Are Baseballs "Juiced" This Season?

[Satyr3206]

16 minutes ago, ArtVanDelay said:

I believe home runs have more to do with bat speed than pitch speed. 

I just think a lot of evaluators are in love with power pitchers. Guys that change speeds and primarily use offspeed stuff to get people out are under valued now. By using a different type pitcher it would be different timing, and maybe less HR's.

[ArtVanDelay]

11 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

I just think a lot of evaluators are in love with power pitchers. Guys that change speeds and primarily use offspeed stuff to get people out are under valued now. By using a different type pitcher it would be different timing, and maybe less HR's.

Fastball usage is at an all time low. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/calltothepen.com/2018/06/30/mlb-pitchers-are-shying-away-from-the-fastball/amp/

[Satyr3206]

6 hours ago, ArtVanDelay said:

Fastball usage is at an all time low. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/calltothepen.com/2018/06/30/mlb-pitchers-are-shying-away-from-the-fastball/amp/

According to that article the fastball is still thrown a majority of the time. I was merely stating an opinion. If I wanted to argue I could talk to my wife, lol.

[Tx Oriole]

On 4/22/2019 at 11:35 AM, TonySoprano said:

Alex Cobb says there needs to be an investigation.   Was there collusion between Manfred and Costa Rica?  Maybe we can do a two-year study on it, spend millions, question hundreds of people and produce a "Clark Report" when it's all finished.   The baseballs are "absolutely ridiculous" except maybe in NY, TB, and Toronto which combined have allowed 7 more HRs than the Orioles have alone.  TB has surrendered 1/3 of the total of the Orioles.   Are HRs up compared to this point last season, and does Cobb have a point? 

 

Oh I don’t know. I hate to make any excuses. Our pitchers are pretty bad. If they can’t pitch worth spit how can they blame the baseball being juiced? I don’t know. Maybe it is. 

[Satyr3206]

On 4/23/2019 at 3:23 PM, Tx Oriole said:

Oh I don’t know. I hate to make any excuses. Our pitchers are pretty bad. If they can’t pitch worth spit how can they blame the baseball being juiced? I don’t know. Maybe it is. 

Spitballs might work. If they knew how to throw one.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, Satyr3206 said:

Spitballs might work. If they knew how to throw one.

 

[TonySoprano]

Quote

• The league average is 1.33 home runs per team game, compared to 1.26 in 2017. That translates to 358 more home runs than two seasons ago.

• There has been a home run every 25.5 at-bats this year. The record for March/April is one every 26.8 at-bats, set in 2000.

• The only two months with fewer than 26 at-bats per home run were June and August 2017.

• The Yankees set the single-season home run record last year, with 267. Entering Monday, three teams were on pace to crack 300: the Twins (317), Mariners (308) and Brewers (301). The only run for the Twins in their 1-0 winover the Astros on Monday was a home run. The Brewers hit two home runs in their victory over the Rockies -- both from Jesus Aguilar, who hadn't homered all season (after hitting 35 last season).

One of the major culprits, to nobody's surprise, is the Baltimore Orioles. But the numbers they've allowed are staggering, even for them. After serving up two more home runs Monday in a 5-3 loss to the White Sox, they've allowed 73 in 30 games, a mind-numbing pace of 394 in 162 games. So they actually made progress Monday! Why are the Twins on a record home run pace? They hit 23 against the Orioles in six games.

The most home runs allowed in a season is 258 by the 2016 Reds. The 2017 Reds are second, with 248. The Orioles appear to be a lock to soar past those totals, maybe before September. The 2016 Reds allowed 80 more home runs than the National League average and 45 more than the second-worst team. The Orioles are already 22 home runs worse than the second-worst team.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26636928/real-not-crazy-home-run-totals-new-normal

[Dark Helmet]

Every team Nelson Cruz goes to, the hitters around him all of a sudden become power hitters. The bigger mystery is how he keeps passing those tests.

[Aglets]

The average American League team has let up 38 HR so far in 2019.

The Orioles have allowed 73.

So yeah, HR totals do really seem to be up all across MLB, but we seem to be a pretty big cause of the problem, lol.

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, Dark Helmet said:

Every team Nelson Cruz goes to, the hitters around him all of a sudden become power hitters. The bigger mystery is how he keeps passing those tests.

A number of players have been caught without actually failing tests. 

 

[Tony-OH]

I haven't read through this thread so I apologize if it's been stated already,  but Orioles pitchers have been barreled more than any other staff.  

Alex Cobb has the worse Brls/PA % in baseball at 21.7%. It's not pop ups going out, he's getting hammered. 

As a team, the Orioles staff have given up 102 barrels. The 2nd worse team in all of baseball, Seattle at 75.

I haven't seen too many junk home runs given up by this staff. Most have been no doubters. 

If home runs are up across baseball (besides the teams that have faced the souvenir crew) then the balls could be a juiced a bit, but let's be clear here, this isn't the reason for the Orioles issues with giving up gophers. 

[TonySoprano]

2 hours ago, Aglets said:

The average American League team has let up 38 HR so far in 2019.

The Orioles have allowed 73.

So yeah, HR totals do really seem to be up all across MLB, but we seem to be a pretty big cause of the problem, lol.

Looking at it from a slightly different angle, take the Orioles' numbers out of the equation, for the other 29 teams, the average is 35.10, and for the A.L alone, it's 35.14..   The Orioles number represents an increase of 108% above the average MLB team.   Yeah, we inflate the total league average by 3.

[Redskins Rick]

I dont know about the balls. But, this team's play has caused more of the posters to become juiced. LOL

[SurhoffRules]

With June and hot weather just around the corner we're through about a 1/3rd of the season so I wanted to check in on the HR story from a month ago.

2018 HR/9 (season) - 1.155   
2019 HR/9 (to-date) - 1.351   

If a similar number of innings are played this year as last, the total number of HRs MLB-wide would rise almost a 1000 from 5585 to 6530. Juiced balls, bad pitching, new hitting approaches, whatever, it appears there's gonna be a bunch of souvenirs this year.

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, SurhoffRules said:

With June and hot weather just around the corner we're through about a 1/3rd of the season so I wanted to check in on the HR story from a month ago.

2018 HR/9 (season) - 1.155   
2019 HR/9 (to-date) - 1.351   

If a similar number of innings are played this year as last, the total number of HRs MLB-wide would rise almost a 1000 from 5585 to 6530. Juiced balls, bad pitching, new hitting approaches, whatever, it appears there's gonna be a bunch of souvenirs this year.

It's not bad pitching.  The Rays and their sub-3.00 ERA are on pace to allow 144 homers.  The second fewest is the A's in their big park, on pace for 187.  And it's just getting hot.

In 2014 the average AL team allowed 143.