The Ball-Differences, Easy to research

[bosoxmal]

I'm wondering how man old cold war bearings, aeronautics and just plain friction labs are scooping up ten year old baseballs on eBay these days. Engineers of that old school would have a field day with variety of coeefficints of friction PVT's etc. I wonder how many different skin and thread varieties have been used over the years,

 

I think it is also obvious that what is making the ball 'hot' is aslo affecting the pitchers who were throwing 102 MPH last year and are now averaging about 92-93

 

Tip: find a couple of research engineers working for Precision Bearing Companies, and make you self a fortune!. It's a time consuming project, but not very difficult.

 

Comments?

[oldtimer]

No doubt the ball manufacturers test the balls they make for a wide variety of parameters. There must be a number of certified manufacturers as MBL has to assured that a supply is available regardless of strike or other supply hazards. The results of all the ball testing is probably well known but is also being kept under wraps by MLB. I can't see that other parties (scientific test organizations) would have the resources or historical data to do a meaningful and beneficial analysis.

 

I am suspcious of MLB ad think they probably have juiced the ball to increase the offensive output, telling themselves that is what the fans want. There are other factors such as hitter strength, launch angle and perhaps thinner pitching quality which also could explain some of the barrage of home runs being hit. So who can quantify the effect of the ball on the HR hit other than MLB and to what end?

[S5Dewey]

No doubt the ball manufacturers test the balls they make for a wide variety of parameters. There must be a number of certified manufacturers as MBL has to assured that a supply is available regardless of strike or other supply hazards. The results of all the ball testing is probably well known but is also being kept under wraps by MLB. I can't see that other parties (scientific test organizations) would have the resources or historical data to do a meaningful and beneficial analysis.

 

I am suspcious of MLB ad think they probably have juiced the ball to increase the offensive output, telling themselves that is what the fans want. There are other factors such as hitter strength, launch angle and perhaps thinner pitching quality which also could explain some of the barrage of home runs being hit. So who can quantify the effect of the ball on the HR hit other than MLB and to what end?

 

I'm no physicist but it doesn't seem that it would be that difficult to determine whether the balls are juiced. It would seem that there must be a formula that would include exit speed and launch angle to determine the path and therefore the distance a ball is traveling.

Simply take the exit speed, launch angle, and distance the ball has traveled in the past several years, compare it to the same data for 2019, and voila! Either the ball is traveling farther or it's not and all this speculation about juiced balls is settled!

 

Of course Manfred has all but said that the balls are juiced this year so that might be proving what everyone already knows.

 

My belief is that the 2019 balls are stitched tighter and have lower threads than balls of the past, which was probably done to increase the flight of the ball by lessening the wind resistance on the ball. A side effect has been that because the threads are loweer the pitchers can no longer grip the ball as well so the breaking balls don't break as much as the ones they threw in the past (hear that, Rich Porcello? It's not your fault!) which makes the balls easier to hit.

 

But that's just my theory which will probably be disproven by someone posting anecdotal evidence by noontime tomorrow.

[bosoxmal]

I'm no physicist but it doesn't seem that it would be that difficult to determine whether the balls are juiced. It would seem that there must be a formula that would include exit speed and launch angle to determine the path and therefore the distance a ball is traveling.

Simply take the exit speed, launch angle, and distance the ball has traveled in the past several years, compare it to the same data for 2019, and voila! Either the ball is traveling farther or it's not and all this speculation about juiced balls is settled!

 

Of course Manfred has all but said that the balls are juiced this year so that might be proving what everyone already knows.

 

My belief is that the 2019 balls are stitched tighter and have lower threads than balls of the past, which was probably done to increase the flight of the ball by lessening the wind resistance on the ball. A side effect has been that because the threads are loweer the pitchers can no longer grip the ball as well so the breaking balls don't break as much as the ones they threw in the past (hear that, Rich Porcello? It's not your fault!) which makes the balls easier to hit.

 

But that's just my theory which will probably be disproven by someone posting anecdotal evidence by noontime tomorrow.

Well, the fiasco we watched in London should be taken into consideration , also. We have a second half coming up, and they may have to use pitching machines by World Series time! Chris Sales' slide started last year. When were these new balls first used? It's not he;ping the game. I can't believe we'll never see a Tiant-like pitching performance ever again!