MLB isn't confident it can produce a consistent ball

stepson_and_toe

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Aug 11, 2019
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Article in Yahoo Sports -- During the annual GMs meetings, the "the subtle shift in the aerodynamics that resulted in a not-so-subtle spike in home runs," was a big topic of discussion. "According to league sources, Major League Baseball is not confident that the ball can be made completely standardized and consistent without overhauling the manufacturing process" and as long baseballs are hand-made from natural materials, it might not be possible to control the production closely enough to do so.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Article in Yahoo Sports -- During the annual GMs meetings, the "the subtle shift in the aerodynamics that resulted in a not-so-subtle spike in home runs," was a big topic of discussion. "According to league sources, Major League Baseball is not confident that the ball can be made completely standardized and consistent without overhauling the manufacturing process" and as long baseballs are hand-made from natural materials, it might not be possible to control the production closely enough to do so.
And that's probably the case for manufacturing the balls for over a century at this point (impossible to standardize and control the process closely enough). But there's no way that they didn't make some change in the existing process that led to the balls we saw this year compared to say, 2015 or something. Couldn't they simply backtrack and go back to what they were doing then just to see if there's a difference. Shouldn't take an overhaul of the process to do that, unless they are admitting they overhauled the process to get to the 2019 balls.
 

stepson_and_toe

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Aug 11, 2019
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Since all the measured properties of a baseball have a plus/minus latitude, I am not unconvinced that the balls could be sorted so the livelier ones go to MLB while the less lively one go to the minors. For example, according to MLB rule 3.01, the weight may vary from 5 to 5.25 ounces and the circumference from 9 to 9.25 inches. A smaller circumference could mean the ball is more tightly wound. Someone here could probably determine how much farther a 9" ball would travel, all else being equal, than would a 9.25" ball. Then, again, maybe it wouldn't make that much difference. I don't know but if all the factors that could increase distance are included, perhaps they might.
 

Harry Hooper

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And that's probably the case for manufacturing the balls for over a century at this point (impossible to standardize and control the process closely enough). But there's no way that they didn't make some change in the existing process that led to the balls we saw this year compared to say, 2015 or something. Couldn't they simply backtrack and go back to what they were doing then just to see if there's a difference. Shouldn't take an overhaul of the process to do that, unless they are admitting they overhauled the process to get to the 2019 balls.
Yeah, blame those uncontrollable workers making the balls. That MLB statement broke the bs-ometer. Sheer coincidence the figurative dam broke once MLB took over the operation.
 

Max Power

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The should find out how the balls were made every year from 1940 to 2017 except 1987 and do it like that.
 

bankshot1

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I'm not a statistician nor expert in manufacturing controls, but it seems MLB must have changed the manufacturing process as it seems statiscally unlikely that if the 2019 ball was made to the same specs/same process as earlier balls, the 2019 ball would not produce the HR results that it did.

Its as if only the far-end of the right hand part of the bell curve of baseballs (tightly wound rocket balls) made their way to MLB ballparks.
 

shaggydog2000

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Apr 5, 2007
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I'm not a statistician nor expert in manufacturing controls, but it seems MLB must have changed the manufacturing process as it seems statiscally unlikely that if the 2019 ball was made to the same specs/same process as earlier balls, the 2019 ball would not produce the HR results that it did.

Its as if only the far-end of the right hand part of the bell curve of baseballs (tightly wound rocket balls) made their way to MLB ballparks.
Or maybe a material changed but was still within the acceptable bounds of their spec. So if the twine is suddenly on the -5% side of thickness than the +5% the ball could be a wound smaller than it was before, but still be within spec. Who knows what specs really matter in winding a baseball? The manufacturers certainly don't seem to.