At least the league average will be higher than .230 or whatever it’s been lately. Dominant pitching is not fun to watch for the majority of fans, they want to see the long ball!
This is the answer. Instead they are covering balls in mud and letting them dry out so they are covered in a layer of dust which makes them more slippery.
Just my impression from watching, I think a hit ball that doesn’t hit the dirt stays in play. If it just hits grass or is caught it’s good to go. A pitcher will usually try to keep a scuffed ball in play, but the ump usually asks for the ball if it hits dirt.
Ball used to stay in play a lot longer back in the day and pitcher’s would get pissed when balls got tossed out.
Now they just give em away to fans, and pretty much only use pearls.
Yeah cole got really mad last year that a ball got taken out of play. It makes more sense now. He gave up a homerun on the first pitch with the new ball
Because it broke baseball and everyone is hitting .230 lol
I can’t believe that some of the pitchers are getting pissed they are getting checked. It got so obvious and over the top. Every second pitcher had that shiny patch on their forearm. This change was overdue.
great point. Even ten years ago you wouldn’t see a lot of pearls. It would be interesting to see the stats on game balls.
Because offense is more important to the success of a professional sport than defense.
It’s no mystery and every major sport handicaps defense to ensure more offense.
They don’t use pearls at all.
They need to just play with the ball right out of the box like they do at every other level, instead of smearing clay on the ball. The purpose is supposed to be to give them better grip, but as people have said, when it dries out it causes players to lose grip. Also, in the summer when the players are sweating the excess moisture can make it slick. Just stop adding a foreign substance to the ball, period. The pitchers won’t like it, because the brighter ball is easier to see, but who cares. I want to see dingers!
Bonds and those guys could have said the same thing about steroids. LOL So if I am not allowed to cheat, I will get hurt. LMAO LMAO
You’re right but in his defense we have seen two pitchers hurt in the short time they have been doing this. Hell Tyler glasnow will miss all of next season because of his injury.
It’s so easy to tell who was cheating. Check out spin rates. Watch scumbags like Cole and Baum’s spin rates drop. Cheating bastards.
What do you consider cheating? Is sunscreen and rosin cheating? Or only things like spider tack? In the video I posted above Bauer showed he could make rosin and sweat make a ball hang from his flat hand. should that be allowed? I’m not going against what you said I’m honestly curious to know where the line should be drawn since it seems that MLB doesn’t even know. Most hitters are on record saying they don’t mind sunscreen and rosin and actually prefer pitchers using it because they have more control and won’t hit them with pitches as easily.
I’m not so sure about this being a root cause of injuries.
Look at the injured reserved lists over the last 4 or 5 seasons when it comes to pitchers. Believe me, pitchers were using substances during that period.
I’d argue max velocity pitching styles, over usage and year round baseball during youth and teen years are bigger contributors to injuries than a less sticky baseball.
Travel ball has exploded over the last 10 or 15 years and kids are no longer allowing recovery time to their arms by playing other sports. It’s one sport year round.
-Pearl-
A brand new baseball that has been rubbed down with ball mud, causing the ball to no longer be bright white and instead is a pearl white color.
I’m one of those people that gets a sun burn if I’m outside for 20 minutes in the winter so I could see a guy having to use sunscreen to be able to play. The fact that it mixes with rosin is just a side effect of that.
But using spider tack, IMO, is cheating because it does nothing but make things sticky. There’s no other use for it but that. Therefore I think it’s cheating.
Aaron Nola ties a 51 year old record with 10Ks in a row
I was gonna say tree fiddy but Nola ruined it for me…
Ya I see your point. Rosin and sunscreen were used for generations.
But that age old practise has gone nuts and now nobody can hit a fucking single so today’s pitchers get screwed.
Even back then it was against the rules but wasn’t enforced.
I dunno. When I played there wasn’t even pitch counts at higher levels. Now I have mandated pitch counts for ten year olds.
Velocity is the bigger issue imo. Sports science has exploded. All these imaging machines that allow you to see tiny flaws in your delivery are probably the biggest cause imo
I live in a tiny town and there is a kid here who is ten and throws 70mph because he’s had excellent coaching and had access to professional level machinery. When I played there was no real coaches until all star u13 – now any parent out there can get advice from cal ripken on youtube lol