Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts thinks Major League Baseball might have a vendetta against Trevor Bauer.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Thursday that officials collected multiple baseballs during Bauer's start against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. Rosenthal reported the balls “had visible markings and were sticky, and were sent to the league offices for further inspection.”
Roberts said it feels as though there is a bit of a bias as far as Bauer is concerned:
“My understanding is that umpires collect baseballs from all pitchers, and balls that were in play, to collect samples,” Roberts said. “I just hope that our player is not singled out,” Roberts said, via Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. “That’s the one thing I want to guard against.”
MLB issued a memo last month saying it would be adopting a new policy to examine balls for drastically increased spin rates and potential use of foreign substances. The policy has drawn skepticism in part because of questions as to how MLB would establish the threshold or enforce potential punishments.
Rosenthal reported it was “unknown” whether balls collected from other pitchers have also raised concerns. Bauer initially declined to comment, but he certainly made his feelings known on Twitter.
Lol always fun reading desperate and misleading clickbait headlines from national gossip bloggers. To translate fake journalist speak for y’all, “It’s unclear whether” = “I can’t be bothered to look into this cuz it doesn’t fit my narrative.” 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ wonder where the articles about
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) April 9, 2021
balls from every other pitcher being taken out of play in literally every other game this season are? Also lol to @MLB who already has “sources” talking to gossip bloggers about a supposedly confidential process a week into the season 😂😂😂 thumbs up y’all keep killin it! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) April 9, 2021
Spin rates are all the rage for pitching in today's game. Bauer himself captured the 2020 National League Cy Young Award after seeing a large spike in spin rates. His eye popping 2020 season helped him land with the Dodgers this past offseason.
Again, this is where the MLB could seemingly run into trouble if there is not more transparency with respect to the policy. Otherwise pitchers with large spin rates, like Bauer, could argue they are being singled out.
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