As home runs are being belted and runs are being scored at ridiculous rates, should baseball fans adjust their expectations about what good pitching looks like?
WFAN's Gregg Giannotti and Jerry Recco discussed that topic on Thursday's "Boomer and Gio" show after the Yankees beat the Twins 10-7 on Wednesday, a second straight high-scoring affair between the two division leaders at Target Field in Minnesota.
"Everybody's mashing the ball," Giannotti said. "It feels like Coors Field out there in Minnesota. And I don't understand why in Minnesota and this field it would be any different than anywhere else -- I don't know, elevation-wise or whatever. But it seems crazy out there. It seems like the ball travels differently. It seems like it's off the bat differently. And you're just watching these two games. It doesn't feel real."
Recco mentioned Eddie Rosario's first-inning homer off Yankees starter J.A. Happ, saying it appeared initially Happ believed the fly ball to right field would end the inning.
"The ball just keeps drifting and drifting, and it's out," Recco said. "And it's like is that a bad pitch? Is he not a good pitcher? Or is it this stadium?"
Giannotti said he's on the verge of changing his opinion about pitching in baseball.
"Pitches that used to get guys out, fly balls that would get guys out of innings, are turning into home runs," he said. "You hear the pitchers talking about movement on breaking pitches is different with this baseball.
"We talk about the Yankees adding to the staff (before the trade deadline). Does it matter? Does pitching matter anymore?"
Recco said he thinks it still matters if a team has "the best of the best," such as Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer.
"But I think beyond that, you're going to have really good starts and you're going to have some crappy starts, and it's just everything in between," he said. "And that's been my point the whole time. To just make a move to say we got another arm, OK. But it's got to be an arm of significance, a guy that's a game-changer, like Verlander was when he went to Houston. And I don't know if that guy's out there."
To listen to the open from Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" show, click on the audio player above.
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