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“Brawlers are not rewarded.” How the Dodgers handle softballs

Giants center fielder Mike Yastrzemski fails to catch a home run from Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts at Dodger Stadium Wednesday. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

Almost everyone on the pitch thought straight away on Tuesday evening that the ball was gone.

Cody Bellinger did, swinging his racquet and admiring the high-flying ball he sent through the cool Southern California skies.

Dave Roberts was also confident, expecting practice to fly over the center field fence at Dodger Stadium.

Even San Francisco Giants pitcher John Brebbia conceded, taking a quick look at the towering shot over his shoulder before turning away in defeat.

“I thought it would kill someone trying to catch it in 10th place,” Brebbia later told The Athletic.

However, the ball never reached the stands. He didn’t even hit the wall. What looked like an almost certain home run was once again dead in an outfielder’s glove. Once again, the sport’s recent adaptation to baseball had cast doubt on what could have been.

After Major League Baseball unwittingly used juice balls in 2019 and then attempted to adapt to different variations over the past two years, Major League Baseball decided to make more ball-related changes this season, continuing to tinker with its composition, physical characteristics, and each stadium add a basement for the first time.

The league’s hope was that a softball would reduce home runs and increase on-field action.

So far this has had the intended effect, but with controversial consequences.

Found a baseball flyer that bullets have more drag this year as they fly through the air. Baseball analyst Derek Carty also found that even after adjusting for the typical cold weather of the preseason, the home run rate has dropped significantly this year. MLB Statcast data showed that “caught” balls (those hitting within an optimal range of exit velocity and launch angle) don’t travel that far or to produce such a high percentage of slugging like the last few seasons.

As a result, players saw seemingly clean hit swings die before the end. Readers who were once considered safe are now uncertain as they speed through the air.

“The ball just doesn’t fly that well,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “It’s just that thugs don’t get rewarded.”

Roberts appreciated die Dodger There have been at least a dozen flyballs this season that likely would have been home runs in previous years. He believes this contributed to his players’ disappointing attacking starts. And while he didn’t outwardly criticize the league or the balls themselves, the adjustment was no less noticeable in the first month of the season.

“It is what it is, we cannot change it,” Roberts said. “Everybody in baseball goes through that.”

Bellinger, who hit 137 home runs in his six MLB seasons, struck a similar tone.

“We knew it was going to happen this year,” said the centre-back. “Balls have changed so much during my pro career. I just think consistency is important. Whether it’s those balls or not, there has to be a consistent factor for them.

Bellinger cited his flyball as an example on Tuesday, admitting that on a rough night at Chavez Ravine he “was hitting balls like that before he was gone, so I thought he was gone.”

Dodgers Max Muncy meets the Colorado Rockies on April 8th.Dodgers Max Muncy meets the Colorado Rockies on April 8th.

Max Muncy of the Dodgers, who played the Rockies on April 8, said there wasn’t much players could do about sleeping baseballs. “That’s the ball they put out this year so we have to adapt to that.” (David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

He wasn’t alone.

The Giants had a couple of long steals in play that even Roberts thought was missing. The Dodgers’ Max Muncy also threw a fly ball into right field that appeared to be heading for the seats before dying on the warning trail.

“Right off the bat,” Muncy said, “it was really good.”

While Muncy noted his baseline training speed was just 97.8mph – hit well but not burned – he also wondered how the new ball conditions were affecting his flight.

“I’ve definitely hit worse ones in the past than the ones that came out,” said Muncy, who has 126 career homers.

Players wondered how the new balls might affect other aspects of the game as well.

Muncy said he noticed more breakup pitches from opponents who had an unusual break en route to home plate. The balls even moved differently when directed into the team’s pitchers during batting practice.

“The most important thing to me about baseball is how it responds to the pitchers’ hands,” Muncy said. “A lot of breaking balls are returning this year. Unfortunately, that’s how it will be. This is the ball they released this year so we have to adapt to that.

The players began Raising concerns about changes to the ball before the start of the seasonunreliable from MLB after continuing to tinker with the ball in recent years – last year the league used two different balls as the season progressed – and suspicious of the new changes they’d noticed during spring training.

Roberts said he believes balls will fly better as the weather warms up and players eventually recalibrate their home plate feel.

Although he also hinted that it could be up to the players to hit more lines, he said he and the coaches haven’t changed their instructions to the team because of the new balls.

“Our boys don’t make excuses, which I really appreciate,” he said.

Yet another year of change is already taking its toll.

When asked if the situation was frustrating for him and the other players, Muncy smiled crookedly.

Baseball is a frustrating sport,” he said.

Once again, live baseballs added to the challenge.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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