It seems a fire has been lit under Major League Baseball’s top brass. Yesterday, in response to the sport’s widely discussed “sticky stuff” controversy, the league publicized a memo detailing how it plans to crack down on pitchers’ usage of foreign substances. It’s an issue that had been quietly boiling for the past few years and is now the league’s most contentious topic, putting spin rate in the spotlight.
The Astros have been at the forefront of the spin rate revolution dating back to the Jeff Luhnow era. The front office recognized the value of high spin rates and targeted specific pitchers accordingly.