Is MLB's ball juiced? Pitchers strongly believe something's not right

[Denver Native (Carol)]

MIAMI - Major League Baseball pitchers have spent this season trying to stay cool about it, keeping their angst to themselves, hoping it was nothing more than an anomaly.

Well, with the game's home-run surge only getting more absurd by the day, with more homers being hit now than at any time in baseball history, this proud pitching fraternity can no longer keep quiet.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, the Rawlings baseball manufacturers, and any number of lab techs keep telling us the baseballs haven’t changed this year.

For those making a living throwing these same baseballs, something awfully strange is going on.

“One hundred percent,’’ Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price said. “We have all talked about it.’’

No one is publicly accusing Major League Baseball of secretly juicing the baseballs, and testing is still is assuring that most players aren’t juicing their bodies, but the majority of pitchers interviewed by USA TODAY Sports believe the balls used this season have changed from a year ago.

rest - https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2017/06/29/mlb-juiced-ball-home-runs/440203001/

[MOtorboat]

Some in the sabermetrics community have been talking about this for a couple of years now. I know Verlander told a Ringer writers (I can't remember if it was Ben Lindburgh or Michael Baumann) that he thought the stitching on the seems was smaller and harder to grip and he was throwing more pitches without using seems. I believe Sam Miller at ESPN has also been looking into it as well as Carson Cistulli at Fangraphs.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

I saw a dude hit an opposite field homer today that went 410-420 feet and remember thinking he didn't look like he was built to do that

[MOtorboat]

I saw a dude hit an opposite field homer today that went 410-420 feet and remember thinking he didn't look like he was built to do that

Who was it?

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

Who was it?

I don't remember the name, it was during the Marlins / Brewers game.

[MOtorboat]

I don't remember the name, it was during the Marlins / Brewers game.

Must have been Orlando Arcia.

He does spray the ball a lot http://www.fangraphs.com/spraycharts.aspx?playerid=13185&position=SS&type=battedball, but yeah, that's probably not one you'll see that often.

He was the top prospect in the organization last year.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=27976


Every scout I spoke to about Arcia over the course of the 2015 season used the word improved, or some variation on it, and more than one source called him the most improved offensive player they saw. He has always had solid bat control and the ability to make contact, but he incorporated more of his lower half, and the added strength now allows him to make quality contact to all parts of the field. The swing path is more conducive to line drives, but there’s enough loft and extension for him to hit a handful of homers and put the ball into the opposite-field gap. He’s also a plus runner capable of stealing 30 bases a year if he gets on base enough, which he should.

[Al Wilson 4 Mayor]

I believe that was the name. I remember him being a young Latino

[chazoe60]

It seems like when I was a kid the really good hitters would hit 25-35 HRs or so but the contact hitters would hit .340-.350 and there would be a bunch of guys over .300.
Now it seems like contact hitters are nonexistent. .250 used to be thought of as a very mediocre average now if you hit .250 but have 20 HRs by the break you're an MVP candidate.
I don't like the trend myself. I think everybody swinging for the fences in damn near every situation is dumb baseball and makes for a lot of ugly swings. Maybe this is why DJ Lemahieu is my favorite player, he hits for average and has an old school oppo approach.

[Denver Native (Carol)]

As we noted over the weekend, Major League Baseball saw its single-month home run record fall in June, shattering a 17-year-old mark. As we’ve noted elsewhere recently, there were two studies released in the month of June which strongly suggest that the reason for the significant spike in home runs since the middle of the 2015 season was due to alterations in the construction of the baseball. The ball, to put it colloquially, is “juiced,” with lower seams leading to less air resistance, allowing it to fly farther.

Major League Baseball took issue with this notion over the weekend by sending a memo to clubs ostensibly refuting the idea of juiced balls, but actually not really refuting anything at all. In fact, it was downright disingenuous. Bob Nightengale wrote about it at USA Today. You can see a photo of the actual memo here. The upshot:

“The baseball in use today tests well within the established guidelines on every key performance metric. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the composition of the ball has changed in any way that would lead to a meaningful impact on on-field play.”

Except . . . the memo compares the balls used now, in 2017, vs. the balls used in 2016. Which is beside the point, as we’re seeing the same home run spike now that we saw in 2016. The studies conducted by Mitchel Lichtman, Ben Lindbergh and Rob Arthur, in contrast, compare the balls used before the middle of 2015 — when the home run rate spiked immediately and dramatically — and the balls used since. Those studies show a significant difference. In light of that, MLB’s study, if you can even call it that, is an Orwellian P.R. document. It’s practically an attempted con job.

For his part, one of the men who discovered the changes in the ball replied to me on Twitter yesterday, responding to MLB’s so-called study. Mitchel Lichtman:

rest - http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2017/07/03/major-league-baseball-releases-a-disingenuous-statement-regarding-juiced-balls/

[OrangeHoof]

There were some baseballs found in Roger Clemens' refridgerator drinking beer with needles stuck in their butts. Mrs. Clemens admitted she used them for a swimsuit layout.

[MOtorboat]

I'm just not that offended by this as much as Craig Calcatarra seems to be. At least one analyst he cites (Ben Lindbergh, whom I read and listen to almost daily) isn't offended or upset about it at all, he's just fascinated by the tweaks. There are other factors too, most notably a philosophical shift from traditional hitting terminology and coaching to angle and velocity off the bat which is an entirely new metric because of the invent and implementation of statcast and ballpark monitoring systems, which is just the last three seasons.

Is MLB slightly disengenuous, sure, and that's a problem, I suppose, but I can't say it's a scandal. Home runs are fun. Let's just have fun.

[OrangeHoof]

One suspected juicer...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBNJLO5XgAACm5w.jpg

[weazel]

Stroman is blaming his blister on something new with the balls... :rolleyes: