Juiced baseballs won’t solve MLB’s long-running issue
Justin Verlander has been talking about juiced baseballs for years.
Much like Jerry Fletcher, Verlander is certain there is a conspiracy behind the plethora of home runs being hit in recent years.
No doubt he is right.
Nice try, MLB.
Power swings enhanced by juiced balls aren’t any better than power swings enhanced by juiced players.
That said, baseball was better when home runs were courtesy of hot players. Hot balls aren’t working. Two years ago, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred all but laughed at Verlander and others who pointed to the baseball as being the reason for the dramatic increase in home runs since Manfred took over for Bud Selig in 2015.
Manfred said at the time that there was “nothing dramatically different” between the baseballs that were flying out of the park at record rates and the ones that were being caught on the warning track in previous seasons.
Pitchers throwing harder with higher spin rates — a category stressed by the Astros that has helped earned them a reputation as a leading franchise in pitcher development and improvement — couldn’t explain away the home run explosion.
The Astros are one of 10 teams on pace to hit more than 250 home runs this season. The franchise record is 249, set during the team’s first year in what is now Minute Maid Park.
Only six teams have ever hit more. All-time. Meanwhile, just one team from the last five years is among the top 60 teams in total hits in a season.
Surprisingly — and finally — Manfred recently admitted that this year’s balls have more drag, which increases the distance they will travel.
Well, duh.
But Manfred isn’t giving in to Verlander’s belief that MLB digs the long ball more than it loves its pitchers.
“There has been no intentional alteration in the manufacturing process,” he told reporters Tuesday in Cleveland prior to the All-Star Game.
Are you buying that? Verlander has never wavered, and he won’t back down now. That isn’t who he is.
He has brought up the home run circus regularly, as his home run numbers — not a positive statistic for a pitcher — continued to go up.
“It’s a (expletive) joke,” Verlander, the American League All-Star starter, told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Monday.
He is right.
After the spectacular Home Run Derby held at Progressive Field on Monday night, it might seem hypocritical to criticize MLB’s fascination with home runs. But one can enjoy slam dunk competitions and not want games to be All-Star festivals with zero defense and an endless stream of dunks.
One can say it is up to the pitchers to get batters out, and to an extent that is true. But imagine standing on the mound feeling that even when you make a good pitch, it doesn’t take a great swing for a hitter to be trotting around the bases.
Want to get a rise out of Verlander? Ask him about the homers he’s served up.
Only once in his first 10 seasons in the majors did Verlander surrender one home run per nine innings. That was in 2006, his rookie season.
But from 2016 on, Verlander has been over one home run per nine. This season, he is allowing 1.8, twice that of his MVP and Cy Young season (2011) and triple that of his best home run year (2010).
Already this year, opponents have hit 26 home runs (a major league high) off Verlander. That’s two more than they managed off him in any season from 2006-15.
It is frustrating. A meticulous pro, Verlander can feel even a subtle difference in baseballs. It doesn’t have to be as pronounced as one being more like a cue ball and another like a peach.
Like any outstanding golfer, which he happens to be as well, Verlander can tell the difference in the sound the balls make when struck by a bat and the velocity with which they whiz by, headed toward the outfield seats.
This isn’t the best baseball and isn’t good for the game.
While home runs are exciting, the wait for those big moments can be excruciating for some. Not because baseball without baserunners is automatically boring — pitching duels are thrilling to serious fans — but because patience is thin.
No action, no interest. MLB can’t re-create a home run derby in a game.
James Harden can touch the ball every trip down the floor for the Rockets, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. can’t come to the plate every inning.
Home runs won’t save baseball. The games are too long, and unfortunately, the letter-designated generations tend to find the game boring.
Sunday’s Astros-Angels game at Minute Maid Park took five hours. Add travel time to the stadium, parking, and entering and exiting the venue, and that’s a full work shift for many.
Who has that kind of time? Of those who do, who is willing to invest it in a baseball game?
Were this a playoff or World Series game, it would have been epic. As a random mid-July matchup, it was almost painful. It was an exciting baseball game, with five home runs, including a grand slam, but it won’t help the game grow.
Juiced baseballs won’t do it if the rest of the game isn’t tightened up.
MLB needs to keep working its rules to produce a faster game. It needs to shape the sport so more of the amazing skills it takes to make it to the major leagues are on display.
The ability to launch super-live baseballs out of the park isn’t the highestranking skill.