43MATT BROWN/ANGELS BASEBALL L; PETER AIKEN; MANUEL GUADARRAMA. PHOTOS VIA GETTY IMAGES
ABOVE: Facing a power shortage, the NCAA made the college baseball livelier, which increased home runs.
BELOW: By contrast, a seemingly benign brand change in the Mexican League led to an accidental boost in home runs.The reverse effect was desired in Korea
this year. After seeing the league produce
more home runs in recent years, the
Korean Baseball Organization decided
that it wanted to take some power out of
their league.
Before the season, the KBO modified
its baseball, making it a little bigger. That
one change has significantly changed
how the game is played. Last year, teams
averaged 1.22 home runs per game and
5.5 runs. Five different hitters topped
40 home runs and the league broke its
single-season home run record. This
year, teams are hitting 0.73 home runs
per game and scoring 4.7 runs per game,
meaning that the league is seeing just
60 percent of the home runs it saw last
season.
Sometimes the changes have been
somewhat unintentional. Before the 2019
season, the Mexican League decided to
switch from Rawlings to Franklin as its
supplier of baseballs. At the time, the
decision was seen as a business move
that was not expected to make a signifi-
cant difference on the field.
Two months into the season, that one
tweak had turned the league topsy-turvy.
The new baseball has proven significant-
ly livelier. Felix Pie, the one-time Cubs
prospect who is now 34, entered June
hitting .489. The average hitter in theBY THE NUMBERS5 4%
Mexican League
home run
increase in 2019
after switching
brand of baseball
from Rawlings to
Franklin.66
The OPS points gained by
Triple-A hitters after the
International and Pacific Coast leagues
adopted the major league ball this
season.
2018: .261/.331/.406
2019: .268/.346/.457The Korean major league switched to
a slightly larger and softer ball in 2019.
Home runs have decreased in
frequency as a result.
2018: 28.7 AB per HR
2019: 47.3 AB per HR4 1%
Increase in
home runs in
NCAA Division
I in 2015 after
lowering the
seam height on
the ballleague was hitting .307/.378/.493, and 21
players were hitting .350 or better.
The league decided it had too much of
a good thing.
Mexican League president Javier
Salinas said in late May that he was
asking Franklin to develop a new, softer
baseball to switch to in June to try to take
some air out of the offenses, only to learn
that such a switch cannot be made on a
moment’s notice. The league will look at
the baseball again in the offseason, but
for now, it’s using a baseball that pro-
vides much more offense than previous
versions.
And then there is Triple-A baseball.
Before this season, the two International
and Pacific Coast leagues adopted the
same baseball that is used in MLB. What
that switch proved is what was expect-
ed—the MLB ball is dramatically livelier
than the traditional minor league ball.
For a clear example, look no further
than El Paso, who have turned the entire
season into a home run derby. Through
June 18, El Paso had hit a Pacific Coast
League-best 157 home runs. For refer-
ence, that total, through just 72 games,
is more than all but five teams—Fresno,
Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Tulsa and Rancho
Cucamonga—hit during the entire 2018
season.
El Paso second baseman Luis Urias,
who entered the season with 17 homers
in 467 minor league games (including
zero in his first two seasons) had a team-
best 16 longballs in 54 games.
This year has given everyone a chance
to see more clearly the differences
between the traditional minor league ball
and the MLB version, which is now used
in Triple-A. In Class A and Double-A,
hitters are hitting home runs at a slightly
lower rate this year than they did last
year. Home runs typically pick up during
the summer in the hottest weather, so
that’s to be expected.
In Triple-A baseball this year, home
runs are up 55 percent. Last year there
were 7 percent more home runs in
Triple-A than Double-A. This year,
there are 79 percent more home runs in
Triple-A than Double-A.
If MLB is happy with the current trend,
then the new ball is a perfect fit.
But if, like the KBO, Major League
Baseball decides that the power-heavy
approach is too much of a good thing, it
has the ability to make changes by just
changing one small aspect at the very
heart of the game. n