Are MLB baseballs juiced?
 

I've read and listened to some sports shows stating that the baseballs may be juiced this year - altered so that they facilitate longer distance and home runs. I also heard the same thing last year.

MLB is currently on a pace to break the single season home run record that was set 2 years ago by 400. Players are bigger and stronger but I think baseballs have been juiced a few years now.

If the balls have been changed then MLB should admit it (or have they?).

Your thoughts?

Are MLB baseballs juiced?
 

Nah....just the fans:D

Are MLB baseballs juiced?
 

Been a full century since the "dead-ball" era ended and Babe Ruth kicked off the modern age of the cork-center ball (with a then-amazing 29 HR's in the 1919 season), so I figure they're about due; FYI it took Ruth only seven years to up the record to 60 - probably see some big kid playing high-school ball right now crack the 100 HR mark by 2025, sooner if MLB finally goes to aluminum or CF bats...

Yes, the balls are juiced. And they should come up with a new name for them - because what they're playing these days isn't baseball. It's more like a video game where the general managers and the "analytics departments" position the players on the field and push play.

fivethirtyeight.com investigation....
 

Any number of factors might have contributed to the home run surge, including bigger, stronger players or a new emphasis on hitting fly balls. But none of those possibilities looms larger than the ball itself. And new research commissioned by “ESPN Sport Science,” a show that breaks down the science of sports,1 suggests that MLB baseballs used after the 2015 All-Star Game were subtly but consistently different than older baseballs. The research, performed by the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and Kent State University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, reveals changes in the density and chemical composition of the baseball’s core — and provides our first glimpse inside the newer baseballs.
Independent investigations have shown differences in the characteristics of the ball and the way it performs. Research has shown that balls used in games after the 2015 All-Star Game were bouncier and less air resistant compared with baseballs from the 2014 season, when players hit a relatively modest 4,186 homers, the fewest since 1995. (Nathan noted that MLB does not regularly measure air resistance.) Taken together, these changes would result in a ball that would come off the bat at a higher speed and carry farther.

By Rob Arthur and Tim Dix

Filed under MLB

Published Mar. 1, 2018

I just wonder what capability there actually is for implementing that kind of subtle change down at the Rawlings plant in Turrialba, Costa Rica, where the baseballs used in major league games are still stitched by hand.

Easier to test the players than the balls.

Change in materials?

Maybe all of them but the ones the Tigers use:roll::roll:

Ahrggggggggg! Ever since the owner passed away all of the Detroit franchises he owned have crumbled. Detroit is a mess...bring back Mickey Lolich and the 68 team :)

Detroit ... one number that always sticks in my head is 35-5 start on their Championship team in '84.

'68 and '84 Tigers. Two great teams that always seem to get overlooked.

All I know about the '68 Tigers team is Denny Mclain and his 31 wins ... not too shabby. Don't think we'll see a starter with 30 wins again.

If the ball is juiced, everybody plays with the same ball, so what's the difference? Since MLB hasn't commented so far, I don't expect they will.

Incredibly, Toronto caught them !