The huge home run rate in 2019 has led to a lot of questions from players and fans. According to the report published in 2017 by the MLB Home Run Committee (which you should read), the drag of baseballs decreased some from 2015 – 2016 – 2017 and the home Continue Reading
bartonlsmith
Live! (recorded) 3D Explanation of Laminar Express: Post 33
[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about boundary layer separation and wakes] A reader asked some very good questions about my claims, and I’ve attempted to answer these using a ball with a rod shoved through it. Comments, criticisms are welcome. Continue Reading
Seam Height ball-to-ball/year-to-year Variation: Post 32
Mike Fast of the Atlanta Braves generously gave us a whole crate of 2019 balls, 6 dozen total. I asked John measure each one on and off the seams in several places and record the average difference as the seam height. It’s a crude measurement compared to the laser scans Continue Reading
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities and Baseballs, Jets, the Atmosphere, and Jupiter: Post 31
[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about vorticity (the colors in our plots), boundary layer separation] Anyone who studies fluid dynamics (flow of liquids AND gasses) probably has a fetish for vortices, or little whirls of fluid. Walk into any Fluid Continue Reading
Prediction of Flow Pattern of Laminar Express Over a Full Rotation: Post 30
[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about vorticity (the colors in our plots), boundary layer separation and wakes] We have recently tested some non-spinning MLB balls in orientations that are important to the “Laminar Express” pitch, which is a 2-seam fastball Continue Reading
My Latest Thoughts on Laminar Express: Post 29
I’ve written several times about this pitch, and each of those posts reflected an evolution of my thinking on it based on recent results. Our results continue to get better, and my thinking gets more definitive. So I thought I’d write an update. [If you are new to our measurements, Continue Reading
Primer on Understanding Our Results: Post 28
Starting in June, 2019, we use 2019 MLB balls in our testing unless otherwise stated. We measure the airflow over a moving ball using a measurement technique called Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The data we get back is the air velocity and direction everywhere in our image. In the picture Continue Reading
Saberseminar 2019 Presentation “What do Baseball Seams do to a Ball in Flight?”: Post 27
Ball Smoothness, Roundness and Drag: Post 26
I’ve just been listening to Jonah Keri’s great interview with Dr. Meredith Wills on an Athletic podcast. They were discussing her recent Athletic article about the 2019 balls as well as her two early articles. This recent article has made a huge splash and I am happy that Dr. Wills Continue Reading
Seam height, drag, and carry: Post #24
You may have heard that there have been a lot of home runs in the MLB in 2019. I’d link some articles, but there are so many that I’ll just recommend Google. There is also evidence that the seams on the balls currently being used in MLB are smaller than Continue Reading