The shocking sprint in the home runs happening in the current season of Major League Baseball is the most talked about sports news. It will not be completely justified to hold the pitching staff of Baltimore Orioles, for being solely responsible, for this astounding spike. This statement becomes all the more accurate when you are experiencing the game live. When you are at Camden Yards, it is not that easy to watch one more long fly-ball abscond the yard.
According to the last week statements of Brandon Hyde, manager of Baltimore Orioles, he has never witnessed home runs surrendering like them. Reason being, giving up of the Baltimore Orioles in 2019 has never been seen by anyone so far.
Earlier this month, the record for homers was set at 50 in MLB by none other than 1996 Detroit Tigers. This is the record that has been noted prior to the last days of April in 2019. On the other hand, the Baltimore Orioles went way past that record in the game with Minnesota Twins. On April 20, the Orioles just handed over eleven long balls in a coupled sweep to Minnesota Twins. As per the latest update the total of Baltimore Orioles settled at 59.
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Standings so far
You can hardly consider the Baltimore Orioles as an extreme instance of what is happening all across Major League Baseball. The initial month of this season of 2019 has stood out, even after an era of the unmatched power of the home run across MLB.
Last Friday, teams showed a combined effort of scoring a record of 979 homers, giving a mean of 1.32 per game. This record counts up to 116 times greater than the teams hitting in the season of April 2017.
The 2017 season was the time that produced a record 6,105 homers. The rate of a home run in 2019 is five percent more than the greatest rate recorded ever in the history of MLB. This can be marked as a huge achievement, keeping in mind the highest rate in 2017 accounting for 1.26 per team game.
The MLB season of last year has shown a fall in the home run rate, marking 1.15 per team game. Another data revealed that the home run rate has gone up by 15 percent from previous years in 2019.
What is different this season?
Amidst all these records, another really scary thought is that the initial phase of the season generally gives the least rate of homers. But what will happen there are conditions where the balls have to be carried farther? No one in Baltimore has been seen to answer on these grounds.
As per the words of Mychal Givens, the reliever of the Baltimore Orioles, he has no idea about it. For him, it is just very interesting to witness the number of balls that are going out. Also, the ease with which they are absconding the yard. However, it is not simply the Baltimore Orioles, there are much weirder things happening in MLB this season. Some of them being:
- On the opening day itself, teams had come together to hit 48 homers, thereby making a record on the initial stage of the season.
- The Seattle Mariners, who have entered the league last Friday, hit 330 homers. This pace has broken the record set by the New York Yankees for 267 in the year 2018.
- The first team to have 3 pitchers hitting homers in the first month of the season itself is the New York Mets. This fact has been noted for the Mets for being this record-breaking team in beyond a hundred years of the game. The players who went deep were Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Noah Syndergaard.
- In one of the games in April 2019, the rivals of Class AAA International League- Rochester and Lehigh Valley played stunningly. The ultimate results showed the win of Lehigh Valley over Rochester with a score of 20 to 18. Although, the combined hit of the teams was a shooting 15 homers in just ten innings.
More reasons why this season is different
Every game in this season of Class AAA International League has been played with baseballs, issued by the MLB. This is a fact worth mentioning since it is a huge change from the early games played in the previous seasons.
During the former years, baseballs from minor leagues were used in all the games throughout the season in all levels. Didn’t that create a big difference here, altogether? Go ahead and throw your judgment!
Initially, at the times of minor league baseball, the batters were at a mean of 0.73 homers per game at Class AA. The Class AA league is just a level below the Class AAA International League. Currently, the use of MLB issued baseballs lifted the average to 1.28 homers per team at Class AAA. Thus, you can now easily point out where this entire season is heading to, looking at all these recorded stats. We presume that this season is all spiked with the juiced balls once again!
The increasing excitement of MLB 2019
The Orioles starter, Alex Cobb, is actually amazed to have seen this question arise. He finally ended up saying that the ball is indeed juiced again! Alex has just entered the game last Friday. He has already given up 5 homers in just eight and a half innings extending through 2 starts.
Cobb further added that being in the entertainment industry, it is his duty to keep the fans excited. However, he even went on commenting on the way he has been training himself as a pitcher.
He said that practicing with a certain kind of ball all his life, and how a sudden change can hamper the overall performance. This statement is strictly in reference to the change of baseball from minor league to the major league. However, all the signs are indicating a long yet exciting game story across this season. With the rise in game temperatures at MLB, the upsurge of long balls will not be restricted to Camden Yards.