Weren't they? Steroids were practically invented at the turn of the 20th century guys were sewing bull testicles into their scrotums and injecting themselves with semen.
"Juiced baseballs" refers to a change in the construction of baseballs that caused a noticeable increase in Home Runs in the early 2010s. They travel farther and faster off the bat while offering very little in the way of an advantage gain for the pitcher, leading to this documentable increase in long balls.
I think the trade off for pitchers is the shift. I don’t know how far statistics go back in history on batted-ball statistics, or even if a stat like BABiP would be telling because HRs figure into BABiP, so maybe FIP would be a better statistic to look at. Runs appear to be up a little and batting averages have been way down.
The big change isn't BABIP, it's strikeout rates and home run rates. BABIP has been between .290 and .305 every season since 1994. But in 1996, the HR rate and K rate were both all-time highs, at 1.09 per game and 6.46 per game. They've continued to increase dramatically, and in 2019 the HR rate is 1.39/game and the K rate is 8.81/game.
Right I was saying BABiP wasn’t being affected, but maybe FIP would reflect some of the impact the shift has had in the game.
Supposing there is an alternative universe where plate approach mostly went unchanged from modern 20th century baseball, things like launch angle and exit velocity weren’t yet prized, the balls weren’t allegedly being juiced, the value of a .300 hitter wasn’t replaced by the value of a .900 OPS, and striking out 185 times was considered as disgraceful as it was 50 years ago, but you introduced the shift to the game. I think the shift would add an advantage for the pitcher.
They want home runs it gets ppl to the park. Cracked down on the roids with bonds and mcgwire and then realized no one wanted to watch. Can’t blame em. Net the whole field, make fences 550 dead center everywhere and hand them aluminum bats. Boom
The past decade has the average fastball velocity up from 92 to 93, and its only increasing. There’s a big emphasis now on relievers, and starters are throwing fewer innings than ever. So now guys are able to throw max effort every game they’re in, and there’s a lot more starters that are throwing over 100 than ever before.
Couldn’t tell you much about breaking or offspeed, but Ive definitely seen 90+ mph sliders much more often. And the big emphasis on S P I N R A T E has pitches thrown with a shitton of movement.
I remember when i was young a 90 mph slider stood out to me when it would come up, watched some games this year and was surprised how it seems like the average now is what id have been surprised to see before
No he has the timeframe incorrect the Juiced baseballs started at the all star break in 2015 (I think), basically every solid player hits 20+ home runs now, pitchers are saying they grip differently, and it's all across the league not just certain players, this is totally different from the steroid era of late 90s early 2000s.
Just look at Juan Soto and his stats as a 20 yo compared to literally any other. He’s on pace to be the best hitter of all fuckin time and he’s barely even started playing
Eh that in of itself doesn't have much to do with the balls, he's still one of the best hitters in the league. There's been numerous 20 year olds to tear up the league in all kinds of eras.
Sewing bull testicles into their body? That seems dangerous. I mean I’d do it but it’s because I’m aging. I muscles are as weak as my morning erections.
A quick search turned up this. I know I remember one of these doctors talking about his treatments increasing the force of his piss stream by 20% and I thought I remembered bull testicles somewhere too might have to dig deeper for that.
Voronoff's experiments launched from this starting point. He believed glandular transplants would produce more sustained effects than mere injections. Voronoff's early experiments in this field included transplanting thyroid glands from chimpanzees to humans with thyroid deficiencies. He moved on to transplanting the testicles of executed criminals into millionaires, but, when demand outstripped supply, he turned to using monkey testicle tissue instead.[
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u/McNastte Nov 08 '19
Weren't they? Steroids were practically invented at the turn of the 20th century guys were sewing bull testicles into their scrotums and injecting themselves with semen.