Via Hardball Talk, Tom Verducci goes to the video tape to notice that Clay Buchholz‘s forearm changed:
• Buchholz’s left forearm glistens this year with some kind of substance that is not rosin or perspiration. As the righthander admitted, he does keep water on his uniform and in his hair and does pat the rosin bag on his left forearm — all apparently legal. But rosin is white and has a matte finish. Something wet and mostly clear glistens from Buchholz’s left wrist to his elbow, the moisture of which darkens the edge of his left undershirt sleeve.
• This is not perspiration on his left forearm. His right forearm is dry. There is no darkening on the edge of his right undershirt sleeve.
Tom also notes that Dirk Hayhurst, one of Clay’s accusers, has written on how pitchers use foreign substances to get a better grip on the ball. It’s all very interesting.
But, but, he is a Red Sock. They don’t cheat, it’s only players on other teams or former Red Socks that cheat.
Blue Jays manager John Gibons did not ask the umps to check and see if Buchholz had any illegal substances on him; and said after the game that he doesn’t think that Buchholz was cheating. Nobody else on the field has accused Buchholz of cheating this year, or ordered umpires to do a spot inspection on him, either.
The only people accusing Buchholz of cheat is Dirk Hayhurst — I don’t know why he’s even a baseball analyst — and Jack Morris. Neither of them have provided evidence or video of pitches that Blue Jays hitters swung at that moved unnaturally erratically, the only “evidence” they have is that Buchholz uses rosin. So does every other pitcher, the rosin bag is right behind the mound.
There’s a long list of good pitchers that the Blue Jays have lost to already this season. (Sabathia, Kuroda, Masterson, Lester to name a few.) The averages of Blue Jays hitters are down across the board. (Is Bautista even above .200 yet?) The star starters that the Blue Jays acquired over the offseason are faring even worse. Maybe I’m a biased Red Sox fan, but I kinda don’t think that any of this is solely the fault of Clay Buchholz.
The fact that Hayhurst and Morris haven’t provided any evidence whatsoever of Buchholz cheating after they started making the ill-founded accusations means that their motives must be questioned. Some would deride this as an “ad hominem”, but when Hayhurst started posting tweets hawking the new book that I wrote because he covers what he perceives as methods pitchers use to cheat in his book, it is reasonable to wonder if Hayhurst is using his position as a member of the media to intentionally troll, create a controversy, all to make a couple of extra bucks.
In the aftermath, we found out about Dennis Eckersley and Jack Morris butting heads in the past, too. Perhaps Morris is just, well, kind of a jackass. Not to get personal, but he doesn’t seem like the most enjoyable fellow to be around.
As is, here are the facts that remain: A) The Blue Jays are underperforming this season, and B) Nobody on the field, with an up close and personal view of Buchholz, has accused him of cheating.
So I just don’t see why this is a story. Without empirical evidence to back up their accusations, Hayhurst and Morris have zero credibility. They should do us all a favor, suck it up and just admit that they were wrong. And, in the case of Hayhurst trying to use this controversy to hawk books, perhaps his obvious conflict of interest should translate into a suspension or dismissal from whatever organ of the media he works for.