Cobb critical of MLB’s decision
The pitcher wants to have a legal substance
OAKLAND >> Angels starting pitcher Alex Cobb had mixed feelings when he saw what Major League Baseball decided to do about illegal substances on the baseball.
While he was happy to see MLB do something, Cobb believes it wasn’t the right thing.
Cobb said eliminating illegal substances to increase spin is correct, but pitchers still need something to improve their grip. By eliminating substances for both uses, Cobb believes baseball will still have an issue.
“Legalize a substance (for improved grip) that we’re all cool with, but this is what MLB does,” Cobb said. “They sit in New York, and they don’t ask anybody’s opinion. You could take a handful of veteran hitters, and handful of veteran pitchers, and we could knock it out in five seconds. But they want to do it their way in New York and not ever be around a baseball field. And that’s fine. We’ll have to address that and get a substance or change the ball into what Japan has done.”
In Japan, the baseballs are more tacky when they are fresh out of the box, so pitchers don’t need to apply anything to improve their grip. Cobb said if the ball were changed to make it less slippery, then MLB could have a blanket penalty for applying anything, and it could be even more severe.
“At that point, you got 50 games, 60 games, with no pay,” Cobb said. “But we
didn’t go that route. They decided to fix a problem too late and in the middle of the season. It’s the most incompetent thing I’ve witnessed in baseball so far.”
Cobb, a 33-year-old who has pitched in the majors since 2011, admitted that he has used a mix of sunscreen and rosin ever since he hit Nolan Reimold of the Baltimore Orioles in the face in spring training in 2012.
“I drilled him and I felt awful,” Cobb said. “It was one of those spring days where it was kind of dry out and I had nothing. I’ve been kind using it ever since.”
Cobb said he has used the Trackman to measure his spin rate with and without the sunscreen and rosin mixture and it’s the same.
“I don’t benefit from spin,” said Cobb, who is a sinker pitcher. “I benefit from a decrease in spin.”
Pitchers using substances to increase the spin is ostensibly the impetus for the sudden change, and Angels manager Joe Maddon is firmly in favor of correcting that issue.
“I’m kind of pleased with it all,” Maddon said. “I don’t want to offend anybody on our team, absolutely not, but as an industry and moving forward and really trying to create the best version of our game that we possibly can to make it interesting for us and for young kids that may want to play in the future, I think it’s the right thing to do. It is really an unfair advantage.”
Maddon said he thought the penalty – a 10-day suspension with pay for the first offense – could have even been harsher. He said he would have gone along with suspensions without pay, or even suspending the manager too.
“I think the more that’s attached to it, I want to believe, the less likely it’s going to occur,” Maddon said. “So if you really want to eradicate it, you’ve got to really dig down and do so.”
Rendon day to day
Anthony Rendon will miss at least a couple of games after suffering a mild strain of his right triceps, Maddon said.
The third baseman was hurt diving for a ball in the fifth inning on Monday night. He went through tests on Tuesday and the club determined it was not serious enough to put him on the injured list.
“It’s better than we had thought or expected,” Maddon said. “We expect him to be out just a couple days, which is great news.”
Maddon said he believed the Angels had “ruled out” putting Rendon on the injured list.
“All the needles are pointing in the direction that he should be able to play when we get back home,” said Maddon, whose team opens a homestand against Detroit on Thursday night.
The Angels brought infielder Luis Rengifo to Oakland as a precaution but he was not activated on Tuesday.
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