Major League Baseball will introduce a pre-tacked baseball at certain Triple-A games for the minor league season’s final week and a half, reports Kyle Glaser of Baseball America. The new ball won’t be in effect at all games at the minors’ top level, as MLB executive vice president of baseball operations Morgan Sword tells Glaser there’s not yet enough supply to support a wide rollout.
It’s a bit surprising to see the experimental ball introduced at such a late stage of the season. The pre-tacked ball being tested in games did seem to be an inevitability at some point, though. Last month, Hannah Keyser of Yahoo! Sports reported that MLB had sent a prototype of a pre-tacked ball to certain big league players for feedback.
That experimentation comes on the heels of the league’s crackdown on pitchers’ usage of foreign substances. That was motivated primarily by a desire to police the most egregious offenders, pitchers who’d used extremely sticky substances to improve the quality of their raw stuff. However, MLB announced they’d legislate out all non-rosin sticky stuff — even substances more generally considered acceptable, like a sunscreen/rosin combination — to make enforcement more feasible for umpires. The league expressed an openness at the time to potential pre-tacked baseballs that would improve pitchers’ grips without meaningfully, artificially enhancing pitch movement. Three months later, they’ve found a product they deem suitable for in-game evaluation.
The pre-tacked baseball — which involves more than the traditional process of rubbing down the ball with mud — will be a change to the affiliated ranks. It’s not a new concept, though. Certain foreign leagues like Japan’s NPB and South Korea’s KBO have used pre-tacked balls for years, and a few players from the U.S. National Team have gone on record in support of the pre-tacked balls used in this summer’s Tokyo Olympics. (KBO and NPB rules call for slightly different specifications regarding the ball than do MLB regulations, so MLB’s pre-tacked prototype will not be the exact same as those foreign leagues’ balls). MLB itself experimented with a pre-tacked baseball in Spring Training 2019 but scrapped the project after receiving negative feedback.
With less than two weeks remaining in the Triple-A season and the pre-tacked ball not yet going into effect at all those games, there won’t be much time for the league to collect data this year. Still, the introduction of the new ball into competitive affiliated game at all is notable, and it’s safe to presume MLB will continue to solicit player feedback and monitor the results in future seasons before considering introducing it at the big league level.
Potential modification of the ball is only one of a few changes with which MLB has experimented in the minor leagues. MLB introduced rules changes at various levels entering the season. The bases were expanded slightly at Triple-A; defensive shifting was limited at Double-A. An electronic strike zone, limits on pick-offs and a 15-second pitch clock were put into place at different levels of the low minors.
Most of those measures will remain under evaluation, as Glaser separately reports that MLB plans to test those rules at this year’s Arizona Fall League. While MLB purposefully distributed those rules changes throughout various levels of the minors to evaluate their impact in isolation, combining them in the AFL is designed to gauge whether there will be any holistic effects. Glaser’s post on the Fall League changes is worth a read in full for those interested, as is this article by Jayson Stark of the Athletic from last week about the pitch clock’s influence on play in the Low-A West league this season.
This would have been the first good thing Manfred has done since he started if he wouldn’t have screwed it up first by enforcing a rule mid-season
Yeah, but how is the devil himself going against rules and regulations? He ain’t no baseball god!
what good? he’s still playing with his balls.
Yeah, but now his balls are sticky.
Manfred’s leadership is “tacky” at best.
What’s next, sort of corked bats? Minimal PED’s ? Computer chips in every ball player?
And after all this, they keep Pete Rose out of the HOF for cheating
“But now his balls are sticky.”
Definitely the last thing I needed or wanted to read today.
My bad, but Manfred is on the hot seat, we know what that will net you.
how to cool off a hot seat?
with a wet spot.
I believe that all of the experimental minor league rule changes happened at midseason so they would have before and after data to compare..
Guys will be be sporting 9+ eras down in triple A making the all star team down there.
It’s designed to help pitchers, should lower their ERA’s
derp
MLB to test COVID vaccine in AAA.
it’s the same thing with this. How about waiting until the games don’t count to ‘test’ equipment? I thought Selig was bad. Manfred makes Selig look competent.
Remember in 1969 when Seattle got an expansion team
and after the season they packed up and moved to Milwaukee
and became the Brewers? That was Bud Selig.
It is a very interesting story and should be told.
Ball Four.
Says nothing about what Selig did.
You are so right about Selig and Manfred.
The games always count for someone. D Should try it at low A first. Feel bad for a AAA pitcher, one step from the bigs having to deal with a new ball.
i sent Tim Kurkjian a message that says the baseballs aren’t being rubbed up properly. the baseballs sure are white. maybe an older umpire could show the new guys how it’s done properly.
What is he doing to do about it? And how do you know they aren’t being rubbed up properly?
balls are too white. they weren’t like that years ago.
