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Thread: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

  1. #1
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    This thread was provoked by the fact that Yelich just hit his 13th HR of the season and 8th of this week. He might legitimately challenge the single season home run record this year. Yelich is obviously great, but there is literally nothing in his past to suggest he would ever be a 60+ or even just 50+ home run guy the way it appears he has a good chance to be this year.

    On top of that, the game is currently at the highest percentage of hits going for home runs ever. I pointed this out in the game thread yesterday, but Jay Bruce currently has 13 hits for the Mariners, 9 of which are home runs, which was somewhere around a .170 average last time I checked. That’s not even all that unusual anymore, Joey Gallo has sit near the top of the home run leaderboards the last few years while struggling to hit .200.

    Just speaking for myself, this iteration of baseball is probably the least interesting that’s ever existed in my life. Even the steroid era, guys hit for pretty good averages and the majority of the game wasn’t based entirely on the three true outcomes.

    I miss teams being able to string together a number of basehits together for a rally, or teams making good defensive plays to rob those hits. I miss players having to actually run the bases.

    All the pace of play stuff has wildly missed the mark, those rules changes aren’t going to fix anything. What HAS hurt the game is juicing the ball and encouraging this style of play and making it viable, and I thought maybe they unjuiced the ball last season and things were normalizing, but if they did, it’s clearly been completely reversed since and baseball couldn’t be worse off for it.

    If Manfred truly wants to fix the game, he’ll stop micromanaging stupid rule changes and make them play the game with a normal ball again.
    Last edited by Wonderful Monds; 04-21-2019 at 11:59 AM.

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  4. #2
    Member Norm Chortleton's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Welsh has mentioned a few times already that this year's ball is a lot slicker and the seams are not raised as much, making it much harder to grip

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  6. #3
    Member Kingspoint's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Made me sick a long time ago.
    "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."

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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by Wonderful Monds View Post
    This was provoked by the fact that Yelich just hit his 13th HR of the season and 8th of this week. He might legitimately challenge the single season home run record this year.

    On top of that, the game is currently at the highest percentage of hits going for home runs ever. I pointed this out in the game thread, but Jay Bruce currently has 13 hits for the Mariners, 9 of which are home runs, which was somewhere around a .170 average last time I checked. That’s not even all that unusual anymore, Joey Gallo has sit near the top of the home run leaderboards the last few years while struggling to hit .200.

    Just speaking for myself, this iteration of baseball is probably the least interesting that’s ever existed in my life. Even the steroid era, guys hit for pretty good averages and the majority of the game wasn’t based entirely on the three true outcomes.

    I miss teams being able to string together a number of basehits together for a rally, or teams making good defensive plays to rob those hits. I miss players having to actually run the bases.

    All the pace of play stuff has wildly missed the mark, those rules changes aren’t going to fix anything. What HAS hurt the game is juicing the ball and encouraging this style of play and making it viable, and I thought maybe they unjuiced the ball last season and things were normalizing, but if they did, it’s clearly been completely reversed since baseball couldn’t be worse off for it.

    If Manfred truly wants to fix the game, he’ll stop micromanaging stupid rule changes and make them play the game with a normal ball again.
    thank you! if i want to watch a softball game, i'll go to the city park. this hr game is BORING

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  10. #5
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by Norm Chortleton View Post
    Welsh has mentioned a few times already that this year's ball is a lot slicker and the seams are not raised as much, making it much harder to grip
    Yeah he mentioned that last night, which is another thing that made me think of if. It’s no wonder basically every pitcher in the game is using pine tar to actually get a grip on the ball these days.

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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by Norm Chortleton View Post
    Welsh has mentioned a few times already that this year's ball is a lot slicker and the seams are not raised as much, making it much harder to grip
    Not disputing it, but K's are up too. If HR's are easier to hit because of the ball, shouldn't batting averages be up too?

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  13. #7
    Member Norm Chortleton's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by RED VAN HOT View Post
    Not disputing it, but K's are up too. If HR's are easier to hit because of the ball, shouldn't batting averages be up too?
    Not if everyone is swinging for the fences, which they are

  14. #8
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by RED VAN HOT View Post
    Not disputing it, but K's are up too. If HR's are easier to hit because of the ball, shouldn't batting averages be up too?
    Nope, because the reason is that fly balls have less air resistance given the makeup of the current ball, but it doesn’t really effect anything besides fly balls/home runs.

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    Moderator Powel Crosley's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    I was planning to make a thread on this too. It's still somewhat early in the season, but anecdotally it seems like batting averages are way down while home runs are way up. They say chicks dig the long ball, but they don't dig the game when there are 45 minute lulls in between. The ball, pitchers throwing harder, and analytics/the shift have all contributed to this.

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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    That’s exactly what they said about the 1977 ball. In a SI article I still have somewhere.

    That was also the year the AL began surpassing the NL in terms of offense but more due to the expansion in that league only which helped create that.

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  19. #11
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    I think teams are emphasizing the long ball. Game theory suggests that if everyone is doing the same thing, the system is vulnerable to an opposite approach, say a lineup of Wee Willie Keelers.

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  21. #12
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by Powel Crosley View Post
    I was planning to make a thread on this too. It's still somewhat early in the season, but anecdotally it seems like batting averages are way down while home runs are way up. They say chicks dig the long ball, but they don't dig the game when there are 45 minute lulls in between. The ball, pitchers throwing harder, and analytics/the shift have all contributed to this.
    Right. It seems like guys who have the potential to hit 30+ home runs are a dime a dozen, while guys who can hit .300 are as rare as 30 HR guys were before the 2015 all star break, the point where the ball was supposedly juiced.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by RED VAN HOT View Post
    I think teams are emphasizing the long ball. Game theory suggests that if everyone is doing the same thing, the system is vulnerable to an opposite approach, say a lineup of Wee Willie Keelers.
    I am hopeful that there will be a sort of backlash effect to the current state of the game and some teams will start looking for guys with undervalued skillsets. But with the current dominant hitting theory being the launch angle approach, which is completely validated by the juiced ball, I’m not sure when that will end up happening.

  22. #13
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by Norm Chortleton View Post
    Welsh has mentioned a few times already that this year's ball is a lot slicker and the seams are not raised as much, making it much harder to grip
    They started using MLB baseballs in AAA this year, and HR’s are up there too, but not in AA or A ball. I don’t have the numbers buy saw a tweet on it.
    Hoping to change my username to 75769023

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  24. #14
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Quote Originally Posted by 757690 View Post
    They started using MLB baseballs in AAA this year, and HR’s are up there too, but not in AA or A ball. I don’t have the numbers buy saw a tweet on it.
    yep saw that as well.

  25. #15
    The Lineups stink. KronoRed's Avatar
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    Re: I can’t be the only one who is sick of MLB turning into home run derby, am I?

    Home runs get people paid.
    Go Gators!

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