Obviously most pitchers do it. They don't really hide it when they constantly go to their cap or arm or glove prior to the pitch. The real question is how much better is Strom's sticky stuff? I mean, surely Luhnow's quest for edge included finding better recipes.
Well what I can tell you is that 20 years ago just about every pitcher experimented with cheating at some point. It was something that they fiddled with and pitchers would discuss with each other. Some guys were better at it and some guys saw better results. During BP players on opposing teams sometimes would even discuss it. The undiscussed cheating from back then was the prevalence of pitchers, especially relievers that were using illegal supplements.
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb...s-steroids-pine-tar/2qhjxr7i4yrq1t15yl99ysvp2 Well, he's not wrong now...
According to Bauer who I've always thought was a clown but for once appears to be right...70% is about right. He's right in that the argument of making the game safer is a joke. Anyone else here think it was DEFINITELY one of the Astros hitters who threw Harkins/pitchers under the bus during their talks with the MLB when they were granted "immunity"? There was a memo sent out to the league about substances being illegal shortly after the investigation concluded and Harkins was fired within a week after that happened. If you're a hitter, especially one being scrutinzed and publicly shamed because Mike Fiers acted like he was some moral guy all of a sudden yet obviously we knew he was using substances including the game where he threw a no hitter and was even questioned about what CLEARLY was a substance on his glove but he denied it. All that said, I didn't think it would be possible but I hate Mike Fiers even more now. He is literally the biggest b**** and hypocritical a***** on the planet. What a clown - he couldn't handle the fact he SUCKED and got left off the playoff roster and cut so he went running his mouth to anyone who would listen, which was no one until the A's took analytics and moneyball to a whole new level... I was 99% sure after the playoffs last season when we beat them but now I'm 100% convinced...the A's didn't use him against us last year in the playoffs because they paid (the highest amount he ever earned in a single season in his career last year FYI) and rostered him (he was their 2nd or 3rd highest paid player on a team that has extreme budget restrictions and advanced analytically so the signing made zero sense) essentially to snitch on us to give them a more level playing field. Let's be real...they weren't catching us with that dump of a stadium and their payroll restrictions and it almost worked out for them. Beating the A's last year was the highlight of 2020 for me personally - seeing how desperate they were letting their top pitchers risk blowing their arms out while never truly being in the series and down most of the time in the games LOL it will never not be comical to me.
It's amazing to me how prevalent this is and how it's not even a blip on the national sports radar. They really dug the Astros through the mud and forced us to give up a smart championship caliber FO because they were mad the Astros would block the Yankees from WS appearances. Watson wants out. Harden wants out. Can we have anything?
I've been trying to wrap my head around the almost automatic response by the media to **** on Houston any chance they can regardless of sport. There is zero pushback from the local media here or the fans on a national level, so when the national media wants to dig in and attack... they can do so knowing that they won't alienate an overly vocal fan base that they rely on to feed their numbers. Yes, Houston has a lot of people... and they are a top 10 media market because of that number of people. And yet there has been only one local paper for the last 20 years, none of the columnists or beat-writers register a blip with any major network, none of the radio guys register a blip elsewhere, and I won't even bother with the local sports tv presence... all respect to Adam Wexler. Even more importantly basically none of the national media presence has their roots or got their starts in Houston, minus Hannah Storm. Theres no feeder school here like Syracuse.
When Trevor Bauer made the charge of Astros pitchers using substances to improve spin rates they mocked him and called him Tyler. He knew and yet again these Astros lied.
Hey, remember the time Joe Niekro accidentally had a nail file in his pocket while on the mound? Good times!
Astros whataboutism. Hinch and McHugh and other Astros are on record as lying their asses off. Turns out the good guys are a bunch of cheaters and liars. Oh but but but the Yankees.
I don’t care. I worked around professional baseball players in college and summers in grad school. They openly discussed cheating and other players cheating. It is and has been part of the game for over 100 years. I still remember Kevin Brown discussing steroids with Matt Galante.
Well I care and I'm much less likely to give a damn about the Astros going forward. There's only so much sleazeball behavior I can tolerate.