.
I think he already has, behind the scenes. What I know is he has been talking with MLB officials, including Manfred himself for several years now. Seems this spring they were bouncing the policy they wanted to institute off him. Since he "is" the expert in the area, he is the go to guy for sports writers and rule makers. Unless of course you are just someone that likes to write hit pieces like Rosenthal.

Not sure you will see much publicly unless the Commish comes after him. But if they do, it will probably be all out war. Bauer will lose, but MLB will end up with a serious black eye. You don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg if you want to clean up your sport.

It is interesting though. The push has nothing to do with rules, or cheating, or leveling the playing field. It is all about trying to get more action in the game that is driving it. Three true outcomes - change the ball so it doesn't fly as far, hopefully adding some doubles and triples in place of HR. Eliminate so many K's to get more balls in play instead of trips back and forth to the dugout. And the powers to be have decided that less "stickey" means less K's. Succinctly you could say - screw the rules we want action because that is dollars.

So Bauer may be getting the attention paid to the issue he has rubbed their noses in for like 4 years now, but for the wrong reason. Ha Ha Ha - gotta love the MLB :celb (7):

Really wish I could say more but it wouldn't be wise
 
I dont care if Bauer...or any pitcher...puts four ounces of pine tar on the ball. Some sort of doctoring of the baseball has been going on since baseball players started getting paid in 1869.

The one thing I want to know is the accuracy of Bauers claim that baseballs have been confiscated all over MLB this season, but only his has been publicized.

If that claim is correct, then this whole thing with Bauer is hocus. If not, .....

MLB says it wants to speed up the game and provide more action. BS. If that was true, it would do several things that would do both, but that it has refused to do for years.

MLB, not the players, got themselves into this mess. It knowingly allowed steroid use, because it wanted home runs and softball scores. Fans did, too. (Look at the thread comparing our last three WS teams. Great love for the mashers. Not so much for the 2016 club, even though it had some of the greatest pitching in Tribe history...Kluber and the Allen-Miller-Shaw back end)

1) Stop the stalling of both pitchers and batters.

2) Start rewarding the type of players who provide the on field action...bat control guys who can eliminate the shift and can bunt.

More Whit Merrifields, less Kris Bryants.

But in reality, most fans don't want that either. Just look at all the debates on Tribe baseball forums over the last decade about prospects. The debates favor power bats that K alot over contact hitters who put the ball in play and get on base... by a three to one margin.

Look at all the threads on possible trade targets. The two names that come up most frequently are Andujar and Frazier. Neither provide the kind of action that MLB says it wants to have.

Fans and MLB still dig...and pay for...the long ball. The byproducts are 25% K rates, which people now shrug at, and station to station baserunning.

About twenty years ago the NHL began decrying the lack of skating skills, esp among Canadians. There was a lot of brutish hockey going on, at the cost of the beautiful skating, which only the Russians seemed to be doing. The reasons were twofold. The fans dug players getting smashed into the corners and high sticked, and in the lower levels of Canadian hockey, the skating fundamentals weren't being taught.

Baseball in its own way has done the same thing.

Don't blame the sticky stuff. Its been around forever, and there always have been batters who could hit it. And if they couldn't hit it, they could bunt it. There just aren't nearly as many as there used to be.
 
I wish you could too, because nothing you said about any of this makes any sense at all.
No sense at all Hmmmmm :confused2:

So if you want to know and can't google it, what do you do? Maybe find someone that knows and ask them???

TB has been a go to guy (long before his first inning test against the Rangers back in 18) for "several" sports writers (obviously not Hoynes) because they could "get tipped" or could verify that something was going on, or was going to happen, and know where and what to look for. Which is exactly what writers have to have to get a scoop.

And when MLB officials wanted someone to talk to (could we say an unpaid "consultant"), that would be willing to talk, that actually knows something about the subject?? Kind of a hard animal to find given the animosity between players and the league. So who you going to call ???? Ghost Busters ??? More likely the guy rubbing your nose in it publicly now (because you did nothing when alerted so many times before), that has clearly demonstrated (publicly obviously) he has a real clue about the "stickey" matter and has also talked to you many times before.

Not sure how much clearer I can make it

It still may make no sense, because often the league itself makes no sense. But when it comes to dollars, that gets their attention. And the lack of growth, in the "correct demographics" for their sport has clearly got their attention. So "stickey" now has an importance to them, where before it seems to have been the blind eye treatment. Ha Ha Ha

In the MLB, only the $$$$'s matter.
 

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