Major League Baseball recently revealed that the league was going to start cracking down on pitchers using foreign substances. Beginning on June 21, any pitcher caught using a foreign substance will be suspended for 10 games. On Wednesday, agent Scott Boras weighed in on the situation and called out MLB in a statement.
"However, to completely abolish gripping agents (other than rosin) creates a major issue as all MLB pitchers were taught (by their respective MLB teams) control of the baseball with the use of gripping substances," Boras said in a statement.
"To suggest pine tar can be used (on bats) by the very same players that play defense is truly an umpire's conundrum. The pitcher hits using pine tar and is suspended for applying the substance to the baseball, or the position player with pine tar on his throwing hand from the prior at-bat transfers it the ball and then both he and the pitcher are deprived of 10 days of performance for legal use of a permissible substance. The grey divide continues!!!!"
During Thursday's installment of "Nothing Personal with David Samson," David Samson dissected Boras' statement and disagreed with several aspects of it.
"As agents, you are involved from the beginning," Samson said. "You get involved with your players way before we do as major league organizations. Scott Boras then had his players do his bidding. Zac Gallen did something as a rookie that you do not do. Gallen said that Mike Hill was in charge of an organization that was saying 'Hey, you're going to need these substances to help you.' It's just not the case. Is it going on? Yes. Are the players forced to use them? That's like saying that players are forced to use steroids. We would be happy when they did and they played well. However, we'd sign them to long-term deals and have them struggle. Guess what's going to happen Scott? Nobody is going to sign anybody."
Samson believes that players using foreign substances is ultimately going to be doing them a disservice. Down the road, some pitchers could potentially be exposed once this new rule goes into effect regarding foreign substances.
