Balls fly out in AAA:
As big-league baseballs are pounded out of parks at minors’ highest level, evidence grows of significant difference between balls used at other levels.
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For years, it was something of an open secret, talked about among true seamheads but largely obscured from public view: The baseball used in the major leagues is the hardest, most tightly wound and offensively explosive piece of equipment in the sport.
Thanks to the big-league baseball’s use at the Class AAA level for the first time this season, there is now growing statistical evidence, and ample anecdotal evidence, that the differences between the major league ball and others used in the professional ranks are more significant than imagined.
“To see the big-league ball fly for the first time, it’s pretty mind-blowing,” says Tampa Bay Rays reliever Emilio Pagan, who has pitched at the Class AAA level in each of the past three seasons. “Guys that had never seen it before, well, it’s hard to put into words how much farther the big-league ball goes, because it’s spun tighter.”
The home run rate at the Class AAA level has leaped by nearly 50%: from 1.74 homers per game last year to 2.56 this year, even before the weather’s warmed up.
Reds infielder Josh VanMeter slugged his way into a call-up to Cincinnati by cracking 13 home runs in 30 games, a 70-homer pace. And someone say a prayer for pitchers in the Pacific Coast League, where high altitude and desert air were already big enough obstacles. Five players have already hit at least 10 homers in 30 or fewer games.
“Somebody in the PCL is going to hit 55 if they’re there all year,” says Rays first baseman Nate Lowe, who made his major league debut last week. “It’s that much of a difference.”
Lowe’s Durham (North Carolina) Bulls and the Charlotte Knights, the top White Sox affiliate also in the International League, combined for 17 homers in the first four games this year.
The difference in feel and movement between the major league and minor league ball is significant. The minor league ball has bigger, higher seams, and multiple pitchers told USA TODAY a breaking pitch can drop into the strike zone using far less hand speed.
The major league ball is wound tighter, which produces greater carry. There’s also a riskreward element for pitchers: Getting the ball to break requires greater effort, but the movement on all pitches can be enhanced.
“It might go a little farther down there, especially in the PCL, but it’s a good trade-off to know what that ball’s going to do when you get called up,” says St. Louis lefty reliever Tyler Webb, who’s mixed brief stints at Class AAA with big-league appearances for four teams.
When major leaguers hit a record number of home runs in 2017, prompting renewed insistence the ball was juiced, Major League Baseball commissioned a study gauging how balls produced in recent years performed.
While no firm conclusion was reached, the committee determined there were “changes in the aerodynamic properties of baseballs,” due in part to significant precision on the part of those producing the balls.
The home run rate ticked down last season, but it’s up again.
“Balls you hit flush are going to be 450, 460 feet, instead of 410, but they’re gonna get out anyway,” Lowe says. “But the balls that you mishit — and get an extra 25, 30 feet on ’em — there’s your extra five, 10 home runs.”