Baseball is such a data-driven sport, and numbers don't tend to lie. There's always always some new form of juice, some changes to the mound, something going on with the bats and balls...
Do the materials in a baseball show up differently over time, say over a 20-30 year span? I'd really want to see this done on more sets of baseballs. In addition to testing players, if the goal was consistency it would be prudent to scan the balls, do a core sample of the pitcher's mound every game, make sure bat composition and temperatures are consistent... The new pitch clock isn't going to empower pitchers either though, look for batter power to rise again next year.
* Baseball just saw its biggest home run surge since the steroids era. Here’s why. - The Washington Post || https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fancy-stats/wp/2016/03/0...
The real graph to pay attention to: https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://...
Do the materials in a baseball show up differently over time, say over a 20-30 year span? I'd really want to see this done on more sets of baseballs. In addition to testing players, if the goal was consistency it would be prudent to scan the balls, do a core sample of the pitcher's mound every game, make sure bat composition and temperatures are consistent... The new pitch clock isn't going to empower pitchers either though, look for batter power to rise again next year.