Clay Buchholz named American League pitcher of the month, accused of cheating

Clay Buchholz is having an eventful day. Not only has he been named the American League pitcher of the month for April, but he's also been accused of doctoring the ball by Toronto broadcaster Dirk Hayhurst, also known as "the Garfoose."

While Buchholz did not have the benefit of last night's performance in his campaign, he didn't really need it either. The contest likely came down to some combination of Clay Buchholz, Matt Moore, and Anibal Sanchez, the league's three best in terms of ERA. For Buchholz, the advantage over the two came in terms of innings pitched--37.2 to Sanchez' 33.2 and Moore's 32. Not that his peripherals were anything to scoff at.

As for Hayhurst's accusation, well, I'm having none of it. At least not based on the insubstantial evidence presented so far. Hayhurst did little more than make the accusation--and frankly it's a pretty garbage thing to do. The folks over at the platoon advantage have taken to calling writers who deny Hall of Fame candidates their vote based only on suspicion of steroids suspected plagiarists. I'm not going to do that here, but I think that--and the impressive amount of indignation shown by some of the writers thus "accused" goes to show just how serious even just leveling these sort of accusations is. It is not something to be taken lightly, and not something to be followed up with something as lame as this.

That rosin claim, by the way, is the argument being put forth by John Farrell. It's also fairly likely to be true since Buchholz was "caught" on camera dustin down his arm with rosin before at least one inning. Rosin is, of course, completely legal, which is why they provide that bag behind the mound.

Unless something else comes out about this, I don't think it's worth any attention outside of as a cautionary tale against reckless accusations.

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