Umm, Manfred said the manufacturer is just getting better at centering the balls. That’s completely believable.
Pfft. Haters. Forgot who it was, but the guy that raised his average from .220 to .317 did it solely through hard work, practice, and discipline. Quit taking away from his accomplishment.
I hate the idea of MLB juicing balls, though. And if you are going to do it, at least be upfront about it. And as far as PEDs, just look at Jason Giambi before/during/after.
I don’t care if the baseballs and/or players are juiced to the [uck fay]ing gills. I just want MLB Commissioner’s Office to be honest about it. But given that the current commissioner learned from a complete piece of shit human being, I’m not counting on it.
I wonder if the strike-zone cam has made an impact, too. I don't think that there is any question that the zone has become more consistent among umpires, especially since it's easy to grade accuracy, since that little box appeared on the tv screen. And the steroids probably help, too.
And oh yeah... https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ml...-system-were-all-united/ar-AAE81oB?li=BBnb7Kz Now that the players are seeing the results of the deal that allowed clubs to pay young guys nothing so old guys could get mega-deals, they are surprised that not as many mega-deals are happening as they'd like. Owners, I'm sure, will be completely surprised that screwing the players doesn't sit well with labor. Meanwhile, Manny Machado offers sympathy for both sides from the yacht he is sailing around his private island.
Players: "Don't blame us, owners just need to control their spending!" *owners don't spend as much* Players: "COLLUSION!!"
I'm always surprised at the odd factions that come out in support or opposition in the battle of multi-millionaire players against billionaire owners playing a kids' game in publicly funded stadiums that sell tickets to the public at insanely high prices. Suddenly, capitalists become socialists and vice versa when the hometown club is involved.
Except, just like the history of steroid use makes it difficult or impossible to trust that baseball players today are clean, the history of collusion among MLB owners makes it difficult or impossible to trust that they aren’t doing it again.
When you collectively bargain with a group of owners, the owners typically collectively bargain back.
The zone on TV is wrong. Doesn’t adjust to heights of players, etc. There has been a bigger change in zone though since umpires began with their graded system for strikes and balls. Now those guys are even tracked at the AAA level. Cream definitely rises to the top. Unfortunately they get a really bad rep. But the league average is around 92% correct for the whole year. That’s stout.
He said something like "these are hand-stitched balls...there's going to be some variation" as part of that explanation
Thoughts? My thought is it is stupid beyond belief, and takes away the ability to pitch into the dirt for risk of a "pass ball" when no one is on base and it isn't strike three.
