OT: Because Science. Evidence for (Slightly) Juiced Baseballs
Following a tweet by (the still-adorning-my-jersey former favorite Tiger) Justin Verlander about home run trends, and air to speed ratios of unladen swallows, I combed through the responses. Buried within them I found this article: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/juiced-baseballs. And it's a fascinating effing read. Science breaks down the innards of MLB game balls over the years before and after the 2015 all-star game, and finds some gems.
TL;DR - there's enough evidence to suggest that the balls are in fact "juiced," or at the least different enough from balls of years past, that they can explain the insane rise in home runs and deep balls in a post-steriod era.
In addition, the "average" player work out more and also possible that they are using drugs that can not be traced - yet.
It's possible. I train (poorly) at a local gym in Tampa that services a lot of pros and ball players in the minors - the workouts they go through are insane. Atheltic machines, those guys. But at the same time it's hard to ignore some hard evidence that the balls have indeed changed.
the 2015 All Star game. The balls did.
The balls aren't slightly juiced either. The differences are subtle, but they directly lead to a lot more home runs.
My original post (the first one in this thread) was exactly the argument you're making and you downvoted me for it. SMH. With great MGoPoints comes great responsibility, try reading before reacting.
If you look under "voting details" you can see who did. I didn't downvote your or his posts either.
Am I blind or were you agreeing with a post that said the recent jump in HRs may be also due to players training more or drugs? It's a silly argument. If you can't stand to be criticized for it, too bad. Maybe look in the mirror before jumping on someone for their reading.
Time to get some new spectacles for that beak, you may in fact be going blind. Let's break it down since you can't seem to stay on track here:
OP suggests that the balls changed.
East German Judge: "In addition..." suggests that maybe the players have better training and perhaps unknown drugs. IN ADDITION TO THE BALLS CHANGING.
Me: "It's possible, here's an anecdotal story that may lend to it" Not denying the possibility of additional factors for a situation in which we're not privy to all the details is reasonable, because we're not know-it-alls.
Mr. Miggle: "You two are insane if you think that's all changed since the 2015 All Star game. The balls did."
Me: "I was agreeing that the balls have changed"
Mr. Miggle: "Am I blind or were you agreeing with a post that said the recent jump in HRs may be also due to players training more or drugs?"
You are blind. I wasn't agreeing or asserting that was the case. I was stating that it's possible. Because that's reasonable to do. Critisism is fine, but I'm not the one with the reading comprehension issues.
Grumpy Internet Guy is Grumpy, News at 11.
chicks dig the long ball.
The talking heads for the league routinely deny that the ball is different. They get really squirmy when "juiced" is mentioned.
or something
Effectively Wild (a podcast) covered this today also:
https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/effectively-wild-episode-1183-extra-ext…
It's an interview with the researcher and goes over the same information.
On the radio the other day, I was hearing about the push to keep the balls for games stored in temperature-controlled rooms starting in 2019 (some teams might even do this right now), I think, after piles of complaints from pitchers about the overall behavior of the ball and the glut of home runs in recent years.
I understand humidity being controlled in a storage room. How exactly is altitude controlled? Is the room burined deep in the mountain at a lower elevation? What happens when they bring them outside in the stadium? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yu Darvish blew the world series last year for the Dodgers due to wonky balls. visibly different balls were being given to the pitchers. several times you even saw other pitchers throw the balls away. Darvish had zero control and didn't make it out of the second inning in both games he started. for a guy with such great control it was truly odd to see him missing his spots on so many pitches.
MLB hides behind the fact that the balls conform to their standards. The standards have broad tolerances, so effectively means nothing.
They are juiced. Hoskins, Judge, Trea Turner come to the majors and hit more homers in a half season than complete seasons in the minors.
There's more examples.