MLB changes rules in response to record home run season
Major League Baseball has gone through a number of periods throughout its history, from the dead ball era of the early 1900s to the steroid era in the late 20th/early 21st centuries. But never in its history has the game seen more home runs than it did in 2017.
A total of 6,105 home runs were hit last year, which obliterates the previous record of 5,693 set in the heart of the steroid era, 2000. The third-highest per year total was 2016, when 5,610 were hit.
As Greg Maddux once told us, chicks dig the long ball.
But MLB evidently believes 2017 was too much of a good thing, and it’s instituting a rule change that could have an impact on the number of home runs hit.
Sports Illustrated and other outlets report that MLB will impose a new rule this season standardizing how teams store baseballs.
Specifically, reports SI, the league will mandate that baseballs must be stored in “an air conditioned and enclosed room.”
Further, MLB will store climate sensors in each of these enclosed rooms to measure temperature and humidity.
https://twitter.com/Baseball_Newz/status/967087769716740096
The idea is to make sure the environments where balls are stored are uniform across the league.
Teams go through nine or 10 dozen balls per game and some 260,000 balls per year in games played at their parks. If the rooms where they are stored are too dry, the balls will be livelier, which leads to more home runs.
MLB recommends a temperature of 70 degrees with 50 percent humidity, according to SI.
Based on what it learns from 2018, MLB might consider having teams install humidors for ball storage in 2019.
Some teams are already doing that. The Arizona Diamondbacks are putting in a humidor this year that will keep the team’s balls at the 70 degree, 50 percent humidity level.
How will that affect players like All-Star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and shortstop Chris Owings?
If you're worried about the humidor affecting AZ hitters, this is what you should expect:
1. Could kill fringe GB hitters like Owings
2. Fewer RBI opps for the big bats
3. Goldy should be just fine less those opps— Brad Johnson (@BaseballATeam) February 22, 2018
Whether MLB’s change this season will have a big impact on the liveliness of the ball remains to be seen. There are certainly multiple factors contributing to the record-setting pace of home runs, but some have speculated that it might have something to do with the balls.
“I think the old eye test is the best thing to go by,” Astros pitcher Justin Verlander told the Detroit Free Press last June when he was with the Tigers. “Guys that have been around this game for a long time, you see balls leaving the yard that otherwise shouldn’t. Whether it’s juiced or not, I don’t know. I’ve seen conflicting reports. It’s just kind of scratching the surface.”
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