K-Rod Cheating?
Early Tuesday morning, a poster named "DesertTex" from the Newberg Report forums reported that he had seen some suspicious behavior from Angels' closer Francisco Rodriguez during the 9th inning of Texas's Opening Day 4-1 loss. Others chimed in, with several confirming that Rodriguez had some kind of foreign substance on the underside of his cap. He also continuously moved his right thumb along that area of his cap, presumably in an attempt to doctor the baseball.
Crazy conspiracy theorists? Not exactly. David Zumsteg of U.S.S. Mariner, who recently published a book entitled "The Cheater's Guide to Baseball," looked more closely at the incident yesterday with the aid of MLB.TV. His conclusion? K-Rod was cheating, and quite blatantly. Zumsteg breaks down each pitch and includes various pictures of Rodriguez grabbing the brim of his cap, and also has this particularly telling quote:
Compare the movement on those pitches to the movement on the fastballs where he clearly doesn�t go to the hat brim.
Also, watching the video, it�s a lot more striking than stills convey � it�s clearly not a cap adjustment, but something else entirely. He grabs the front of the cap and then rubs his thumb on the underside of the cap, picking whatever it is up. On the video, it�s quite striking.
I won't refer to the same pictures that Zumsteg does, but instead focus on a split second right after Rodriguez retires Brad Wilkerson. This video shot from the high quality 700K MLB.TV feed is completely undoctored, and has only been resized in order to fit in this space.
Notice the very bright white coloration on the black underside of his cap. Incredibly sharp contrast, isn't it? Just to show that it's not stadium lights or a reflection playing tricks with the camera, here's a slightly different angle:
Obviously, there's something there that shouldn't be there. Is it rosin? Perhaps something else? We may never know.
Just for further evidence, I recorded the 9th inning from MLB.TV, and spliced it up to show each instance of K-Rod rubbing his thumb against the substance. By my count, there were at least seven instances of it happening, with some more blatant than others. Decide for yourself:
Video: Francisco Rodriguez Caught Cheating? Normal Version | High-Res Version
Pay special attention to the moment right after Gary Matthews Jr. catches the fly ball, as you can see the white discoloration for yourself. On the X-Mo replay near the end, you can make out a white streak while he's in his pitching motion, especially on the higher resolution video. The rest of the shots are varying degrees of him messing with the substance on his cap.
In any event, it wouldn't be the first time that an Angels pitcher was busted for tampering with the baseball. On June 14th, 2005, reliever Brendan Donnelly was ejected for having pine tar on his glove. Nationals' manager Frank Robinson alleged that Donnelly was using sandpaper as well, but gave it to second baseman Adam Kennedy before the umpires could confiscate it. Crew chief Dale Scott had this to say after the game:
"There was a foreign substance on the heel of the glove. It was definitely pine tar. It was obvious and it was a lot of it."
Needless to say, I think plenty of people should be watching K-Rod from now on - especially opposing teams' dugouts.
(Note: I have the original video and picture files available by request through my MVN e-mail address)
Update: There are unconfirmed reports that the Rangers have filed a complaint with the league office concerning the K-Rod situation. Stay tuned.
30 Comments | in The Season
Reader Comments (30)
Investigation. This kind of cheating must be
stopped.
Rule 8.02(a) Comment: If at any time the ball hits the rosin bag it is in play. In the case of rain or wet field, the umpire may instruct the pitcher to carry the rosin bag in his hip pocket. A pitcher may use the rosin bag for the purpose of applying rosin to his bare hand or hands. Neither the pitcher nor any other player shall dust the ball with the rosin bag; neither shall the pitcher nor any other player be permitted to apply rosin from the bag to his glove or dust any part of his uniform with the rosin bag.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/pitcher_8.jsp
Only don't be surprised when he asks if you've been taking some decidedly non-performance-enhancing drugs.
Come back to the AngelsWin boards and lecture us on the Rangers' magical starting rotation again.
And for this KRod thing you got going here. The white stuff? Nothing but rosin. IF it's vaseline or whatever, his velocity should be going down and there should be a bigger drop in his slider, but it consistently stays up there in mph indicating that he's not doctoring the ball.
What years are you speaking of?
I'm looking through his gamelogs right now, what makes your eyes pop out? I see nothing that should.
there is nothing on the top side of the bill, it has to be something that he placed on the underside
To the guy two posts above me who tested the rosin theory, I find that extremely interesting. I did come across something late last night which caught my eye: on the high-res video, right after GMJ's catch which shows the discoloration on his cap, replay those couple of frames over and over as he moves his head.
To me, it appears there's almost a shimmering or shiny effect there. Vaseline, perhaps? I'll look at it more closely today, but something is definitely not right here.
The substance its not rosin, rosin is dry and powdery and it would take a lot of games (remember they have new hats this year) to make any kind of mark with rosin that distinctive. Plus the substance looks clumpy, rosin is not clumpy.
I understand the hat adjustment may be habit, but the way K-Rod does it bothers me. He takes his top 2 fingers on top of the cap and a thumb on the bottom to adjust his cap. But he clearly in the video on multiple occasions while adjusting the cap his top 2 fingers stay in touch with the brim, while his thumb comes off the brim after the intial touch and then back on again, like a poking motion. I've never seen anyone adjust his brim by just moving his thumb around on the bottom of the brim.
This all seems very obvious, I watched the one game he pitched this year and I thought his adjusting his cap was odd when he was in the bullpen warming up. I can't see how umpires didn't pick this up, especially when he points in the air after a save.
No one has noticed this behavior before and Frankie was pretty good before that. So it seems strange to me that he would need to cheat now.
Now while Oliver Stone would be intrigued by the evidence presented here, let's see what else happens this season. I am sure that Frankie's behavior has caught the eye of the commissioner's office and other teams will be on the lookout for it.
He has the same white shine under his hat.
And if is rosin put there because he is "lazy", it is illegal, as stated in an earlier post.
Obviously, nothing ever came of MLB's investigation, and I haven't heard any more uproar about it. Maybe Selig & Co. told him to knock it off for a while, but I can't say I'm real interested in going back to do another analysis.