Can’t Science Solve Baseball’s Silly Foreign Substance Debate?

If you watch the HBO television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you may be familiar with a reoccurring segment titled “How is This Still a Thing?” in which approximately three to four minutes are used to discuss the merits of some kind of tired tradition that probably needs to come to an end.

With the recent suspension of not one, but two major league pitchers for infractions regarding foreign substances, you may be asking yourself the same question. Sports, of course, loves a good debate, so when the whole issue was brought up again this go-round, the same old questions arose. Does it really help the pitcher? Do the batters really mind? Does anyone really care?

But the most prevalent question seems to revolve around how this issue hasn’t been put to bed already. Major League Baseball — and some certain managers, it seems — think that a pitcher’s employment of certain substances gives them an unfair advantage. This has not stopped the pitchers from disregarding the rules banning those substances, however. A recent segment on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight featuring former big leaguers Alex Cora and Dallas Braden accentuates this fact.

The subject of all this debate is confusing however. The current discussion isn’t revolving around Vaseline or hair tonic or emory boards or gobs of tobacco spit. Less my memory fails me, all the pitchers who have been suspended for abusing the foreign substance rule within the past few years have all used some sort of combination of pine tar, rosin, and sunscreen. These are all substances that can easily be found within the field of play during any baseball game, and, as Braden pointed out, are freely available for the hitter to use.

The quotes from John Farrell used at the beginning of the segment are also interesting.

“I would like to see an approved substance that pitchers can use,” Farrell said. “Because when we take a manufactured baseball and rub it with dirt, it’s going to create a slippery feeling to it. The mud residue leaves a film on it that you don’t necessarily feel a good, consistent grip. Unless you go to a ball like the one used in Japan where it’s got a tacky feel to it. But I’d like to see something that’s approved that everyone can use. I think if you poll any hitter, the hitter wants to know that the ball’s got a grip. The ball’s not going to get away from [the pitcher].”

This seems like an incredibly even-headed idea. Pitchers want a little something to make sure they have a proper grip on the ball. Batters want to make sure that pitchers aren’t throwing balls caked in substance that will make them dart all over the strike zone. Can we not find a happy medium? Lord knows MLB has not been shy about telling players what kinds of other substances they can and cannot use. Were those just picked willy-nilly? There had to be some science involved.

We have the technology to track a balls rotational spin, on either axis, with pretty tremendous accuracy. In today’s installment at The Hardball Times, Jesse Wolfersberger profiles private companies that are doing amazing things in the world of sports tracking and technology. I find it hard to believe that Major League Baseball, with all their resources and their StatCast tech already in place, couldn’t conduct some kind of study on the effects of certain substances on a pitched baseball.

Golf has a whole division devoted to testing clubheads and balls and shafts and putter inserts. While it would be cool to see baseball invent some contemporary to the golf swing robot, it wouldn’t even have to be that advanced. A group of pitchers and a large enough data set should be enough to find preliminary results.

There has to be a happy medium between tactile grip and rotational disruptment. A bevy of tests should be able to shake out the best compromise between pitcher and hitter. Heck, why not get third parties involved and have them submit their best attempt. Who wouldn’t want to be the Official Ball Gripping Substance of Major League Baseball?

There are rules in baseball regarding lengths, widths, and weights of bats. Gloves need to be within a certain size range. Uniforms have to fit a certain regulation. Perhaps it’s time that we adopt a certain substance as part of the pitcher’s equipment. Rosin apparently isn’t cutting it. Let’s do some testing and find some kind of goop that doesn’t skew the advantage too far in either direction. Make the stuff blaze orange so everyone knows it. No more hiding. No more trickery.

In some matters, baseball is leading the charge in technology and science adoption, both internally and through third-party companies. Fixing this silly doctored ball debate with a little number crunching would be a win for everybody. The pitchers don’t get wild, the batters can still barrel the ball, and baseball can point to yet another measure taken to combat cheating. The sports news networks will have to find something else to talk about, but that’s not really our problem.

(Header image via Keith Allison)





David G. Temple is the Managing Editor of TechGraphs and a contributor to FanGraphs, NotGraphs and The Hardball Times. He hosts the award-eligible podcast Stealing Home. Dayn Perry once called him a "Bible Made of Lasers." Follow him on Twitter @davidgtemple.

