Retired pitcher Roy Oswalt doesn’t have time for modern day hurlers complaining about not being able to use foreign substances anymore.
Oswalt last pitched in a major-league game in 2013 with the Colorado Rockies, but he remains close to the game he loves. As a former pitcher himself, he has every right to comment on the rule changes that are altering MLB as a whole, and not necessarily for the better.
Pitchers like Tyler Glasnow, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer have complained about the implementation of the foreign substances ban, and it taking place midseason. It seems there is some cache to that argument, given Glasnow claims the ban played a role in his elbow injury.
Oswalt, meanwhile, thinks pitchers just have to adjust. It’s on them to learn to throw the ball normally, without the use of sunscreen, spider tack, or whatever motive they’re used to.
MLB news: Roy Oswalt in favor of MLB’s foreign substance ban
Oswalt claims he never used foreign substances during his long MLB career, or as he terms it, cheating. He’s right in that the normalizing of foreign substances has only hurt baseball as a whole, and it’s made its way through the minor-league system. While Rob Manfred likely should’ve acted on his concerns earlier in the season, or a few years ago, at least he caught it before it’s too late.
As with the steroid era, MLB was complicit in the use of foreign substances. It made for crazy highlights, and wicked pitches. Now, they must take on some of the responsibility. Unfortunately they expect the pitchers to make this change on the fly, and so far it’s not going according to plan, hence some of the anger around professional baseball.