Right, I was referring to the first job you would get (if you get one) out of umpiring school which would be a “short season” A ball league like the NY-Penn League I cited. Those seasons start in early June and run through September.
Less, actually. The NYP season started this year on June 14 and ends on September 2.
At the All-Star break, MLB is averaging 1.37 home runs per game (an all-time high). As per this article in today’s Washington Post, at the current pace, there’ll be at least 6400 home runs over the course of the season (and quite possibly even more); even if it comes in at the low end of the projection, this’d break the current record (6105 HRs, in 2017) by hundreds of HRs.
And, meanwhile, Justin Verlander tells ESPN that the baseballs being used are a “f***ing joke”:
So in a sense, the MLB is corking its own bats?
Verlander certainly believes so, and in that ESPN article, Manfred is quoted as saying that he does believe that the balls are different (though he’s attributing it to unknown variance in manufacturing).
Also, I had not realized that MLB had bought Rawlings, and thus now owns the production of MLB baseballs.
Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli is giving up catching because of 6 concussions over his 12 year career. Maybe he can be a DH in the AL, or be converted into a first baseman. You think of this more in the NFL or NHL, but catchers take a lot of abuse.
Cervelli is effectively announcing his retirement. He’s nowhere near good enough offensively to be a starting 1B or DH. It’s a shame, but probably the smart move.
This article certainly gave me a different picture of Verlander than I have had as an Astros fan. (For one thing he never curses in interviews!) Not sure how I feel about his attitude but apparently the balls are different. I wonder what the league will do now that one of the stars of the game has gone public with his discontent. I do agree that the game is getting a lot more boring; I miss bunts and strategy.
People have said this stuff about juiced balls about every 5 to 10 years since I’ve been alive. AFAIK, there has never been verification. It cannot be that big of a conspiracy as they are hit in the stands every game. Someone can analyze them.
Take a look at Triple A. This year they started using the same ball as MLB. So I took a look at the International League. Last season, the 14 teams played a 140 game schedule and the players combined to hit 1458 home runs. Those 14 teams are about 89 games into the schedule and they’ve already topped that, combining for 1552 bombs. Something is definitely up.
Actually, if you read the ESPN article linked above, the commissioner says there is something different with the balls this year that’s causing an upswing in homers, and it’s being investigated.
They’ve been analyzed. They’re different. Here’s an article about it:
ETA: Sorry, kayT’s post appeared on a different page and I didn;t see it. Oh well, another source never hurt anyone…
The ball is unquestionably different, and it’s 99 percent likely to be the laces.
The home runs are just stupid.
The 1961 Yankees hit 240 home runs, which was, famously, the most homers ever hit by a team at the time, and that record help for a really long time. Hitting 200 homers used to be an astounding thing, a very rare accomplishment.
This year, the AVERAGE TEAM is on pace to hit 225 home runs. The record for homers in a season by a team, set just last year y the Yankees, will lat this rate be broken by three teams. The Twins are on pace to hit 302 homers, previously the stuff only of video games when you cheat and make the computer trade everyone to your team. The Blue Jays, an objectively terrible team that couldn’t hit water falling from a boat, are on pace to hit as many as they did in 2015, when they fielded one of the best offenses in the modern history of baseball. The number of home runs being hit is just completely unprecedented, way higher than in the steroid years. To be honest it’s boring. I don’t like watching slo pitch. Jorge Soler is on pace for a 40-bomb season. Who the hell is Jorge Soler? 22 different guys just in the NL have hit 20 homers already.
The ball isn’t everything, but it’s responsible for AT LEAST a ten percent jump from last year.
If concussions are that serious a problem he absolutely should not be playing any position at all. Sucks, but you have to live with your brain for a lot longer yet.
When you write, “the laces,” do you mean the windings around the core as well? Or just the exterior laces?
I think the coefficient of restitution has been monkeyed with, and I don’t know if it would show up on once-hit baseballs. I agree that the home run deluge is dumb, and not entertaining.
I sympathize with Verlander. Not a great deal (See, multi-millionaire married to Kate Upton) but still, “having to miss bats instead of trying to miss barrels” has to be a giant pain in the ass.
The external stitching.
It’s easy to see the source of his frustration since he leads the league in home runs surrendered with 26. He also gives up the fewest hits (H9)in the AL and has the lowest WHIP in MLB. If those trends carry on through to the end of the season, I bet it will be a first.
The Verlander thing is really quite amazing. There have been great pitchers before who gave up a lot of home runs; Bert Blyleven famously once gave up 50 bombs in 1986 and then 46 the year after, but he struck out a lot of guys and never walked anyone so he was still a good pitcher (though not as great as when he was younger.) Robin Roberts gave up a lot of homers, but he never walked anyone and induced a lot of outs so he was giving up a lot of solo shots. The ultimate Robin Roberts game was eight or nine innings and two homers but only three runs.
Verlander is threatening that 50-dinger mark - still the record - but is a MUCH better pitcher overall than Blyleven was in 1986-1987. His K/9 rate is 10.9, which is extremely high, and he gives up an incredibly small number of hits and walks. Verlander is objectively as dominant a pitcher as Bob Gibson was in 1968, or as dominant, really, as anyone has ever been (this is visibly obvious when watching him; he is just terrifyingly good.) The only reason he doesn’t have an ERA of like 1.50 is that the fly balls he gives up fly an incredible distance.
**Of the 43 runs he has surrendered, 26 are the guy hitting a home run **- which is just an unbelievable number. There is no historical precedent for that, none at all. That is a combination of numbers that has never happened before and that I would never have believed could happen.
Verlander’s complaint is understandable. He’s pitching brilliantly but he’s giving up home runs because… why? How the hell do you give up 26 homers in 126 innings when you’re pitching as well as you ever have and you’ve never given up homers like that? To him, it would be as if he showed up to work one day and they moved all the fences in to 250 feet; it’s fair in the sense that his opponents have to pitch to that too, but it means he’s going to give up homers that really seem random, arbitrary dingers on pitchesw where quite honestly he beat the hitter.
What, I’m on ignore. :mad:
He gives up mostly solo shots, but if you factor in the guys on base, 33 of the 42 earned runs he’s given up this season have come from the long ball.
Huh? Who, me? I can’t ignore posters, I’m a moderator.
33 of 42 is a slightly different number from 26 of 43 but either is demonstrative of an INCREDIBLE glut in home runs even against a dominant pitcher.
Verlander has now given up sixty percent of his runs to the specific batters who homered off him (e.g. not counting the runners they drove in besides themselves.) I cannot find anyone, ever, who has even approached a number like that before. Robin Roberts never even got to 40%. Fergie Jenkins was a classic example of a pitcher willing to give up homers in exchange for doing everything else well but he never got to 40%, either. Curt Schilling got to 43% once, in 2001, but that was was higher than any other season. Bery Blyleven came close to 40% but never got there, even the year he gave up 50 bombs.
And Verlander, while the most extreme example, is not alone. JA Happ has given up 40% of his runs to the home run hitter. Hyun-Jun Ryu is at 40% - Ryu has given up as many home runs as he has walks; Bret Saberhagen and Curt Schilling are the only other guys I can think of who’ve done that in a full season.
I love baseball but this is the least exciting KIND of baseball played in my lifetime.