Time for a baseball scandal

[Marvin the Martian]

It appears MLB used two different weighted balls this past season. MLB said it was because Rawlings had manufacturing issues due to covid and had to use prior year leftovers.

But upon looking at the balls, some of the heavier "leftovers" were manufactured after the lighter balls.

The belief is that the heavier balls are homer friendly.

The article:

Four questions MLB needs to answer after report reveals league used two different baseballs in 2021

The league has some explaining to do after a Business Insider report came out earlier this month

www.cbssports.com

The article suggests that entire games may have used the same ball, maybe by how good the teams were. If that is true, the players have a complaint. A batter in Pittsburgh would be guaranteed the lighter ball, depressing power numbers and harming free agent possibilities.

If the balls were random inside games, it may be in the top of the 9th of a tie game one team had light balls and in the bottom a team had heavy. An unfair advantage.

It could be the wrong batch code was stamped on the heavier ball. But it seems Rawlings and MLB would have known that.

A lot of people believe MLB conspiracy theories, the desire to keep big market teams winning. They should not risk more of that with two different balls.

 

[Crayfish57]

Heavier balls stand a good chance of leading to more home runs!


Seriously not something baseball needs right now though

 

[mcmurtry66]

It appears MLB used two different weighted balls this past season. MLB said it was because Rawlings had manufacturing issues due to covid and had to use prior year leftovers.

But upon looking at the balls, some of the heavier "leftovers" were manufactured after the lighter balls.

The belief is that the heavier balls are homer friendly.

The article:

Four questions MLB needs to answer after report reveals league used two different baseballs in 2021

The league has some explaining to do after a Business Insider report came out earlier this month

www.cbssports.com

The article suggests that entire games may have used the same ball, maybe by how good the teams were. If that is true, the players have a complaint. A batter in Pittsburgh would be guaranteed the lighter ball, depressing power numbers and harming free agent possibilities.

If the balls were random inside games, it may be in the top of the 9th of a tie game one team had light balls and in the bottom a team had heavy. An unfair advantage.

It could be the wrong batch code was stamped on the heavier ball. But it seems Rawlings and MLB would have known that.

A lot of people believe MLB conspiracy theories, the desire to keep big market teams winning. They should not risk more of that with two different balls.

I'm looking forward to reading this article later. My old next door neighbor was the head of marketing and sales for Rawlings for years. He wasn't a big guy but had a hollow leg from the job. I've never seen anyone who could drink that much. They've always been secretive about their ball manufacturing in Costa. Most plants in sports equipment are open to the public. They like showing off. The Costa factory is closed to the public and Rawlings doesn't share much about the manufacturing process. It wouldn't surprise me if they were having trouble sourcing material and had to use a different vendor - for wool or something. Covid shut down a lot of suppliers in these countries.

As an aside they were bought out by another company in I believe 2018. Kept the name though.

Unrelated but sort of interesting. My neighbor quit Rawlings and bought one of their old factories as part of his severance. He got a contract to make under armour football unis for the SEC under armour schools. All Under Armour did was send him patches to sew on at the end. They were the same uniforms high schools and others were getting only he'd slap the Under Armour patch on at the end.

 

[Univee2]

It appears MLB used two different weighted balls this past season. MLB said it was because Rawlings had manufacturing issues due to covid and had to use prior year leftovers.

But upon looking at the balls, some of the heavier "leftovers" were manufactured after the lighter balls.

The belief is that the heavier balls are homer friendly.

The article:

Four questions MLB needs to answer after report reveals league used two different baseballs in 2021

The league has some explaining to do after a Business Insider report came out earlier this month

www.cbssports.com

The article suggests that entire games may have used the same ball, maybe by how good the teams were. If that is true, the players have a complaint. A batter in Pittsburgh would be guaranteed the lighter ball, depressing power numbers and harming free agent possibilities.

If the balls were random inside games, it may be in the top of the 9th of a tie game one team had light balls and in the bottom a team had heavy. An unfair advantage.

It could be the wrong batch code was stamped on the heavier ball. But it seems Rawlings and MLB would have known that.

