1st
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You should send this to your mom:
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Ump’s strike zone in the 1st last night was an abomination. Tuned in enthused about the game, and watched 10 minutes tops.
Berrios didn’t help his cause, but the home plate ump was an invalid.
It’s interesting how much more subdued the celebration is compared to what it would be in the US.
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Watching baseball in Japan is on my bucket list.
Observations from the first weekend. In my view, there are way too many terrible teams, way too many homers, way too many blowouts, way too many scrub relievers, no rotation depth anywhere, games are running way too long. In other words, it is what it has been the last several seasons. Still have stupid shit like runners appearing on second base for no reason, other than to get this shit over with ASAP. And what’s next? Getting rid of the shift to generate more “action”? But somehow getting the whole thing over with quicker? I don’t really have answers, but one suggestion that I make all the time. Deaden the damn ball. A lot.
Don’t they need to suppress both HRs and SOs? Strikeouts are also boring as hell, only balls in play makes baseball “fun”. I think if they just deaden the ball but with high strikeout rates, it’ll just be 1968 again.
I think strikeouts will go down with a deader ball. Hitters will be looking more to make contact instead of swinging for the fences. Pitchers will be more inclined to pitch to contact. They can’t now because contact goes over the fence.
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That would definitely be the case to some extent. I do think that some of the increase in strikeouts is from pitchers getting better. Although apparently a lot of pitchers being “better” has come from them doctoring the ball. So maybe dead ball plus enforcing the rules about illegal substances would do it. I could see lowering the mound a bit might also help.
I don’t know if they’re getting better. I think starters are bearing down harder, throwing harder and nibbling more because if they don’t, they’ll get lit up. I think that’s why they’re throwing 100 pitches and not making it past the fifth inning. They’re going for strikeouts more because they have to.
Hitters have gone increasingly to uppercut swings and they’re being rewarded by the lively ball. If the uppercut swing was failing for them, they might level it out.
well toronto has the offense to come back from a big deficit, they also have the staff to give up a big lead, game is never gonna be over until it’s over
Before the league started cracking down on substances on the ball, a lot of pitchers were throwing some pretty crazy velocity / movement pitches. You can see it in the spin rates:
I couldn’t get through the paywall on that story, but I know spin rates are down. I don’t know, but I think MLB needs to understand that a moderate degree of stickiness is needed for control. I guess its a delicate balance. But it comes down to really figuring out how to make and prepare the ball in the way that best facilitates the sport.
Didn’t tennis have issues some years back when the racquets were too powerful and the balls were too lively, and nobody could return a serve? Not a tennis fan, but I vaguely remember something like that happening.
I’m a bowler and the governing body of the sport just banned a bunch of balls for amateur bowlers because they are “too soft”.
Bowling is weird because its gotten to the point where the equipment is a key part of how you play the game. I guess golf is similar, but if the technology was there to allow duffers to hit juiced balls 400 yards off the tee, I’m’ not sure it would make for a better game. I think the same is true in baseball.
This is probably a stupid question, but how exactly do you make the ball deader?
I think they just have the manufacturer just wind the twine a bit looser so that the ball isn’t as hard.
Not a ball maker either, but I would think they could use a different kind of rubber core. For a long time, MLB said they had no control of the baseballs, but then they bought out the main ball manufacturer and I think Manfred now says they can change the ball so that a 400 foot fly ball only travels 398 or something like that.
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What if they just make the ball heavier? That will slow pitching down, but will it keep more balls in play?
Justin Verlander has been one of the most outspoken critics of the MLB ball issues. I think he makes good points. The HR numbers changed way too much for no apparent reason other than MLB thought juiced baseballs would result in more excitement. But instead, it has wrecked some of the strategy of the game.
It’s mostly the court surfaces responsible for too many aces. They’ve slowed everything down to make points “more exciting,” and it’s really evident in the rally length data. Simultaneously, the poly string technology emerged and really changed the game a lot. It has actually caused complete extinction of certain strategies (serve & volley) and has made shots like the one-handed backhand an endangered species. I think it’s arguable whether the game is more exciting, because watching dudes spin 50 shots back and forth really isn’t that interesting.
I was watching a lot of stuff about bowling recently and was surprised to see Belmonte has been that successful. I think the last time I bowled or paid attention to it was right around the time he started to get attention on tour. Now he’s the all-time majors winner (14) with 30 tour wins? And yet I couldn’t find too many articles or people claiming that he is the GOAT. I don’t how GOATs are judged in bowling but seems like a lot of people were biased against his “cheating” style or complaining about the new cover materials?