Frok said:
mathguy86 said:
Frok said:
I'm sorry but I just don't buy it. Why would baseball all of a sudden change the balls for no reason?
I dont think MLB meant to do it on purpose and I'm sure they QC/QA the crap out of those balls, but all of the pitchers complained about the slickness and tons of guys who threw hard sliders all had the same issues.
Which pitchers outside of Darvish and Giles also struggled with sliders because of the slick ball? They seem to be the two everyone focuses on.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/10/29/world-series-baseballs-leather-justin-verlander-yu-darvish-ken-giles-kenley-jansen"It's obvious,"
Strom said about the World Series ball being slicker. "You can see it and you can feel it. It's not the same. Someone's got to explain to me why."
"Lance McCullers took the blindfold test in the bullpen," said Charlie Morton, Houston's Game 4 starter, referring to another Astros pitcher. "He could tell which ball was which with his eyes closed. It's that different."
Said Houston pitcher
Justin Verlander, "The World Series ball is slicker. No doubt. I'm telling you, we're in here signing [World Series] balls before the game, and it's hard to get the ink on the ball sometimes. You know when you sign a receipt at Starbucks, and if you don't hold the paper down with your hand, the pen just slides across the paper and the ink doesn't stick to it? That's what it's like sometimes trying to sign these balls. That's how slick the leather is. "It's different. I noticed it especially throwing a slider. It didn't feel the same. The home run I gave up to [Joc] Pederson was a slider."
Said
Darvish, "I had trouble with the ball throwing a slider. It was slicker."
"It affects running my two-seamer in to righthanders," said
Morton, who hit 97 mph with his two-seam fastball. "When the ball is slick you can't throw in with the same aggressiveness. If you don't have control of the baseball, you might end somebody's career. That's a very bad thought to have in your head.
