The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

by Ben Lindbergh

In the first inning of his April 30 start against the Rangers, Bauer threw nine fastballs. They were unlike any fastballs he’d thrown before or would throw after in 2018. The spin rate of those first-inning fastballs against Texas averaged 2,597 rpm (at 93.5 mph). During the rest of that start, the figure fell to a much more typical 2,302 rpm (93.2 mph). For one inning, Bauer had increased his fastball spin rate nearly 300 rpm. What happened? “No comment,” Bauer told reporters the next day, when people pointed out the rpm spike and asked if he’d applied a substance to the ball. Bauer went on to make additional comments to a swarm of reporters that gathered around him as the SpinGate controversy blossomed. “There is a problem in baseball right now that has to do with sticky substances and spin rates,” Bauer said. “We know how it affects spin rate and we know how spin rate affects outcomes and pitches and movement that have a big difference in a game, a season, and each individual player’s career.… The people who choose not to do it are at a competitive disadvantage.”