What if they used today's baseballs?

[asphaltman]

Picking the 27 Yankees as the bar to which today’s pitchers would fare is an obvious swayed argument. Of course most pitchers today would be run from the game pretty quickly. But that’s picking one of the best hitting teams of all time, at least statistically. But how would a Jacob Degrom handle them? I’d say at least better. How many pitchers did the 27 Yankees face that threw a mid 90s slider? How would the Yankees have handled a Randy Johnson in his prime?

We can pick whoever we want. A typical fifth starter today I would think could have 7 quality starts out of 10 pitching against the 1907 Boston Doves.

[packs]

I guess I don't really understand why the perception is that someone like Babe Ruth couldn't hit a 90s slider. Why not? He obviously had an insane eye for the ball to be able to hit for the power and average he did. Same for Gehrig, same for Ted Williams or Ty Cobb. Why wouldn't they be able to hit any ball anyone threw in any time period? Speed has very little to do with success at the professional level. It always helps, but it's not like there aren't a thousand guys out there throwing 98 who aren't successful major league pitchers.

[asphaltman]

Originally Posted by packs

I guess I don't really understand why the perception is that someone like Babe Ruth couldn't hit a 90s slider. Why not? He obviously had an insane eye for the ball to be able to hit for the power and average he did. Same for Gehrig, same for Ted Williams or Ty Cobb. Why wouldn't they be able to hit any ball anyone threw in any time period? Speed has very little to do with success at the professional level. It always helps, but it's not like there aren't a thousand guys out there throwing 98 who aren't successful major league pitchers.

I’m not saying Ruth wouldn’t have hit home runs today. But would he be the elite home run hitter in MLB? There’s a reason to me there were numerous players that hit over .400 prior to World War II. I think it’s partly due to the starting pitcher pitching the whole game. We know pitchers are throwing harder now then they did years ago. Just in the last 20-25 years we’ve went from a couple guys that hit 100 on the radar to every team having 2-4 guys that do it. I also wonder back in the day how often was a ball put in play by say Rogers Hornsby credited as a hit where today the same play might be an E-5?

[darwinbulldog]

I think it has more to do with the groundskeepers than the scorekeepers.