A lot of people believe MLB conspiracy theories, the desire to keep big market teams winning. They should not risk more of that with two different balls.

I'm going to have to find another way to read this as I keep getting a blue CBS screen bouncing over the print.

But, I don't care if the ball is "heavy" or "light," if I'm a MLB pitcher and I put the ball where I want and it breaks as I want you ain't hitting it. If I don't, you're going to crank that "heavy" or "light" ball.

Is this another "Deflategate?"

 

[Marvin the Martian]

I'm going to have to find another way to read this as I keep getting a blue CBS screen bouncing over the print.

But, I don't care if the ball is "heavy" or "light," if I'm a MLB pitcher and I put the ball where I want and it breaks as I want you ain't hitting it. If I don't, you're going to crank that "heavy" or "light" ball.

Is this another "Deflategate?"

Not everyone is 1968 Bob Gibson, in fact no one today is. Pitchers will miss and turning warning track flies into home runs makes a pretty big difference. I doubt Ellias has such info, I wonder if anyone knows how many warning track flies Gibson gave up in 68.

And to be a little fair to today's pitchers, Gibson had the higher mound to work with.

 

[anon_6hv78pr714xta]

Not everyone is 1968 Bob Gibson, in fact no one today is. Pitchers will miss and turning warning track flies into home runs makes a pretty big difference. I doubt Ellias has such info, I wonder if anyone knows how many warning track flies Gibson gave up in 68.

And to be a little fair to today's pitchers, Gibson had the higher mound to work with.

Gibson's adjusted ERA+ for 68 only ranks 27th all-time. Although the only guy ahead of him with 300+ innings is Walter Johnson in '13.

Single-Season Leaders &amp Records for Adjusted ERA+ | Baseball-Reference.com

Single-Season ERA+ Leaders:1.Robert Keyes/540/1944/9, 2.Garnett Blair/428/1945/19, 3.Roy Parnell/421/1932/194, 4.Gene Richardson/364/1947/12, 5.Gready McKinnis/345/1941/12, 6.Leroy Matlock/336/1935/30, 7.Jimmy Shields/334/1928/65, 8.Bill Foster+/327/1925/27, 9.George Walker/325/194

www.baseball-reference.com

 

[Ohio Guy]

This is probably why the Reds didn't win the World Series this year.

 

[Univee2]

This is probably why the Reds didn't win the World Series this year.

Oh, just wait until this coming season. Cutting their salary total, letting Miley go to the Cubs on waivers, little likelihood of resigning Castellanos and looking to trade Castillo or Gray for "prospects" has all the signs pointing to a 110-120-win season. . . . . . .

Shoot, with Barnhart going to the Tigers I might have to come out of retirement, dust off all my old catching gear and sign on for $2-3 million as a back-up to Stephenson.

 

[outside shooter]

The Reds make it hard to stay a fan, especially not living nearby. Just never any organizational plan, it seems, and always on the cheap. But as a fan since '70, I won't give up.

 

[Univee2]

The Reds make it hard to stay a fan, especially not living nearby. Just never any organizational plan, it seems, and always on the cheap. But as a fan since '70, I won't give up.

No, after the obvious direction this off-season, you should give up . . . .

 

[Marvin the Martian]

No, after the obvious direction this off-season, you should give up . . . .

It is the unfortunate reality of a small market team, only St Louis is routinely competitive. For all the other small marker teams it is use draft picks, hope they turn out, be competitive a couple years, trade and start cycle over. All pro sports need a real salary cap, not the fake on that MLB uses or the NBA's 10 exemptions per team salary cap. The NFL has a minimum that must be averaged, and a maximum. That's close to what is needed. As a result we have grossly bad NFL teams due simply to incompetence (such as having Mike Brown own the team, or being stuck with whomever Detroit hires). It isn't nearly a big market/little market problem like baseball or basketball.

 

[NPT]

I'm going to have to find another way to read this as I keep getting a blue CBS screen bouncing over the print.

Lay off the booze.

 

[Univee2]

Lay off the booze.

Well, don't know about that. 42nd wedding anniversary. Going out shortly. Just not going to order the Macallan 25 at $325 a pour. . . .

