The fallout from baseball’s cheating scandals will have a long-lasting effect not only on the Houston Astros but all of baseball — and J.D. Martinez isn’t very pleased.
The Boston Red Sox designated hitter is methodical when it comes to studying film. He watches tape in the batting cage during batting practice, and he also spends a lot of time during games reviewing film. But if Rob Manfred has his way, Martinez and the rest of the sport’s hitters won’t have that luxury moving forward.
Manfred revealed at a press conference Sunday baseball will take additional measures in an attempt to curb illegal sign stealing. One change that could be on the way is restricting players from watching tape during games.
Martinez isn’t happy about that possibility.
“That’s who I am. So obviously I heard that too and he said there’d be some restrictions but I think to go out there and take all video and you’re not allowed to look at at-bats is a little ridiculous in my opinion,” Martinez told reporters in Fort Myers on Monday. “All these kids now, when I was in the minor leagues, we had video systems. It’s something you grew up with. You kind of always go back and you can kind of check something in your swing. It helps you throughout the game and just to be able to refer — to just all of a sudden take that away is just a little extreme.”
Martinez understands why there’s a need for change, but he just hopes it’s not complete eradication of the video system.
“If you want to delay it an inning, if you want to do something, I promise you now that the at-bats doesn’t help anything in the sign-stealing type of deal,” he claimed.
Martinez explained that the in-game video feeds players can access to study film is the TV broadcast and it would be hard to do any sort of cheating.
“The way the At-Bat system works is like you’re kind of watching the game live. You’re watching it on NESN. You watch it on NESN; can you steal the signs? … It’s too hard. It’s cutting in and out. You know, there’s a guy eating a sausage and you’re talking about him eating his sausage and then all of a sudden, there’s the pitch. I think it’s a little bit extreme to say all of that (and take it away).
“I think (baseball) should become more informed on exactly what you can do and actually talk to players who have played. … Whatever you have to do, but to sit there and take it away, for me, it’s what makes me me.”
Whether MLB listens to the pleas of players like Martinez remains to be seen, but Manfred and Co. have plenty on their plates to worry about at the moment.
