To summarize the Houston Astros’ Alex Bregman, no, not every pitcher his team gets hits off of is tipping his pitches.
To be fair, the Stros knew what the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tyler Glasnow was throwing (and he admitted as much). There was a possibility they knew something about James Paxton’s pitches, although the New York Yankees denied it.
In Game 3 of the 2019 ALCS, FOX Sports’ Alex Rodriguez thought the Astros had picked up on what Luis Severino was throwing. In a series of tweets, he noticed Houston hitters were “almost exclusively swinging at all fastballs.” Severino, for what it’s worth, was guilty of tipping in the 2018 playoffs, according to Aaron Boone last year.
But Bregman denied it:
Every time we get hits now, I think everyone thinks somebody’s tipping. But we’re just trying to compete (and) put together good at-bats.”
This is just a reminder that everyone’s paranoid about pitch tipping these days. That’s what Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before Game 3. From NJ Advance Media:
“The pitch-tipping stuff has grown to a level unlike any other era of baseball I’ve been a part of. The paranoia is real, though, and it’s real across all 30 teams. …
“It’s kind of funny to see how paranoid the entire industry is in giving away their pitches. If they don’t want to tip their pitches, then they should take consideration into doing the same thing over and over. Human behavior is really hard, but I don’t worry too much about it. We take great precaution in changing signs, talking to our pitchers, looking at video, making sure we’re not giving anything away. It shouldn’t overshadow the quality of players or what’s going on on the field.”