That’s not evidence.
Odd timing, considering they won’t have enough data to use by year-end. That said, I like the idea of a pre-tacked ball, provided it doesn’t have a large effect on spin rate.
Gerrit Cole asking for a demotion immediately.
About time
Next year they need to play a few games with aluminum bats
It’s amazing a billionaire enterprise like MLB considered this option only after publicly embarrassing many of the games’ stars with on-field shakedowns.
Biden probably told Manfred to do it. Just like the AS game move.
Moving the all star game this year was beyond ridiculous. Manfraud cost a minority population millions being funneled into their economy. While a majority white population got to enjoy the millions poured into their economy. Manfraud needs to be replaced.
“Manfraud cost a minority population millions being funneled into their economy.”
Sure.
@RaysAllDay…You don’t believe what Manfred did cost local businesses money in Atlanta? You don’t think the population in Atlanta is more diverse then Colorado? Facts are Facts. Whatever you feel about the voting laws implemented, Manfred hurt Atlanta big time with this stunt.
Too little too late as per usual. A concrete case either way can’t be made in such little time.
Since ManFRAUD is such a clown wouldn’t he have more credibility if at his press conferences he wore big floppy shoes, a red nose & answered questions with an air horn, 1 for yes, 2 for no & 3 for, I’m trying to do irrevocable harm to the game but it takes time, so I ask that you please bear with me.
So now you will have pitchers that have good numbers in AAA that will no longer be able to control their pitches in the majors. It is hard enough for guys to make the transition with adding another wrinkle to the situation.
I hate to say it, but I miss Bud Selig.
A pre tacked ball is a good idea as are limiting pick off attempts and slightly wider bases to help limit the chances of injury. Also a NL DH would help reduce pitcher injuries dramatically.
I don’t think limiting pick off attempts is a good idea. That would give too much of an advantage to the runner. The only thing that seems good to me is a robot ump behind the plate calling balls and strikes if it could actually work and also adjust to each hitter’s strike zone.
Yes, of all the changes, the Robo-Ump would make the most sense. Problem is that it is still a while before it is in good condition. I’ve seen some terrible calls made by Robo-Umps that would even make Angel Hernandez look like the best Ump in the league. If they have a problem in the MLB, do they review it to get the right call? That would add more time to the game. Personally, I have no problem with the time of the game but it seems everyone complains about it.
This seems like a confusingly common sense idea by MLB.
Got to like how for decades the rule was pretty much ignored and we have all those great legends in the Hall (even hitters, who were somehow able to hit pitchers with foreign substances) but all of the sudden, because hitters decide to take an all or nothing approach to hitting, resulting in low batting averages and tons of HRs, we need to start enforcing the rule?
I’m not a big fan of using AVERAGE as the evaluator of a player but media likes to reference it when they talk about the Sticky Stuff. so lets look at this seasons stats for the league.
Month AVG
March/April: 0.232
May: 0.239
June: 0.246
July: 0.248
August: 0.246
September/October: 0.25
So, in the early months, when it’s colder, we see lower averages but, the pitchers had the sticky advantage. Then the ban came in effect in June and we started to see a slight bump up in average but it dropped in August and is now only 0.250 in September.. Someone tell me, are pitchers using the sticky stuff again in September?
I’ve got no problem with banning foreign substances for pitchers but hitters actually need to go back to learning how to hit along with situational hitting.. The guy I actually like to see playing is Nicky Lopez. He isn’t up there swinging for the fences or striking out all the time and has good speed and situational hitting. If the defense is is fielding you on one side, start using your brain and hit to the holes. HRs, BBs (with no speed) and Ks are not that exciting as a triple or a stolen base. Go watch some Rickey Henderson clips. The guy knew how to get on base without hitting and could turn a walk into a triple with his speed.. There is your OBP benefit.
But hey, let’s just blame it on the pitchers and move on. Don’t change anything else like 3-true outcome hitting that is actually a drag on the game.
If September has the highest monthly batting average of the season (.250), why would you think the pitchers are using sticky stuff again?
I’m joking about how even with no sticky stuff, they average is only sitting at .250. An increase of 0.018 on the batting average.
In other words, even though we got rid of the sticky stuff, we didn’t improve the average by much. Thus, telling us that the sticky stuff was not a significant issue to the game as it was being claimed to be. The real problem is that current batters are following the 3-true outcomes and thus, baseball fails at creating more action.
Reading through the comments, seems like, most like the rule change, not Manfred.
The umps and commissioner are the most hated positions in sports.
I say we should make them all robots.
Pitchers say that these sticky balls feel a bit like a computer keyboard after a night of binge watching adult videos on the Internet.
Let’s hope MLB doesn’t use the same stuff.
Wow. How did baseball survive for over a century without tacked balls?