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Last night’s winter meetings sure did take a turn, but this morning’s news felt a bit more surprising:
The latest study into the baseballs has concluded that decreased seam height and "player behavior" were the cause of the home run uptick in 2019.
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) December 11, 2019
So, MLB’s investigators both sides’d the matter of whether or not the baseball it self has been juiced.
The troubling implications of last year’s home run rate will only get worse as the trend persists, though then again maybe not because none of this matters.
Meanwhile,
Can confirm the Giants interviewed Yankees minor league roving hitting instructor Rachel Balkovec for a position on their MLB staff. Believed to be the first time a woman has interviewed for a major league uniformed role. It appears Giants will go in another direction, however.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) December 11, 2019
That would’ve been a nice surprise in this confusing offseason. Balkovec wound up taking the job with the Yankees and will be in uniform for their GCL team.
Although, maybe the offseason isn’t that confusing. The Giants are hiring a heap of coaches who are more like instructors and Gabe Kapler himself hasn’t even contacted Madison Bumgarner.
It’s probably not a Full Tank situation — they gave Kevin Gausman $9 million — but it’s definitely a Soft Tank Year. That means it will be as important as ever to find joy in the evenore meaningless parts of this hobby.