Matt Strahm has been a steady contributor for the Phillies. The southpaw has pitched well both out of the bullpen and as a starter in his first season in Philadelphia.
He hasn’t been afraid of changing his role and he hasn’t been afraid of making his opinions heard, either.
Strahm has made his thoughts known on the injury risks of the pitch clock, teams’ beer policies with quicker games, and even had a National Anthem standoff with his former teammate.
Now, Strahm is going back to a simple thing that was a hot topic a few years ago: the baseball itself.
Strahm joined WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Audacy Original Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” and explained just how bad the baseballs are now, saying they’re “the worst thing in our game right now.”
“That’s the worst thing in our game right now is the baseballs. We don’t have those things figured out worth a crap,” Strahm said (15:00 in player above). “It is atrocious. You reach your hand in and don’t know if you’re grabbing a tennis ball or a youth baseball.”
Umpires have called pitchers out for asking for new baseballs too often as they view that as a clock violation. It happened to Aaron Nola a few weeks ago, which prompted Strahm’s rant. But if a baseball doesn’t feel right, the pitcher will know immediately.
“As a pitcher, I make a living with that thing in my hand, so I’m very familiar with it,” he said. “When you give me a baseball I can feel if it’s a ‘hard’ ball or a ‘soft’ one.”
Baseballs seem simple enough, but there are quite a few factors that change how a baseball feels, spins, and ultimately performs. If there was a known issue with the baseballs, that’d be one thing, but each baseball seems to have a different defect.
“There’s no consistency whatsoever, not even in the dozen balls,” Strahm continued. “You get a dozen, three of them are going to have high seams, three of them are going to low seams, three of them are going to have spaced-out seams, and the others are going to be lopsided.”
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