Venezuelan Omar Vizquel, manager of the Tijuana Bulls of the Mexican Baseball League, said Tuesday that the use of substances to improve grip on the ball increases the confidence of pitchers.
“There are ‘pitchers’ who feel a little more comfortable using some substances, so I think that this measure will not lead to anything because what the ‘pitcher’ needs is to feel more confident with the ball and without that they will lose confidence”, explained at a press conference.
The Major League Baseball They implemented since last June 21 new prohibitions to pitchers who use substances to have a better grip on the ball; the ‘pitcher’ who is caught with them may be expelled from the games and receive 10 games of suspension.
Vizquel, 54, a winner of 11 gold gloves in his 24 MLB seasons, said this is not a late rule, but a long-standing custom ingrained in players.
«I think it is not a measure that is late. What happens is that all this has always been, it is in the last year that they have increased new rules and they are trying to apply them, but the pitchers have always used the same thing for a long time, “he stressed.
Fernando Rodney, with 327 MLB saves and a 2019 World Series winner with the Washington Nationals, called the move a way to take the joy out of baseball.
«I think that what is happening in the Major Leagues we should not let it reach Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Venezuela where we play a happy baseball. Such a measure can affect us if it arrives. It makes us feel bad ”, confessed the current player of the Tijuana Bulls.
Rodney’s opinion was seconded by Oliver Pérez, the Mexican with the most seasons in MLB with 19 and who currently belongs to Tijuana.
«In the Major Leagues every time they are passing rules that make the flavor of baseball disappear, I think they are things that we do not like. Latin baseball will always continue to be a baseball with a different flavor, “said Pérez.