 

[NPT]

It is the unfortunate reality of a small market team, only St Louis is routinely competitive.

Tampa Bay is considered small market and they're normally pretty competitive.

 

[Stuffshot]

Lay off the booze.

Drink "rubbing mud" instead. No controversy there at all.

Does "rubbing mud" ever get tested for carcinogens?

 

[UncleMark]

Well, don't know about that. 42nd wedding anniversary. Going out shortly. Just not going to order the Macallan 25 at $325 a pour. . . .

Sports bar to watch the game?

 

[larsIU]

The Reds make it hard to stay a fan, especially not living nearby. Just never any organizational plan, it seems, and always on the cheap. But as a fan since '70, I won't give up.

Bring back Marge!

 

[larsIU]

Tampa Bay is considered small market and they're normally pretty competitive.

If we’re talking about the Bucs, look who owns them and what else they have on the books.

 

[NPT]

If we’re talking about the Bucs, look who owns them and what else they have on the books.

Wrong sport.... we're talking baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays are considered a small market team.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Wrong sport.... we're talking baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays are considered a small market team.

They have been reasonably consistent with their bottoming out just one year, 2016, where they only won 68.

Though to be fair, Houston and Chicago are large market and opted for the bottoming out strategy. I cannot explain why the Cubs opt to have a small market payroll.

 

[larsIU]

I cannot explain why the Cubs opt to have a small market payroll.

I think it's b/c they continue to sell out Wrigley and folks buy new Cubs gear every year regardless of outcome. What an amazing business model. You only need to be truly successful every 100 years or so.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

I think it's b/c they continue to sell out Wrigley and folks buy new Cubs gear every year regardless of outcome. What an amazing business model. You only need to be truly successful every 100 years or so.

It is an interesting concept, fair-weather fans are what drives teams to win. If a team is going to make the same revenue no matter what, why bother putting a great product on the field.

 

[mcmurtry66]

It is an interesting concept, fair-weather fans are what drives teams to win. If a team is going to make the same revenue no matter what, why bother putting a great product on the field.

They put out a great product; it just isn't on the field

 

[Noodle]

It appears MLB used two different weighted balls this past season. MLB said it was because Rawlings had manufacturing issues due to covid and had to use prior year leftovers.

But upon looking at the balls, some of the heavier "leftovers" were manufactured after the lighter balls.

The belief is that the heavier balls are homer friendly.

The article:

Four questions MLB needs to answer after report reveals league used two different baseballs in 2021

The league has some explaining to do after a Business Insider report came out earlier this month

www.cbssports.com

The article suggests that entire games may have used the same ball, maybe by how good the teams were. If that is true, the players have a complaint. A batter in Pittsburgh would be guaranteed the lighter ball, depressing power numbers and harming free agent possibilities.

If the balls were random inside games, it may be in the top of the 9th of a tie game one team had light balls and in the bottom a team had heavy. An unfair advantage.

It could be the wrong batch code was stamped on the heavier ball. But it seems Rawlings and MLB would have known that.

A lot of people believe MLB conspiracy theories, the desire to keep big market teams winning. They should not risk more of that with two different balls.

It's a bit odd that the original story (in Business Insider) was out for over a week before a mainstream press outlet decided it was a scandal. The original story was interesting and I was really surprised that it did not become big news immediately. If I were a pessimist, I might think that the players have suddenly decided this is a big deal and they can somehow use it as leverage. No idea if that's the case, but I still find it odd that it took so long to gather steam.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

It's a bit odd that the original story (in Business Insider) was out for over a week before a mainstream press outlet decided it was a scandal. The original story was interesting and I was really surprised that it did not become big news immediately. If I were a pessimist, I might think that the players have suddenly decided this is a big deal and they can somehow use it as leverage. No idea if that's the case, but I still find it odd that it took so long to gather steam.

