Posted on 07/09/2019 8:30:43 PM PDT by Trump20162020
CLEVELAND -- American League All-Star Game starter Justin Verlander told ESPN on Monday that the balls used in Major League Baseball games this season are "a f---ing joke" and that he believes "100 percent" that the league has implemented juiced balls to increase offense.
"It's a f---ing joke," said Verlander, an eight-time All-Star who is starting his second All-Star Game on Tuesday. "Major League Baseball's turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you've got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f---ing company. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it's not a guess as to what happened. We all know what happened. Manfred the first time he came in, what'd he say? He said we want more offense. All of a sudden he comes in, the balls are juiced? It's not coincidence. We're not idiots."
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
How does he really feel? :)
I wonder if he’s gonna be in trouble for this.
The Twins have 166 home runs so far. They had 166 home runs in the entire 2018 season.
it makes watching professional sports not as fun because you know when the fix is in.....
I think the NCAA is the same.....
and nascar...
Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs accounted for 20 percent of the MLB total that year.
pre-determined outcomes is what our entire education system is based on guess its spreading
Could you imagine what Mickey Mantle could have done with these balls? Heck, even Dave Kingman.
We haven’t had a good corked bat scandal for a while either. Juiced ball, juiced players, and corked bats. WOW that’d be interesting. Mantle and Maris would have feasted.
At least they’re not underinflated.
Yes, MLB owns the ball manufacturing... Verlander, as a pitcher, should be aware of ongoing discussions to move the mound 2’ further away from home plate. Plus, mindful of past changes in the mound height.
“I wonder if he’s gonna be in trouble for this.”
Good question. Verlander is fine. He has pure talent and is correct. Manfred is an unethical leader and MLB should get a new leader.
Verlanders last 3 starts..hes given up 10 home runs...his previous 15 starts...4
Buck Showalter claims that he could...just by ‘feel’, pick out the ‘juiced’ ball from the sack...blindfolded.
I think that they ought to move the mound back UP. Pitchers are blowing their arms out an an alarming rate. They are on ridiculously low pitch counts, they don’t work out much between starts, the average number of pitchers per team per game is 4.
If all balls are equal for both teams, what MLB is really doing is rewriting the history books for the sport.
Same thing can be said of Golf. The equipment today has made many courses obsolete for pros. There are LPGA players driving the green on par 4’s now. When I first started playing with my persimmon wood driver in the 80’s, I could drive 200 yards. 3 decades later with a bad back, I can drive 300 yds with an aluminum driver the size of slop pail. The material is many times harder and sweet spot is many times as big as it once was.
Ruth out homered teams ninety times, between the years of 1918 and 1933, not to mention besting pairs of teams eighteen times.
BABE RUTH HOME RUN TOTALS VS TEAMS:
TEAM COMPARISONS 1918-1933 HRs > AL > NL
1918 11 4 1
1919 29 4 6
1920 54 7 7
1921 59 5 3 (a)
1922 35 1 1
1923 41 2 (b) 1
1924 46 5 3
1925 25 0 0
1926 47 5 4
1927 60 7 5
1928 54 4 3
1929 46 2 (c) 2
1930 49 1 0
1931 46 3 3
1932 41 1 0
1933 34 0 0 (d)
(a) In addition, Ruth tied Brooklyn Dodgers in 1921
(b) In addition, Ruth tied Detroit Tigers in 1923
(c) In addition, Ruth tied St. Louis Browns in 1929
(d) In addition, Ruth tied Cincinnati Reds in 1933
Baseball is becoming increasingly a game of all or nothing hitting.
In 2018, 25% of runs scored were home runs.
In 2018, 13% of hits were home runs.
In 2018 there were 41,207 strikeouts, topping last year’s 40,104.
For the 2018 season there were more strikeouts than hits for the first time in baseball history, 41,207 strikeouts, 41,019 hits.
There were 6,105 home runs in both leagues last year, a record.
Since the year 2000, there have been 97,343 home runs.
The contact hitter is becoming a thing of the past. (Though the 2018 Red Sox are a refreshing exception, or so it seems to me.)
Joe Sewell is the best contact hitter of all time.
Joe Sewell struck out 114 times in his entire career! In 1925 in 608 at bats he struck out all of 4 times. Sewell holds the record for the lowest strikeout rate in major league history, striking out on average only once every 62.5 at-bats, and the most consecutive games without a strikeout, at 115.
Even Babe Ruth never struck out over 100 times in a season.
Link below are stats for the 2018 season:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2018.shtml
what does this mean? what are they doing to the balls? It didnt say at the site.
AAA league started using MLB basesalls this season.
Big increase in AAA league HRs this year
Quelle koinkidink.
Since MLB thinks the way to go is more offense, maybe they can finish the job by allowing composite bats, and not make fielders bat at all, just have four DHs, and break all of the offensive records.
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