HOW IT WORKS: THE NCAA’S NEW FLAT-SEAMED BASEBALL
BETTER AERODYNAMICS LEADS TO MORE HOME RUNS
For more than 100 years, the baseball has remained more or less unchanged. This spring, college players will start their season with a new design. With seams that rise to only 0.031 inches, the ball shaves 0.017 inches off the standard seam height. Flatter seams make for a smaller wake and less drag, so a strong hit will send the new ball 20 feet farther than a standard one. For players, that means more home runs. For the NCAA, it means more exciting games and, hopefully, more spectators.
Won't it also effect pitchers. It seems the reduction in drag will effect pitches like curve balls that use rotation to cause changes in drag. It seems it would make coorves less effective and fast balls faster.
Buddy, I had the same thought. Fastballs won't move as much and any breaking pitch will have their degree of deviation from the norm reduced as a result.
I should have added, pitchers will hate the new ball because gripping the seams is an important part of pitching and if those seems are less pronounced, the ball just won't feel "right" when a pitcher grips it with or against the seams.