4 years agoMajor League Baseball has slightly deadened its baseballs amid a years-long surge in home runs totals, according to a source. The league thinks that its changes will be subtle, however, and an independent lab found that the new balls will fly one to two feet shorter on balls hit over 375 feet. Five more clubs also plan to add humidors to their stadiums, meaning 10 of the league's 30 stadiums are expected to have humidity controlled storages. A record 6,776 home runs were hit during the 2019 regular season, and the rate of home runs fell slightly during the shortened 2020 season from 6.6 percent of plate appearances resulting in homers in '19 to 6.5 percent last year. Rawlings has loosened the tension on the first of three wool windings within the ball in an effort to better center baseballs. The slight change is unlikely to affect pitcher velocities, which in turn shouldn't affect power/strikeout numbers much, if at all.--Keith Hernandez - RotoBaller
Source: The Associated Press