You might be right about the MLBPA, but it also might be column space. We had a small flurry of free agent signings then the lockout that dominated baseball. But that was in the middle of the college football playoff chase, the start of the NFL playoff chase, along with the NBA, NCAA basketball, and hockey. At this time of year, baseball is just fighting a lot of current. It almost seems the other way to me, baseball wanted the story to appear at a dead time to make sure it didn't appear in the middle of a season.

 

[UncleMark]

It is an interesting concept, fair-weather fans are what drives teams to win. If a team is going to make the same revenue no matter what, why bother putting a great product on the field.

General Motors had the same strategy in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

 

[mcmurtry66]

It is an interesting concept, fair-weather fans are what drives teams to win. If a team is going to make the same revenue no matter what, why bother putting a great product on the field.

Didn't the Pirates do that forever

 

[larsIU]

Didn't the Pirates do that forever

Yeah, but without the revenue I think. The Cubs and their fans are just odd.

 

[mcmurtry66]

Yeah, but without the revenue I think. The Cubs and their fans are just odd.

I thought they were profiting and having a shitty team with a low payroll inured to their financial benefit so there was no incentive to spend.

 

[mcmurtry66]

It's a bit odd that the original story (in Business Insider) was out for over a week before a mainstream press outlet decided it was a scandal. The original story was interesting and I was really surprised that it did not become big news immediately. If I were a pessimist, I might think that the players have suddenly decided this is a big deal and they can somehow use it as leverage. No idea if that's the case, but I still find it odd that it took so long to gather steam.

Are you excited for Cincy in the CFB playoffs? Or not your school don't care? The city excited?

 

[larsIU]

I thought they were profiting and having a shitty team with a low payroll inured to their financial benefit so there was no incentive to spend.

You're probably right but they can't be on Cubs level of shithousery.

 

[Noodle]

Are you excited for Cincy in the CFB playoffs? Or not your school don't care? The city excited?

Definitely excited. While I have no direct ties to UC, I do root for them in football given that I've lived here for over 30 years. Even my wife, a Miami grad who therefore is not a UC fan, is excited that UC made it. City seems pumped as well, but keep in mind there are also a lot of OSU fans here. Still, even the OSU fans seem to begrudgingly pulling for UC.

I think UC will be far more competitive with Alabama than people think. They have two cornerbacks who will likely be drafted in the first two rounds. Sauce Gardner (CB) made ESPN's All American list (first team). Their QB is also probably in the top 5 nationally, and can run. Of course Alabama's OL and DL are scary. Should be a fun game. Would love to see a UC-Michigan final, but that is clearly a longshot.

 

[mcmurtry66]

Definitely excited. While I have no direct ties to UC, I do root for them in football given that I've lived here for over 30 years. Even my wife, a Miami grad who therefore is not a UC fan, is excited that UC made it. City seems pumped as well, but keep in mind there are also a lot of OSU fans here. Still, even the OSU fans seem to begrudgingly pulling for UC.

I think UC will be far more competitive with Alabama than people think. They have two cornerbacks who will likely be drafted in the first two rounds. Sauce Gardner (CB) made ESPN's All American list (first team). Their QB is also probably in the top 5 nationally, and can run. Of course Alabama's OL and DL are scary. Should be a fun game. Would love to see a UC-Michigan final, but that is clearly a longshot.

That's awesome. I think they will too. They're legit; and I believe there's more parity than people realize. Hell Cincy beat ND at ND and last year was tight with GA in their bowl game.

 

[UncleMark]

That's awesome. I think they will too. They're legit; and I believe there's more parity than people realize. Hell Cincy beat ND at ND and last year was tight with GA in their bowl game.

Keep in mind that the Indiana defense essentially shut them down for the biggest part of their game until the bogus targetting call on McFadden burst their bubble. Of course, since IU doesn't know how to score points, it didn't matter.

 

[mcmurtry66]

Keep in mind that the Indiana defense essentially shut them down for the biggest part of their game until the bogus targetting call on McFadden burst their bubble. Of course, since IU doesn't know how to score points, it didn't matter.

I hear ya. I just remember seeing SEC scores and thinking they are probably a bit overrated. I think it was Auburn barely beat Louisiana from the fun belt and should have lost. Etc. Then how Cincy played last year against GA