Spider Tack

[jimbroznan]

According to a June 13 NYT article MLB since April has been collecting game balls and testing them for foreign substances. They have found substances on 50%+ of the balls. The most popular being Spider Tack, a ultra sick glue like substance. Spider Tack and similar substances may be responsible for:
"After the sport dealt with illegal steroids and illicit sign-stealing, now comes foreign substances on baseballs, a skyrocketing trend that is believed to have played a key role in turning the sport into a monotonous procession of strikeouts and low-scoring games."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/s...ider-tack.html

[WrongVerb]

Anyone notice that the Reds' pitchers have been doing better since MLB announced they'd be cracking down? I wonder if the team as a whole was using that stuff and the change was drastic enough that it was throwing pitchers off their game. But now that the substance has been banned, they're able to go back to what's more familiar. Just a speculative thought.

[UKFlounder]

Ten game suspension for pitchers caught with such substances on them

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...on-sources-say

[JCM11]

Well if it's true it's probably the pitchers trying to counteract the obvious juiced balls of the past few seasons. I mean you had 6,700 home runs hit in 2019 which is 1,700 more than the year Big Mac and Sosa had their historic chase of the record, and 1,500 more than the year when Bonds hit 73. What do they expect pitchers to do when they basically shrink the laces even with the rest of the ball?

[JFLegal]

where is the poster who is disguised as trevor bauer? he cannot be happy about this.

[NebraskaRed]

Anyone notice that the Reds' pitchers have been doing better since MLB announced they'd be cracking down? I wonder if the team as a whole was using that stuff and the change was drastic enough that it was throwing pitchers off their game. But now that the substance has been banned, they're able to go back to what's more familiar. Just a speculative thought.

All speculation, of course, but look at certain teams (Cardinals, for example) who have done dramatically worse lately.

[Assembly Hall]

Anyone notice that the Reds' pitchers have been doing better since MLB announced they'd be cracking down? I wonder if the team as a whole was using that stuff and the change was drastic enough that it was throwing pitchers off their game. But now that the substance has been banned, they're able to go back to what's more familiar. Just a speculative thought.

So you are saying "Spider Tack" messed up our pitching?

[RedsManRick]

where is the poster who is disguised as trevor bauer? he cannot be happy about this.

Bauer has been pretty clear from the beginning that what frustrated him was that players who didn't cheat were at a significant disadvantage. He's said he's fine not using stuff personally, but that the unequal playing field bugged him immensely. When, say, Gerrit Cole (Bauer's UCLA teammate and somewhat of a personal rival) became a Cy Young threat when he arrived in Houston and his spin rate spiked up, and there was no consequence, it was clear that cheating was the way to go.

I think there's a pretty clear reason why Bauer signed a 3-year deal this off-season instead of going year-to-year as he claimed he always would. It was a smart hedge.

[WrongVerb]

So you are saying "Spider Tack" messed up our pitching?

I'm not saying anything. Just speculating. It could be a complete coincidence.

[udee79]

Bauer has been pretty clear from the beginning that what frustrated him was that players who didn't cheat were at a significant disadvantage. He's said he's fine not using stuff personally, but that the unequal playing field bugged him immensely. When, say, Gerrit Cole (Bauer's UCLA teammate and somewhat of a personal rival) became a Cy Young threat when he arrived in Houston and his spin rate spiked up, and there was no consequence, it was clear that cheating was the way to go.

I think there's a pretty clear reason why Bauer signed a 3-year deal this off-season instead of going year-to-year as he claimed he always would. It was a smart hedge.

I think the same thought process is what started Barry Bonds on the Juice.

[Strikes Out Looking]

where is the poster who is disguised as trevor bauer? he cannot be happy about this.

I think he's on Dodgerzone now.

[Bunting Bad]

This will be interesting to see how this effects pitching not only in the Mlb, but also college and some of the elite high school travel teams. The use of this was not just an relegated to the MLB.

[cobike]

In the Spider Tack discussion on the Jomboy baseball podcast I just heard, two of the handful of names they mentioned as users with increased spin rate were Miley and Sims. In context, they said every team has someone using the stuff.

[Assembly Hall]

I'm not saying anything. Just speculating. It could be a complete coincidence.

I get where you are coming from. The boys just don't know how to play with their new "toy."

[WrongVerb]

I get where you are coming from. The boys just don't know how to play with their new "toy."

I've seen it in other arenas. A new idea gets introduced and you struggle to adapt to it. Happened to me when I got back into bowling and all the equipment had changed substantially from when I was a youth. I figured it out eventually, but it took me about 1.5 years.