Sticky substances, take two. After June 3rd, when MLB rolled out a ban on substances that aid pitchers with grip on a baseball and spin by virtue of their stickiness, there was an identifiable drop in spin rates of pitches, and a seeming one in pitcher effectiveness, too. The Washington Post reported a leaguewide drop of 2-3% in fastball spin rates, with aces like Gerrit Cole seeing a drop of 6% and Trevor Bauer 5.5%. Is that a lot? Seemingly enough for the two aces to see their stats worsen significantly: Cole’s ERA more than doubled from 2.
The Orioles’ offensive improvements in June didn’t have much to do with the sticky substance ban
