Ronel Blanco sticky stuff suspension?

@Nook, what is your take on the difference of those other pitchers having the chance to wash their hands and change out their glove compared to Ronel getting ejected and then suspended?

 

Well, I think that the logical inference would be that this crew felt that Blanco did it on purpose. I didn't see the glove so I cannot say, but that is what my read on it is. Does that mean he did it on purpose? No - but he is one of about a half dozen pitchers that have come out at the quarter season mark having a Cy Young type season with a checkered track record. I also wonder if they tested his balls from past games (which they do every game) and found an unusual amount of resin residue.

The good news is that I don't think that he had any other foreign substance on the ball, so I don't think he should completely crater - as some of his success, is from a change in his pitching sequence.

 

Well it does say "foreign substances" so ronel must have had something else that the umps caught.

 

No. He has to appeal now. And the hard part is he could appeal, miss 3 games, then get his appeal denied the day he starts and ends up missing 2 starts instead of one.

 

I wish he could show old suffering Saint Espada how to have a temper.

 

Hell yeah dude. I hope when he comes back he dominates and shoves it up there ass.

 

Brent Rooker is a G.

 

Man I was pulling for Espada and have been defending him. But hes gotta do a better job of putting up some kind of fight for the players

 

Day's end... Blanco only misses one start.

He would have started 2 games in 10 days -- now it's one game in 11 days.

The key is his future production and whether his "glove" has been helping him all season.

 

Mlb is so consistently incompetent with stuff like this it blows my mind.

A pitcher that should be an awesome story is now branded a cheater in the eyes of casuals. Not because he actually used a foreign substance, but because he failed a completely arbitrary sticky test.

 

Umm... is the "foreign substance" the result of mixing two perfectly legal substances? Is that what we are to understand? If so, that's monumentally obtuse. That could arbitrarily be applied to any pitcher at a moments notice and at the umps arbitrary discretion. How is process this allowed??

 

No that's the general term for too sticky.

It was rosin and sweat. Was it intentional, possibly, but there was not a foreign substance. Its just a comically vague and stupid enforcement of the rules.

They should just make it crystal clear rosin is not allowed anywhere but the pitching forearm and hand instead of their " foreign substance" nonsense.

 

It’s definitely interesting, because other pitchers have been allowed to wash off sticky stuff. Very strange how inconsistent the rules are applied.

But the umpire claiming this was the most sticky stuff he’d seen, was interesting. If anything the umpire should have not commented, beyond saying that the glove was sent to the league offices.

 

I'm always trying to guard against being a homer, which is never easy. Because I'm a homer.

But is it possible that it was something other that rosin and sweat?

Honest question.

 

So the tests showed he didn't have anything illegal, but still suspended him?

On the bright side, it's **** like this that wakes our boys up.

 

They can't and they know it.

The problem is that pitchers have been getting away operating in the gray area for many decades and what is allowed has changed so many times over the years. Guys for a long time got away scuffing the ball, and nothing was said as long as it wasn't done by a foreign object. Yogi Berra would take new baseballs and scuff them on the shin guard belt buckle when Whitey Ford started and no hitters complained because it was common for every pitcher to do something.

Then the league basically said no "foreign substance on the ball" - and since the 90's until 5 years ago - pitchers would just put foreign substances on their fingers that wouldn't transfer to the baseball. During this same time period - pitchers saw their innings decrease but the velocity and effort in their deliveries increased... and that was "controlled" and made possible by stick-em and other substances.

Baseball privately allowed the pitchers to do somethings, all because they did not want hitters getting hit when the ball slipped out, they liked the velocity and movement - and they wanted to limit pitching injuries.

Then - under pressure that tried to remove stick-em - and claim the game is "clean", busting guys for using legal substances like rosin and sweat...

So where can baseball go now? When guys throw over 100 mph they need control over the ball - and they don't want to have guys throwing 90 mph again or going 7-8 innings.

Like the steroid situation, baseball created this monster and cannot control it. There is ZERO forethought at all by the league to anything.

 

Sure it is possible - but if it is something other than rosin and sweat, we will hear about it--- the league and umpires will want that out there.

 

It is possible, but given how sticky rosin and sweat is, why use an illegal substance when you sweat a lot like Blanco? MLB will never say what the substance was publicly.

If you watch the game, you can see him apply rosin to the back of his wrist just above his glove. I don't see him touching his arm or glove other than holding the rosin bag to apply some to his wrist. Usually when we've seen players use sticky substances you see them touching the sticky stuff with regularity.

 

That is the problem. They either need to allow some degree of stickiness or they need to allow none. Letting pitchers wash their hands is nonsense. Either they can use rosin and sweat because it is not banned and a natural biproduct - or they need to kick out pitchers with any stickiness on their hands.