Boston Red Sox broadcasters speculated that Melanated Mound Marauder Chase Burns was tipping his pitches. The highly-touted prospect — who was lights out in his MLB debut against the Yankees, striking out the first five batters – got smoked for seven runs, five of them earned in a ⅓ of an inning against the Red Sox.  

“I can guarantee you (Reds manager Terry) Francona’s gonna have to look at some video,” he said.

When asked by his broadcast partner if he thinks Burns was tipping pitches,” Yeah, I’d say so,” said the announcer.

 

 

Was Cincinnati Reds Rookie Chase Burns Tipping His Pitches? 

 

ESPN’s baseball gurus, Brian Kenny and Carlos Pena discussed the outing and the possibility that Burns was tipping his pitches, especially considering the fact that Red Sox manager Alex Cora is a genius at deciphering pitches. 

 

“There was some talk about him tipping pitches, which is interesting. You saw this stuff going on, maybe he’s closing his glove too much on the slider, then he keeps it a little bit wider on the fastball,” said Pena, who added, “he was throwing fastballs out over the plate. He didn’t sequence well.”

 

Pena said the best pitchers in the game who are consistently effective with no huge swings in production from one start to the next, simply utilize their stuff better. 

 

“You can throw 100 and still get lit up,” Pena explained. “You can have the nastiest slider and still get lit up because it’s about pitchers working in synergy, it’s about sequencing. It’s about tunneling. It’s not just about throwing gas. How many examples do we have of guys throwing 100 miles an hour that get hit. Your margin for error is larger if you have great stuff, but it’s not necessarily a guarantee that you’re going to succeed (just because you throw heat).”

 

Carlos Pena Says Chase Burns Wasn’t Locating Or Sequencing His Pitches

 

In other words, pitching at the major league level becomes more of an artform than a test of your natural ability. All of that works right up until you face your second MLB team and they reduce you to a mere mortal while you try to survive and get the best hitters on earth out from 60 feet 6 inches using different stuff than that which has helped you dominate throughout your career. 

 

Kenny doubled down on the possibility that the Red Sox were reading his pitches. “They’ve got cameras trained on these guys, scouts, probably baseball Op kids doing AI. They study anything,” 

Pena claims when he played it wasn’t uncommon to detect the kind of pitch that was coming from certain tendencies that the pitcher had with his glove. 

Added Pena: “When I looked at the tape (on the split screen) it was just too close for me. I can’t say that the angle of the glove is any different. Maybe there’s a little bit more of a peak on the slider than on the fastball, so he (Chase Burns) flattened his glove out on the fastball and as a slider he has it a little more tilted.”

Reds Organization Reportedly Believes Burns Was Tipping His Pitches 

The Reds also speculate that it’s a strong possibility Burns was tipping pitches and that’s probably the best answer that their PR people can give, considering how rough Burns’ second career outing was. Reds ace Hunter Greene had similar rough games when he wasn’t locating his pitches or mixing them correctly and he gave up a few clunkers in-between his mastery early in his career. 

 

This will be interesting to observe when Burns takes the mound for his next start.