Los Angeles Dodgers: Bud Norris Using Foreign Substances?

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitching Bud Norris had an interesting substance on his glove arm during his start in Arizona on Friday night.

Batters are allowed to use things like pine tar to help them get a better grip on the bat. Pitchers are not. They can use the rosin bag to help them get some extra grip. Yet, there are times when a pitcher may look to use these substances, or to use something like sunscreen or oils, to improve their movement. Bud Norris of the Los Angeles Dodgers may have fallen into that latter category.

I was flipping through the different games on Friday night and stopped on the Dodgers/Diamondbacks game and decided to watch a little bit. The D-Backs broadcast was talking about Bud Norris’ glove arm. Why? Well….

The substance on his glove arm looked a little too shiny to be sweat. Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen Will Smith and Michael Pineda each suspended for using foreign substances the help them get a better grip on the baseball. 

The Diamondbacks didn’t complain about it and Patrick Corbin didn’t exactly help the Diamondbacks, getting knocked out after four innings. Norris helped himself out with the bat picking up a couple of hits and an RBI as well.

Next: Best pitchers available

The foreign substance bears watching though. Has Norris used it all season long? Will the team he faces in his next start complain? Has this lead to Norris recent success? This just leads to more questions rather than answers about Norris. Keep watch on this over the next couple weeks.