Comments on: Joel Peralta ejected for pine tar, umpires confiscate glove

By: Jennie Oemig

Jennie Oemig — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:36:52 +0000

Cheaters never win, but I agree with Maddon that Johnson acted cowardly in tattling on Peralta! http://98ontheblack.com/2012/06/24/2198980/

By: bigleagues

bigleagues — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:36:52 +0000

Excellent job!

Gaining more backspin was my suspicion (otherwise why have the pinetar) but I didn’t have the time to look into further.

It will be very interesting to see what the net effect is when he comes back. i think we have potential for a rare case study on pinetar in pitching.

I’m not sure which game it was as I flipped through MLB.tv games (I think it was the Angels broadcast which would make it Gubicza) but last night the analyst made an emphatic statement that pinetar has no effect on pitches – which I found rather naive if not outright stupid.

By: bigleagues

bigleagues — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:28:22 +0000

I remember that game and I think 85/86 is right . . . btw is now a good time to remember the greatest moment off-the-field in Earl Weaver’s legendary career?

By: drewsylvania

drewsylvania — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:11:22 +0000

Smart and sanctimonious are not mutually exclusive. Sorry you couldn’t figure that out on your own.

By: hawker1

hawker1 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:43:58 +0000

Hey, that might’ve been a better show than the baseball game. They could have stolen a page from the hockey playbook.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:33:30 +0000

Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post, who covered the 2005 Nats for that paper, reminds us of a near fight between Frank Robinson and Mike Scioscia in Anaheim The cause? Robinson had one of Scioscia’s pitchers checked for foreign substances.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/post/nationals-flashback-parallels-between-2005-and-2012-pine-tar-incidents/2012/06/20/gJQAtDpUqV_blog.html

By: hep3

hep3 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:00:01 +0000

If they are going to let pitchers use rosin, why not pine tar?

Davey Johnson called out Jay Howell for pine tar on his glove in the ’88 LCS when he was with the Mets against the Dodgers.

This is from wikipedia:

“Rosin, also called colophony or Greek pitch (Pix græca), is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene components.

Baseball pitchers may use small cloth bag of powdered rosin for better ball control.”

By: jehzsa

jehzsa — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:56:50 +0000

I’m really curious to see how well Strasburg pitches tonight without pine tar. You know…that three digit on the Richter scale fastball with pinpoint accuracy?

Keeping count of walks tonight. Just sayin’.

By: datsyukx13

datsyukx13 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:56:42 +0000

He’s an idiot for doing it against a team he used to play for and they knew he did it. It was messed up for his old team to call him out like that.

By: rico7207

rico7207 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:32:30 +0000

Club is to cheap to pay for their talent so they have to cheat. Throw the bum out for life!

By: psousa1

psousa1 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:21:28 +0000

Joe Maddon is everything that is right about baseball. He is the smartest manager there is. You must adhere to him. He is always correct. Just ask him.

By: jehzsa

jehzsa — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Well….I guess there goes Joel Peralta’s chance of making it to the HOF!

Really….what’s a little pine tar between friends?

By: giselleisasucubus

giselleisasucubus — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:37:51 +0000

Joe Maddon is an absolute clown and a joke. Complaining because a team knows their former player is clearly using pine tar in his glove? No, Washington should have just accepted it…give me a break. Maddon reminds me of Fake LT. Everyone liked them, then they actually open their mouths, and everyone realizes what jackasses they are. Joe Maddon- insufferable hipster doofus who has never won yet seems to think he has. He makes it very easy to root against Tampa.

By: Kevin S.

Kevin S. — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:34:07 +0000

This should bother you way more than PEDs, since we have absolutely no evidence that they actually E your P. Foreign substances have been banned for ninety years, ever since a shiner killed a batter. Pine tar and its ilk make the ball move in unpredictable ways, and Vaseline/loogies/whatever make it harder for batters to pick up the ball. Both have a greater effect on performance that drugs that allow you to work out harder but tend to make the wrong part of your body stronger (if they impact you at all).

By: movinonyoleft

movinonyoleft — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:33:14 +0000

And they still won. Why whine about it if they still won? I guess maybe he’s mad at the possibility of a suspension.

