re: Can Somebody Please Explain What The Georgia Closer Is Doing In This Video?

“I use pine tar on my bat so the bat doesn’t slip out of my hands,” Baltimore outfielder Adam Jones says. “So a pitcher can use pine tar on the ball so it doesn’t hit me in the face.”

Washington Nationals slugger Bryce Harper concurs.

“Absolutely,” Harper says. “I’m all in favor of it. If there’s a guy out there that needs it, I’m all for it. I don’t want to get hit in the head or the face. So whatever they need out there, I’ll let them have it.”

It’s true, in an era in which the average MLB fastball is well up into the 90s, many hitters support the notion that it is time for the league to approve and regulate a substance beyond rosin that is legal for pitchers to use.

“Obviously, you want a pitcher to have control of the ball,” the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout says. “You don’t want a ball up and in when everybody’s throwing 100 nowadays. There’s mixed feelings, obviously, throughout the clubhouse and throughout baseball with this.

“For me, it’s a different feeling when you’re in the box and you know the pitcher doesn’t know where [the ball] is going, as opposed to if a guy knows where it’s going.”

Link: MLB Stars Debate Sticky Stuff