The baseball has become a rocket ship. Its seams are lower, its core tighter, its aerodynamics smoothed down for superior sailing.



Scientific studies have shown the changes. Boosts in home run totals show the alteration, too, and not just at the major-league level. Major League Baseball finally dumped its ball in the minor leagues this year at the Triple-A level. Home runs have spiked there as a result.



So, deeper science and basic math tells us something is dramatically different about minor-league and major-league baseballs. But, what do pitchers think?



Four pitchers who played for the Nationals and in the minor leagues this season agree on two things: The minor-league baseball below the Triple-A level is distinctly different from the major-league ball. The ball used at Triple-A, which is supposed to be a replica of the major-league ball and simply have a different league stamp, is not the same.



Let’s start with the known differences. The minor-league ball at Double-A and below has higher seams, more give when gripped and doesn’t travel the way the major-league ball does. Rawlings makes the major-league and Triple-A ball in Costa Rica. The cork of the ball has four windings of wool yarn instead of three. The leather on those balls is wet when sewed on. The leather of the lower-level minor-league ball is dry. And the ball is made in China.



Cost, as always with the minor leagues, is at issue. Once MLB decided to put its ball into Triple-A this season, it also footed half the bill for the expected 25,000-30,000 dozen batches of balls. It’s odd in general concept a pro sport would be played with different balls, but that’s where baseball is though it finally took a minimal step of altering things at the Triple-A level.



Nowhere is the gap between the two balls more apparent than Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Nationals’ Double-A affiliate had a unique situation for weeks this season when Trevor Rosenthal was part of the club and trying to get right.



Players on major-league rehabilitation assignment use the major-league ball in minor-league games. When Rosenthal entered for the Senators, the balls were changed out -- and the game changed.



“When I’d be out in the bullpen and watch the game, guys would square them up pretty good, and they would just die,” Rosenthal said. “I probably saw at least five balls that would have been homers with the big league ball.”



The flight path and sound were most distinct to Rosenthal. He called contact with the major-league ball “super loud” as compared to the minor-league ball.



“It was a huge difference,” Rosenthal said.



Washington reliever Tanner Rainey has recently worked with the three existing variations of the baseball. Last year, he pitched with the minor-league ball for Triple-A Louisville before a brief callup. This year, he pitched with the new Triple-A ball in Fresno before coming to the majors. Like Rosenthal, Rainey noted the sound as something very different. He also thinks the Triple-A ball is not the same as the major-league ball.



“It’s a lot closer. It’s still not the same,” Rainey said of the Triple-A ball. “The leather has a different feel, the seams are lower and tighter [in the major leagues]. It’s a bigger [improvement] than last year when I was in Louisville, then up a little with Cincinnati. But this year, it’s still not the same. It’s still not the same ball. They’re not as tight, they’re not as hard. Just, it’s not as much of an adjustment throwing wise. But just the way the ball plays, it’s still a bigger difference.”



The new ball flies so much, Rainey and his Triple-A teammates went to look up the numbers of the home run spike. They found huge increases in both Triple-A leagues this year over last. Austin Voth didn’t have to check totals. He just watched how the ball played.



“It’s unreal to see guys who get jammed and hit the ball to the warning track,” Voth said. “It’s unreal. It’s a new experience for me.”



The pitchers have two concerns about the differences in balls.

The first is a lack of feel. Nationals manager Davey Martinez has stated multiple times that he believes the differences can have a big influence on debuts. Think of James Bourque this season. His command evaporated when he took the major-league mound. There’s more than one reason for that -- nerves, mechanics, etc. -- but the ball was also viewed as a contributor. Bourque walked 2.9 per nine innings in Double-A. He walked two in ⅔ of an inning in his MLB debut.



The other concern is blisters. Erick Fedde, for instance, changes his slider grip when “ripping through” the seams of a minor-league ball as opposed to a major-league ball. Fedde has avoided blister issues in his career. But others in the minor leagues have found their fingers irritated by the variations.



Voth said the new ball has not changed the way he pitches. He still tries to lean on his strengths, regardless if the ball is destined to travel an extra 20 feet because of how it’s constructed. What he -- and other Nationals pitchers -- does know is it sounds different, acts different and feels different, though he is playing the same professional sport.

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