By: randomdigits

randomdigits — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:25:01 +0000

Must have been ’85 or ’86, Cal Sr was at the helm in ’87.

By: blabidibla

blabidibla — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:48:16 +0000

Unfair to single out the guy cheating on the mound? What a world.

By: voteforno6

voteforno6 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:41:33 +0000

Well, if you’re not cheating, you probably don’t need to worry about it then, do you?

By: flpunx

flpunx — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:37:58 +0000

Yeah – I have to say I don’t really agree with Joe’s post game statements last night basically saying I knew about it, but I was willing to look the other way. For a guy who has displayed integrity for the past 5 years in seemingly everything he has done on and off the field, this is pretty disappointing. Guess there won’t be any MOY awards heading back to St. Pete this year.

By: flpunx

flpunx — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:33:53 +0000

So Maddon, a 2 time Manager of the Year is a phallic cranium due to retaliating and having his players back? Yeah, that’s a quality in a manager I’d really hate to have, sticking up for your players even when you know you were in the wrong.

All in all, I would say Maddon was quite composed last night. If you have seen what Joe can do on the field, or the things he says afterwards, this was a pretty low key altercation.

I suppose you think it’s wrong to plunk a player on the other team after they have obviously thrown at your guy. Or that you should shake A.J. Pierzynski’s hand after he spikes you to break up a double play. Give me a break.

By: 13yrsmlbvet

13yrsmlbvet — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:17:38 +0000

Every pitcher has something on his hat, belt or glove. Every one of them. The other thing they do is spray sunblock on their wrists and back of the neck. When it mixes with sweat it produces a sticky, tacky substance that is not as thick as pine tar and easier to hide because it’s colorless.

By: nolanwiffle

nolanwiffle — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:12:13 +0000

….fuckin’ pederast.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:09:49 +0000

As long as they don’t find pine tar in his urine, Peralta should be fine.

By: hammyofdoom

hammyofdoom — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:03:23 +0000

While I like Joe Maddon, is it just me or lately when something doesnt go his way he calls it a “cowardly act”? Just seems like I’ve heard that a lot from him this year

By: savocabol1

savocabol1 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:55:17 +0000

I’m confused. Knowing that an opposing pitcher was trying to cheat, the Nationals shouldn’t have said anything and just let it happen? Is there one of those “great” unwritten baseball rules in place that says let the other pitcher put illegeal substances on the ball?

I am not sure I understand the reasoning behind this line of thought.

By: devilray02

devilray02 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:55:13 +0000

I have got to think this wont help the Nats get relief pitchers in the future. Lots of guys use something like pine tar – see http://dirkhayhurst.com/2012/06/valverde-and-his-spitter-so-what/ – and since bullpen guys move around a lot I have to wonder if anyone will think twice about taking a 1 year deal with the Nats. Something like this can impact the way you make a living, and if I know my former teammates are going to snitch on me if I go somewhere else I may not want to join that team in the first place.

By: hisgirlgotburrelled

hisgirlgotburrelled — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:52:41 +0000

PitchFX has similar vertical movement for that game compared to his season average, so just assuming in that GIF in the fangraphs link you provided Peralta is using pine tar. His vertical movement has decreased (ball is dropping less) in the last few years.

http://cdn.brooksbaseball.net/player_cards/card_imgs/407908.vmov.S.png
This link shows the change in his vertical movement starting in 2010, the year he joined the Nationals, also the year he turned into a good reliever, at the age of 34. The significance of the vertical movement change would be that more backspin means less drop, and if pine tar is sticky and you get a better grip then you can get more spin. Also, the RPM on his 4-seam fastball has increased along with his vertical movement, but his MPH has slightly dropped. Usually, drops in MPH mean drops in RPM.

Being that he was ejected before throwing a pitch, this has to be a former teammate knowing he used it in 2010.

By: devilray02

devilray02 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:51:45 +0000

Shut the fuck up donny.

By: deadeyedesign23

deadeyedesign23 — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:41:05 +0000

Hell, I can get you a glove by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with pine tar. These fucking amateurs…

By: no14mike

no14mike — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:34:58 +0000

Hypocritical?