Dodgers: Max Muncy Criticizes MLB’s Plan to ‘Deaden’ Baseballs
Major League Baseball will continue to play with the structure of the balls used in 2021. After back and forth about juicing the baseballs to make them fly further, the league admitted this year that they would be slightly deadening them. For the Dodgers, that could be a bit of a bummer.
The idea behind deadening the ball is aimed at getting the ball into play more and speed up games. This is all in an effort to draw in new fans and end games at a reasonable time. But for slugger Max Muncy, he felt like the league just took away the offense’s last advantage.
Muncy made an appearance on a media call with Dodgers reporters on Tuesday afternoon. In that call, he was asked about the league changing up the structure of the ball once again. Max was candid in his displeasure.
Does them deadening it mean the pitchers don’t throw 100 miles per hour also? That was my only question. I feel like the whole game is kinda triggered against the offense and now they’re taking the one sole advantage that we have. Maybe or maybe not the ball was a little bit juiced, they obviously never confirmed that. Them saying they’re deadening the ball was kind of heartbreaking.
So far, pitchers and coaches around baseball have had rave reviews about the idea. But from a hitter’s standpoint, it obviously changes things up. And for a team like the Dodgers that led the National League in home runs the last 3 seasons, it could be a huge change to their approach.
Dodgers Related: Andre Ethier’s Advice For Trevor Bauer
Muncy hit 70 home runs in his first 2 seasons with the Dodgers before hitting a rough patch in 2020. Even with a dip in numbers, he still hit 12 dingers in 58 games. This change by MLB might be popular with pitchers, but hitters already sound frustrated.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube Channel yet? Subscribe and hit that notification bell to stay up to date on all the latest Dodgers news, interviews, live streams, and more!
Dodgers Land at Number 1 in the Season’s First Power Rankings
Couldn’t disagree more with Muncy. For my money they should deaden the ball even more. The softer ball will force hitters to actually learn how to hit against shifts. Hit the ball to opposite field. The one trick ponies will either learn or go play beer league softball.
To be honest he only feels this way because he’s made a career out of those balls as well as many hitters have, some on our team. I agree with Tim these guys need to adjust this year and play small ball if it’s a tough pitcher.
They have been manipulating baseballs for years. The commissioner’s office should have just shut their mouth. Hmm, what happens if the 5% results in more doubles? Games may actually end up being longer.
MLB Commissioners office is just like government; they just can’t keep their grubby hands out of the system. They (MLB) will only make things worse by trying to fix it. “IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT”. But, you can’t fix stupid…in both entities.
Along with not allowing the NL have a DH this ball deadening is yet another example of Manfred and Co. going backwards in this game. They talked about wanted more offense from time to time, yet these 3 changes are making baseball less watchable . And not to forget that once again MLB is playing by 2 separate rules for each league.
Agree with Tim. Not a fan of the long ball which is Muncy’s only weapon. Deaden the ball means less walks for him since the pitchers will throw more strikes to him. He needs to learn to hit against the shift otherwise with a .192 BA he’s outa of here. Also do not believe a shortened season causes batters to hit @ a lower avg. Just another excuse.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a round-a-bout way to avoid paying superstars. Lets just say the new ball turns 5 or 6 balls that would’ve been extra base hits into outs. Would they have paid Muncy like he did if his 2018-2019 stats were 29 home runs and a .240 average vs his actual output of 35 homeruns and a .250 average?
The homerun is just about the only interesting thing to people who aren’t already interested in baseball. No casual fan is getting excited over the thought of the Dodgers advancing the runner from 1st to 3rd with one out or Dave Roberts leveraging left/right match-ups better than Jayce Tingler.
I couldn’t agree more
I got an idea, Hey Rob Manford just shut your face and keep that garbage to your office….. Our commissioner is the biggest pee-on…. Over paid idiot!
Hey senior editor, you have a typo lol. Shrinking strike zones and all these ridiculous shifts should play into a hitters advantage, but hitters don’t want to use that advantage and want to hit into the shifts. Why hit where one guy is standing when you can hit where there’s 3 guys?
I grew up watching Dodger teams from 1954 to present day. I can understand why the hitters won’t like it but I miss the stratagey that teams had. Hit and run is way down now because of expectant homers. In the last 10 years how many bunts have you seen, I remember Maurie coming home on a sac bunt, I remember the boys winning or going down by a 1 to 0, Kaufax, Dreysdale, Rodgers and Sutten praying we’d get a run or 2 for a win.
If the MBL are going to do this just to shorten gamethen tickets should be reduced. It’s the fans who lose out.