Kccitystar Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Quote MLB and its commissioner, Rob Manfred, have repeatedly denied rumors that the ball has been altered in any way — or “juiced” — to generate more homers. But a large and growing body of research shows that, beginning in the middle of the 2015 season, the MLB baseball began to fly further. And new research commissioned by “ESPN Sport Science,” a show that breaks down the science of sports, suggests that MLB baseballs used after the 2015 All-Star Game were subtly but consistently different than older baseballs. The research, performed by the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and Kent State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, reveals changes in the density and chemical composition of the baseball’s core — and provides our first glimpse inside the newer baseballs. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/juiced-baseballs/ Consider that there was a drop in slider effectiveness last year, and the development of blisters by pitchers who are gripping the ball too tight, and that pitchers were finding baseballs to be too slick in the postseason, among other things, it makes you wonder. It's gonna suck to be a league average pitcher for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 But the commissioner denied it, so you can't argue with science Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim825 Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 54 minutes ago, Homer said: But the commissioner denied it, so you can't argue with science I don't know about that. They posted that on the Internet, and they couldn't do that if it wasn't true . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 This talk has gone on before too. Remember back in '87 Jim when there was practically a season long debate about this? Wade Boggs of Boston hit 24 home runs that year. No one could believe it. The most he had in any season was eleven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kccitystar Posted March 2, 2018 Author Share Posted March 2, 2018 1 hour ago, Jim825 said: I don't know about that. They posted that on the Internet, and they couldn't do that if it wasn't true . . . You really think someone would do that, just go on the Internet and tell lies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim825 Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 2 hours ago, Kccitystar said: You really think someone would do that, just go on the Internet and tell lies? I sure hope not, because it would be a real shame if that letter I got from the Nigerian prince offering me a portion of his $69 million fortune turned out to be fake. Especially since I already sent all that money to a lawyer in Nigeria to get things moving. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 11 minutes ago, Jim825 said: I sure hope not, because it would be a real shame if that letter I got from the Nigerian prince offering me a portion of his $69 million fortune turned out to be fake. Especially since I already sent all that money to a lawyer in Nigeria to get things moving. . . What the??? I got the same e-mail and I got a notice that I should get my money any day now. Or was it any year now? I forget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzcoolj21 Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Feels like the perfect storm of juiced baseballs and the recent importance of launch angle. Interested to see how much higher the home run totals go with more people changing their swings this offseason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinpanalley Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 On 3/2/2018 at 3:10 PM, Jim825 said: I don't know about that. They posted that on the Internet, and they couldn't do that if it wasn't true . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabugo Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 From what I read, it did indeed happen, but it was unintentional. Apparently Rawlings decided to change the manufacturing process to make all balls more 'equal' and they inadvertedly created a ball that's more hitter friendly. Couple that with the so called 'fly-ball revolution' and you've got a lot more home-runs. Hitter love it, pitchers hate it, and MLB still employs numbnuts as comissioners. Is that a tradition or something?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottybilly Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Its so obvious the ball is juiced. Look at all the pitchers that have had chronic blister issues for trying to achieve a firmer grip on the ball and seams. The same thing happened in 1987 too. I remember Jose Uribe of the Giants hit 11 or 12 homeruns, and I doubt he hit that combined over several seasons after that. Chicks still dig the long ball, but now owners don't see a power hitter as a highly paid asset any longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinpanalley Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Well wasn't it Verlander (or Scherzinger?) who flat out said in an interview last year that he was certain that balls he was throwing that he knew shouldn't go any farther than maybe line drives to the wall were going out and he knew the ball he was holding felt different. He said something like, "these are our tools, we use them every day, we could recognise the tiniest change in them blindfolded, you can't tell us nothing has changed". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabugo Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 What I don't get is why deny it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 3 hours ago, sabugo said: What I don't get is why deny it? Because it generates more interest in the game. More people will attend games just for the chance to see some guy hit one 500 or so feet and they can brag that they were there when it happened. When Mickey Mantle hit his 565 foot home run in April of 1953 in Washington the only thing that happened was a member of the Yankee front office left the park to locate the ball and to measure how far it went. That's it. As far as I know no footage of this home run exists. Today when someone hits a long home run they immediately show replays from every angle you can think of while giving you the exit velocity of it, like that matters. They will milk it for all that it is worth and in turn makes more people come out to the ballpark. 4 hours ago, scottybilly said: Its so obvious the ball is juiced. Look at all the pitchers that have had chronic blister issues for trying to achieve a firmer grip on the ball and seams. The same thing happened in 1987 too. I remember Jose Uribe of the Giants hit 11 or 12 homeruns, and I doubt he hit that combined over several seasons after that. Chicks still dig the long ball, but now owners don't see a power hitter as a highly paid asset any longer. I remember that season very well. Mark McGwire was a rookie that year. He hit 49 home runs. This article right here describes it pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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