Is MLB Juicing Its Balls?
Yesterday afternoon, Carlos Quentin hit his seventh homer of the year, and his third in as many games. His wrist injury has not slowed him down; if anything (keeping in mind it’s still early) he’s on pace to eclipse his power numbers from last season, one where he was an MVP candidate before said injury.
Quentin isn’t the only one experiencing a homer uptick in April: New Yankee Stadium is seeing balls rocket out of the stadium at a high rate.
So, is it possible since MLB anticipated a 20 percent attendance drop this season and the country’s in the midst of an economic downturn the likes of which many have never seen, baseball decided to juice its balls to increase homers in a ploy to get fans in the seats?
That’s, in part, what Greg Rybarczyk of Hit Tracker argues:
So, very early this season (actually on the second full day of games), I had already noticed that balls were seemingly flying farther than they usually do, so I checked my numbers, and noticed that the standard distances of all the home runs around MLB were a lot longer than those hit in 2008. Since then, I’ve continues tracking this, and what was little more than a feeling and some numbers off a very small sample size have become a lot more compelling: the first 350 home runs this year are flying, on average, about 6 feet farther than last year.
Obviously, this is not 100 percent proof. But, as Rybarczyk notes, it is pretty compelling. (UPDATE: In the comments, Rybarczyk notes he’s not arguing the balls are “juiced,” but rather there is likely a change in the manufacturing process/the specs are wider for ball assemblage.) And in light of baseball’s recent history, it’s a question that needs to be asked.
HT: Tommy Craggs
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