Trevor Bauer bashes MLB ‘bulls–t’ over midseason cheating crackdown

The sudden change in policy has Trevor Bauer up in arms.

The poster boy of MLB’s crusade against foreign substances is speaking out.

On Tuesday, MLB announced a set of regulations and punishments for players caught doctoring the baseball with ‘sticky’ substances like Spider Tack. The sudden change in policy has Trevor Bauer up in arms.

“They’ve knowingly swept this under the rug for 4 years,” Bauer wrote in a Twitter thread. “Now they implement a knee jerk reaction to shifting public perception. Hard to hear them talk about ‘competitive integrity’ when they have no integrity to begin with.”

Bauer’s comments come in the wake of similar remarks made by Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow. Glasnow blamed his partially torn UCL on MLB’s crackdown, reasoning that the abrupt ban on sunscreen and rosin forced Glasnow to alter his grip, thereby putting him in danger.

“To be clear, the memo is fine long term, and it will serve to level the playing field,” Bauer continued. “That is a good thing. But to implement it mid season when for 3 months you’ve promised players and teams that nothing about your chosen enforcement of the rules would change this year and actively encouraged players to continue playing how that have in the past, that’s a lie.

“There’s no integrity in that. So save it with the competitive integrity bulls–t @mlb. All you care about is the bottom line of the business, and public perception negatively affecting it.”

Bauer is one of countless pitchers who have seen a steep decline in their spin rates in recent starts. In his last time out on Saturday against the Rangers, Bauer’s four-seam fastball witnessed a 200 rpm decrease, while his other pitches all had 100-plus drops. Texas tagged Bauer for a season-high six runs (four earned) on nine hits in 6.1 innings pitched.

MLB’s crackdown is largely viewed as a potential remedy to the game’s historic offensive woes, namely the skyrocketing strikeout rate and plummeting batting average. The hope is that a reduction in the use of foreign substances will reverse these disconcerting offensive trends.

The punishment for being caught using a foreign substance includes an automatic ejection and an additional 10-game paid suspension. Teams will not be allowed to replace the player on their active roster while the player serves his suspension.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Jared Greenspan