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Eric F
8 years ago

Well, this was partially researched over at BNI: http://www.banknotesindustries.com/thought-experiment/where-theres-a-will-theres-a-way-to-cheat/

In all seriousness though, I’ve wondered for a long time why MLB, instead of just saying “you can’t use substance x or substance y”, has never told pitchers what they CAN use, other than just plain ol’ rosin. There’s really no reason why in this day and age a proper substance shouldn’t be figured out already.

John Thacker
8 years ago
Reply to  Eric F

So you think that if a “proper substance” were designated, and there was substantial research demonstrating that another, banned, substance were actually more effective for the pitcher, then pitchers wouldn’t try to substitute the banned substance for the allowed substance, and wouldn’t be accused of doing so?

Huh.

Eric F
8 years ago
Reply to  John Thacker

That wasn’t the point made at all?

My point was that everybody actually playing the game wants pitchers to be able to grip the ball (not movement-altering, just for grip). And it seems ridiculous that MLB hasn’t tested and approved a product that will help grip without having a significant impact on the movement.

Of course people will try to cheat, it’s a game played by humans after all, but at least if MLB approves a grip product, pitchers won’t be able to say they were using the new banned substance solely for grip, as there will be an allowed product. Today, a pitcher gets suspended for using rosin and sunscreen, and half of the fans say he was cheating, half say it was just for grip. If MLB approves something, at least we’ll have an answer.

Bryan Cole
8 years ago

I know of at least one attempt to measure the effect of pine tar on the flight of a pitched ball, but the results were apparently inconclusive.

Everyone's Thinking It
8 years ago

Kind of sad to say but since there had been no posts in the last week I thought the first paragraph was about TechGraphs.

Paul G.
8 years ago

Science!

You know what they say about better mousetraps.

The danger whenever you make a change like this is unintended consequences. Yeah, the eggheads can test the thing in a laboratory all they want and guarantee that such and such substance will add grip without significantly altering the flight of the pitch, but when it comes down to it they are not really the experts. Baseball players are the experts. If pitchers can find some way to exploit the “nugrabby” beyond the intended purpose, they will. No doubt the eggheads will respond with “fascinating” but that’s not helpful. There are also non-zero risks of injury by introducing new things into the game that have not been fully tested in game conditions and really cannot be fully tested except in real game conditions with real arms and real heads.

It appears that pitchers are already using stuff to give them a better grip in violation of the rules and the hitters are not concerned about it because they do not think it is providing the pitchers with an unfair advantage. Where’s the problem? Everyone winks, no one cares, the status quo is working just fine. The only problem are a few pitchers who are too stubborn or too dumb to conceal it. Dude, stop being so obvious. It’s embarrassing!

Bryan Cole
8 years ago
Reply to  Paul G.

Well, hang on.

“There are also non-zero risks of injury by introducing new things into the game that have not been fully tested in game conditions and really cannot be fully tested except in real game conditions with real arms and real heads.”

This is a fair point and a real concern, but your very next sentence is about pitchers introducing new things into the game to give them a better grip. “Where’s the problem?” There’s the problem! Pitchers are currently introducing new substances into the game with no testing or oversight!

I think most people agree that substances that give you a better grip aren’t so bad, but substances that give you extra movement are bad. So why not make that official? Right now, you could have pitchers loading up to get more movement, getting caught, and then claiming it was only to get a better grip; oversight would get rid of that excuse.

But until then, yeah, don’t be so obvious about it.

Paul G.
8 years ago
Reply to  Bryan Cole

Point is well taken. But there is a difference between a pitcher finding something that works for him and taking the risks for that something, rather than non-players selecting some tested substance for everyone without any real world input. Robot arms are not pitcher arms.

I’m also assuming that if the pitcher is using something that the hitters identify as real cheating, they will complain.

I still remember when the Rockies were joining the league and the experts, or at least some of them, insisted that the thin air would not significantly increase offense. Whoops. Missed that one by a bit…

John Thacker
8 years ago

Does it “really matter” if a runner fails to touch home plate, if he passes by it with lots of time before the ball arrives and he obviously could have? No, but that doesn’t stop it from being a rule.

If you think that determining exactly what *would* help the pitcher would end the debate, you’re being silly. You really don’t think that any pitcher would try substituting something banned for the allowed substance? There would be just as many complaints about “he claims he’s using the legal substance, but it’s really something else dressed up to look like it.”