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On Wednesday, new Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer pitched very well in the team’s 4 to 3 loss to the A’s, going 6-2/3 innings, giving up just 3 hits and 2 earned runs, striking out 10 and walking just 1.
Perhaps he pitched too good, because Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported on Thursday that MLB had confiscated some of the baseballs Bauer threw during the game and, according to sources, they were sticky and had visible markings.
Ironically, Bauer has been one of the most outspoken players when it comes to calling out pitchers for utilizing illegal substances while they pitch.
He also publicly mocked a new Major League Baseball policy, enacted prior to this season, that is supposedly going to crack down on the illegal use of foreign substances by pitchers and the very same data that he used to call out Astros pitchers (and others) since 2018.
If only there was just a really quick way to increase spin rate. Like what if you could trade for a player knowing that you could bump his spin rate a couple hundred rpm overnight…imagine the steals you could get on the trade market! If only that existed…
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) May 1, 2018
Spin rate increases about 350 rpm on average in our tests when using pine tar vs no pine tar. That was at 70ish mph. The effect is slightly less pronounced at higher mph, but still between 2 and 3 hundreds rpm increase at about 90mph
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) May 1, 2018
Maybe those two things combined with the following tweet were enough reason for Major League Baseball to “randomly” select the baseballs Bauer threw on Wednesday.
I was using foreign substance to increase the spin rate illegally https://t.co/pnzgUR1NjV
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) April 9, 2020
We assume he was being facetious.
Interestingly, in 2020, when Bauer won the NL Cy Young Award, the spin rate on his pitches went through the roof (something that can be done by doctoring a baseball).
According to BaseballSavant, who tracks such things, Bauer’s fastball saw a 364 RPM increase, his curveball saw a 377 RPM increase, his slider a 215 RPM increase, his cutter a 268 RPM increase, and his sinker a 442 RPM increase.
Thursday night, Bauer took to Twitter to fire back at the insinuations that he cheated and was using an illegal substance to enhance his pitches.
“Lol always fun reading desperate and misleading clickbait headlines from national gossip bloggers,” Bauer tweeted. “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 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!”
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