I don’t care how strenuously Matt Vasgersian objects to loads of subjective data, the balls are juiced. Home runs are flying out of ballparks at a higher rate than ever and hard contact is increasing all the time. Since such things started being measured in 2002, only six seasons have featured a hard-contact rate of 30% or higher. Four of those have come in the last four seasons.
Until last year, 2007’s aggregate 32% rate had stood as the high-water mark. Then came 2018, when the juiced-ball theory really started to gain traction and multiple studies revealed that the ol’ horsehide really did have a different composition that it had in the past.