Humidor being used in every ballpark this year

[wildcard]

According to Kevin Brown.   I had not heard that before.  The Rockies have used one for years but not everywhere.

[DrungoHazewood]

Yes.  This combined with some chilly weather has led to a MLB-wide slash line of .230/.309/.369, and the lowest HR/G rate since 2014.

We'll see how long MLB keeps up with this.  They're not above making mid-season tweaks to things.  I think they'd be better off with a livelier ball but the mound moved back 3' and every park with fence changes like OPACY's.

[jabba72]

2 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Yes.  This combined with some chilly weather has led to a MLB-wide slash line of .230/.309/.369, and the lowest HR/G rate since 2014.

We'll see how long MLB keeps up with this.  They're not above making mid-season tweaks to things.  I think they'd be better off with a livelier ball but the mound moved back 3' and every park with fence changes like OPACY's.

I think MLB decided they want to decrease HR's hence the humidor. I've also read a humid ball is easier for pitchers to grip, which could be helping the Orioles. But If the league OPS is below .680 in June then it may cause MLB to rethink things a bit. 

[DrungoHazewood]

5 minutes ago, jabba72 said:

I think MLB decided they want to decrease HR's hence the humidor. I've also read a humid ball is easier for pitchers to grip, which could be helping the Orioles. But If the league OPS is below .680 in June then it may cause MLB to rethink things a bit. 

They had to have known that decreasing home runs by making the ball less resilient would also result in fewer singles, doubles, and triples. It's almost a guarantee that offenses will increase as the weather warms up, but April OPS so far is 21 points lower than last year.  So you might infer that league OPS for the year will be around .700 if they don't change anything else.

[Going Underground]

Is that because so many players have beards now and look cool with a Cubsn cigar?

[Sports Guy]

If it helps grip the ball, is this also a compromise for the pitchers after banning the spider tack?

[Legend_Of_Joey]

I have a few friends who “Ballhawk” and they have all said they same thing: The baseballs this year feel “softer” than previous years, almost as if they aren’t as tightly wound. This is coming from multiple people at multiple parks.

[Brooks The Great]

MLB makes so many bad decisions, this was yet another one. A lot of boring baseball being played league-wide.

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

They had to have known that decreasing home runs by making the ball less resilient would also result in fewer singles, doubles, and triples. It's almost a guarantee that offenses will increase as the weather warms up, but April OPS so far is 21 points lower than last year.  

By which you mean, 21 points lower than last April.  I didn’t understand that when I first read it.  I thought you were talking about all last year.

[jubbyjubb]

Maybe the bunt and stolen base will be useful again if it keeps up. Or maybe guys will try to make contact instead of striking out 150 times a year. Baseball always finds a way to balance itself out, I just hope MLB doesn't panic.

[DrungoHazewood]

8 hours ago, Frobby said:

By which you mean, 21 points lower than last April.  I didn’t understand that when I first read it.  I thought you were talking about all last year.

No, that's right.  Last April OPSes were 21 points higher than this April (so far).  SSS, but you could imply that even as the weather warms the humidor will cut offense over the whole year from .728 to around .700 or so.

[DrungoHazewood]

7 hours ago, jubbyjubb said:

Maybe the bunt and stolen base will be useful again if it keeps up. Or maybe guys will try to make contact instead of striking out 150 times a year. Baseball always finds a way to balance itself out, I just hope MLB doesn't panic.

One-run strategies become more viable when runs are scarce.  So, perhaps.  But we'll see if MLB allows runs to stay low.  Recently when batting averages were low early in seasons they started tinkering, messing with the ball one year and banning sticky stuff in June last year.

Large strategic shifts take time.  Rosters and farm systems aren't built for one-run strategies and contact.  Even kids in high school or college are mainly taught the same launch angle/bat speed strategies.  It would take years to shift to something else. By then MLB has probably tinkered to appease current players, GMs and managers.

[Jammer7]

I have seen several shots off bats that sounded long gone, and most aren’t even to the warning track. Balls with exit velos over 100 mph with a 30 degree angle and they are not gone. Seems a bit of an over-correction. 

[interloper]

It's a bizarre choice. You take away the tack to give hitters an edge, and I think rightly so considering the insane stuff pitchers have these days, but then you immediately hand advantage back to the pitchers with the humidors. Make up your mind! 

[jabba72]

Reading about the humidors they are only bringing the humidity to 50%, in some areas the balls are actually even more humid, the humidor decreases ball humidity in those parks. I think the softness of the ball that Legend Of Joey said he heard about could also increase a pitchers grip. I dont know that just guessing.