Is it the ball?

[Willihammer]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-unexplained-home-runs/

Another juiced ball study discussed on FG, this one with a decent sized dataset of FBs hit at Tropicana from 2015-2017.
 

 

What Nathan found was that the ball did change, it had less drag, in comparing 2015 to 2016. But what was most interesting to me is the ball has apparently not changed from 2016 to 2017.

But HR/FB rates continue to increase — 13.7% this season compared to 12.8% in 2016 — even as the ball is playing similarly in 2017 compared to 2016, according to Nathan’s research. We can deduce there are reasons behind the spike.

I’m convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the ball has a role in this surge and perhaps even a leading one, but there are more elements involved and that was a takeaway, for me, from the presentation.