Aaron Judge has been flirting with batting .400 all season long, he also is on pace to hit nearly 60 home runs again. Cal Raleigh became the first switch hitter to ever hit 30 home runs before the halfway point in the season, and he has a chance to set the all-time home run mark for a catcher. Eugenio Suarez and Shohei Ohtani are on pace to hit 50 home runs and Kyle Schwarber is not far behind.
Looking at those numbers you would think we were in an offensive explosion season, but the fact is there are many in baseball calling this the new dead ball era. The calls for concern are not only among the sports talk community or some conspiracy groups trying to start a stir.
In fact, current Pirates player Andrew McCutchen tweeted out "I was told by a rep for MLB that the balls are indeed different this year. They stated "higher seems" which produces more drag on baseball, causing baseballs to not travel as far as they should. When asked why, I was told "every baseball is hand sewn so no ball is the same."
New York Mets beat writer Ben Yoel had the same sentiment last week tweeting "You can't convince me MLB isn't using dead balls."
The quiet speculation has turned into a deeper whisper, and I suspect will grow larger and louder as the season moves on. There is some data to back up the claims though, and this should not be dismissed.
Last week the Yankees had three hard hit balls all three had the crowd standing and cheering, before the ball seemed to have died in mid-flight. Now, I know that fans in the stadium can be overzealous and cheer at routine fly balls, but these hard-hit shots fooled the announcers and even the outfielders as well. If you watched the replay and paid attention to the fielders, they all mis tracked the balls they believed would travel much further.
This isn't just an isolated incident. Many outfielders have struggled this year with tracking fly balls, and they have expressed that the ball isn't carrying the same way it has.
Perhaps the best piece of evidence of the new 'dead ball' came from Austin Wells. Wells hit a blast against the Red Sox that had an exit velocity of 106.1 mph. It also came with a 33-degree launch angle, and it didn't get out of the park. Now that sounds like technical jargon but let me simplify that for you. Austin Wells' ball only traveled 365 feet. That became the only ball ever hit in the stat cast era that had an exit velo over 100 mph with a launch angle that high that was not a home run.
MLB recently addressed the issue and basically said there is nothing they can or will do about it for this season. McCutchen echoed this statement by adding "When I asked if there is something that can be done about correcting the current performance of this year's baseball, I was told there was 'nothing' that can be done about it this season BUT, they are 'working hard on getting to the bottom of why the seams are higher.'"
This isn't just about the ball traveling further or not, it starts ti affect the players stats, which in turn is their livelihood. Major League Baseball has seen a massive increase in viewership, and they have to do something to keep that momentum. This is another bad look for the sport and the players are starting to get vocal about it. It's time the commissioner steps in to solve the problem.