‘We all know what happened’: Verlander insists ball is juiced
American League AllStar Game starter Justin Verlander said Monday that the ball used in majorleague games this year are “a f—ing joke” and that he believes “100 percent” that the league has implemented juiced balls to increase offense.
He made the comments in an interview with ESPN. Verlander, 36, has allowed a majorleaguehigh 26 home runs this season. Players hit 3,691 homers in the season’s first half and are on pace to hit 6,668 home runs, which would obliterate the record 6,105 in 2017.
Conversations about a juiced ball have risen since 2015, when home runs spiked after the AllStar break. They are up nearly 60% from the 2014 season, and Commissioner Rob Manfred commissioned a study to investigate whether the balls were contributing to the spike. It concluded the balls were performing differently but didn’t attribute a reason. In June 2018, one month after the study was released, MLB bought Rawlings, the supplier of the official majorleague ball.
“Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke,” Verlander told ESPN. “... If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it’s not a guess as to what happened. We all know what happened. Manfred the first time he came in, what’d he say? He said, ‘We want more offense.’ All of a sudden, he comes in, the balls are juiced? It’s not coincidence. We’re not idiots.”
Asked if he believed the balls were intentionally juiced by the league, Verlander said: “Yes. 100 percent. They’ve been using juiced balls in the Home Run Derby forever. They know how to do it. It’s not coincidence. I find it really hard to believe that Major League Baseball owns Rawlings and just coincidentally the balls become juiced.”
Manfred, who became commissioner in 2015, acknowledged Monday on ESPN that there’s a difference in the balls. He has denied any involvement from the league in changing the composition of the ball.
Ryu to start for NL: Verlander is starting the AllStar Game for the American League for the second time, and HyunJin Ryu will make his first start for the National League.
Verlander, a righthander, is 104 with a 2.98 ERA this year for the Astros. Ryu, a 32yearold lefthander from South Korea, is 102 with a majorleagueleading 1.73 ERA for the NL champion Dodgers. He is the second Asian AllStar starting pitcher after Dodgers rookie Hideo Nomo of Japan in 1995.
Automatic runners to debut: Come the AllStar Game on Tuesday night, fans might witness something they haven’t seen before: automatic runners.
Already employed in the minors, the World Baseball Classic and Olympic softball, a new rule will take effect in front of a majorleague audience: Every extra inning in AllStar play — top half and bottom — begins with a free runner at second base.
“They’re doing that? Really?” Houston reliever Ryan Pressly asked Monday. “I did not know that.”
The crowd at Progressive Field got a glimpse of the future, maybe, on Sunday night when the Futures Game tried the rule for an inning. No one scored, and the showcase for young players ended in a tie.
Still, it could be timely. The past two AllStar Games went extras; Robinson Cano hit a leadoff homer in the 10th at Miami in 2017. Alex Bregman did the same last year in Washington.
Plus, there was the 15inning affair at Yankee Stadium in 2008 and the 2002 game in Milwaukee that was declared a very unpopular tie after the 11th.
Naturally, in a sport in which change comes slowly, not everyone is thrilled with this experiment. To many, instant intentional walks, constant shifts and talk about robot umpires has skewed the game enough.
If it’s any consolation, Manfred says there are no foreseeable plans to put free runners on base in the regular season.
The automatic runner will be the player who made the last out of the previous inning. But in a caveat, players who have left the AllStar Game can reenter to run. Lucroy concussed: Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy sustained a concussion and a fractured nose in a homeplate collision Sunday in Houston, the team announced. Lucroy will visit an ear and nose specialist after swelling in his nose subsides. General manager Billy Eppler expects Lucroy to miss “some time.”
Lucroy was injured in the eighth inning of the Angels’ 1110 loss when the Astros’ Jake Marisnick knocked his shoulder into the catcher’s jaw on an attempt to score. Lucroy crumpled and lay motionless as Angels trainers checked on him. Face bloodied, he was carted off the field minutes later and was transported to a local hospital.
Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer, told the Houston Chronicle on Monday that he has reviewed the collision and the league office is having conversations about potential discipline. Reed on the move: The White Sox claimed first baseman A.J. Reed off waivers from the Astros and assigned him to TripleA Charlotte.