MLB to crack down on pitchers using foreign substances

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MLB's attempts to crack down on foreign substances are outlined in a memo obtained by ESPN. Among the plans: -

Increased monitoring by compliance officers

- Inspections of baseballs taken out of play that will use a third-party lab to check for substances

- Spin-rate analysis

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Compliance officers will monitor dugouts, clubhouses, tunnels, batting cages and bullpens. They will take a random sample of balls, and the lab will search not just for the substances themselves but the type being utilized. Statcast data will compare spin rate to career norms.

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The memo, first reported by

@Joelsherman1

, says: “Players are subject to discipline by the Commissioner’s Office for violating the Official Baseball Rules regardless of whether evidence of the violation has been discovered during or following a game.”

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I’ve been chasing spin rate since 2012," Trevor Bauer said in February. "But eight years later, I haven’t found any other way except using foreign substances."

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Bauer’s sudden jump in spin rate was noted by FanGraphs at the end of last season, when he gained something like 400 rpm on his fastball in the month of September. Not gradually! For most of his career his four-seamer hovered below 2300 rpm, with a modest increase into the 2400s in early 2019. Then whammo, the calendar flipped to September and all at once that heater was topping 2700 rpm and headed for 2800. That’s not a minor increase, not in absolute terms and not when compared to his peers: Bauer’s fastball went from average spin to literally the highest spin rate in all of baseball.

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