(Passan) Verlander: MLB juicing balls for more offense

Correa and Gurriel got a hold of 2 last night that I swore were gone. If you ask Correa, there is no doubt in my mind he thought it would be a home run.

Also, did anyone see the Dodgers celebrate a little early the other night thinking Will Smith hit a walk off? Could have been wind at play but not at Minute Maid Park last night. These guys know when they get a hold of one and you can tell on a couple of occasions that they are surprised the ball didn't leave the park.

 

Read article, and it appears ball has been de-juiced all the way back to similar to the 2016 ball, slightly juiced, but not close to levels in 2019 and 2017. The difference is about 24 balls not homers in postseason would have been homers in regular season. That's more than 1 homer less per game. This should hurt the Astros offense, but Cole and Verlander, on full rest, should have ERAs around 2 if they pitch like they did in the regular season.

 

This is good news as it would hurt the jankees even more.

 

The balls, in my opinion, changed. The data seems to substantiate it. Could be better pitching, but not likely. Think we all see it. Not sure if it helps or hurts us because the Yankees get a little more distance than we do. Altuve is unfazed, but other like Alvarez are hitting flyouts. Either way, it should help our pitchers since stringing hit together is difficult on our Cy Young dudes.

 

I'd rather the homers really be earned and play for contact and base runners.

 

If it's any help, we are supposed to get a cold snap in NYC next week. Games 4 and 5 will be in the 50's with a good WNW wind. Plus game 4 will have a slightly soggy field.

 

So these issues were corrected for the playoffs?

 

Wake me up when they find a BS explanation how the AAA HR numbers also spiked to unprecedented levels once they started using MLB balls this year.

It wasn't just a MLB coaching philosophy or MLB ball preparation issue.

 

I swear if there is another 4+ homer game...

 

What we saw wasn't baseball. It's was a joke again. Really don't think it was hot air. Los Aneles hasn't changed over the last hundred years. Something else did. Hope they make a course correction for the ALCS. We are watching world class pitchers get hammered like it's tee ball and that's just not my version of good sport. I believe Verlander and Cole. 24 homers in 4 games. Not right. .

 

seriously how can a league that has been mired in the steroid controversy and then balls being juiced or not being juiced claim to try to punish anyone for not following the rules. this on top of their salary structure just being unfair to a point that some teams can field a team salary of over 200 million and then compete with teams whose salary is less than 100 million. just by being in NY, LA etc, teams have an advantage over other teams. The most unfair rules that prevent a level playing field out of any of the major sports

 

Paying more money for past performance doesn't always guarantee success.... but having deeper pockets allows you to make more mistakes and have more room for error, yet still be good.

 

Not to mention the fact that you don't have to develop your players as much cause you can wait for them to develop then just sign them.

 

Are you referring to us stealing signs when you say enforcing the rules?

 

MLB doesn't like the Astros. Why couldn't they have done this when the Astros had Cole and a healthy Verlander? Deadening the ball likely hurts the Astros offense more than the other top offenses. Though, Javier had probably 4-5 balls within first couple of rows last year of which 2-3 probably are off the wall.

 

https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/02/09/mlb-ball-is-live-daily-cover