Anyone else feel the Diamond balls at PGF this year are duds?
- Thread starter Sonerai
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I saw 3 hit total in our 8 games. 2 against and 1 for. All were stroked well. Saw about another dozen that would have been out at our home fields (CFL). The ball’s definitely had some impact. Our team is equal mix speed and power. Our speed game kept us in games. The power game was neutralized. Not a whole lot of extra base hits.I watched the Rock Gold vs Bandits game last night. Ended up being a bunt fest with aggressive base running. Rock Gold were hitting line drives but not like the Infield pop ups going over the fence in Colorado. Note: lots of slappers were out of the box.
Anyone that was out there, did y'all see any Bombs being hit?
Not gonna lie, going from last year's Platinum champs to this year's Premium Champs is a nice accomplishment...even with the best teams at Chino Hills.
But it was the same for both teams, so play on. We ended up being eliminated b/c we forgot how to play defense. The balls had no impact on that.
My daughter has played for and against many of the girls from that Rock team. I’ve worked with a couple of them over the years. I’m happy to see them win it all. They had a special group of 9-10 seniors on that team. Very cool experience watching it play out.
Our team played in 16U PGF fall qualifier this weekend and those Diamond softballs are complete duds. I think they are worse than the balls used in the PGF Nationals. We played 5 games and I watched another 5 games. Don't even get me started on game break scheduling that had us at the fields for over 12 hours to play 3 games. Umpire shortage? Snack bar proceeds? Or just poor inconsiderate scheduling? Anyway in 10 games not one HR. It's like hitting limited flight golf balls.
Yes I was at the PGF qualifier in So Cal this past weekend and same experience as Nationals. There was quite a bit of complaining from DD's coaches. Hard hit fly balls are outs.
I know people were complaining to PGF official on site but I doubt anything will come of it. It's like they changed manufacturers or something because the Diamond balls use to be pretty good. Playing in PGF Showcase this weekend and will report following. On the bright side, pitchers love them.LOL
- May 13, 2023
- 1,538
- 113
Why?
More strikeouts??? Imagine batters were still making the same amount of contact.
How about these questions~
Was there lower scoring games?
Probably, More activity defensively?
Equivalent errors or more errors?
Did you see anyone using small ball bunting more?
Less home runs doesn't necessarily mean less base hits. Understandably a home run is scoring. Really just asking about the activity related to the less active ball.
I think mushy balls equate to less hits too. Not only HRs. If I had to guest, I would estimate the ball took off 10 percent of normal ball exit velo. So for example a ball that would normally travel 220 feet is only traveling 200 feet. And that might be generous to the ball. The great Park in Irvine CA (great facility) has fences at 220 with 8 foot high fences. I highly doubt anybody hit a HR this past weekend. If they did they have some serious bragging rights.
If there was any good about mushy balls maybe more nice running catches in the outfield because the balls would kind of hang up and not carry as well allowing outfielders to catch up and make some nice plays. Probably less errors due to slower exit velo.
- May 13, 2023
- 1,538
- 113
So you saw more activity defensively. It would be nice to see stats correctly logged in score books to make a comparison.
Definitely saw the major difference in the game when they changed from the old white ball to the new rocketball to know how much that impacted the game and hitting statistics.
Balls coming off the bats slower means
- more gappers get caught
- fewer grounders get through the IF
- fewer laser line drives / hard ground balls eat up the infielders
I did see balls go well over the fence at PGF this summer and last week. But these were no-doubters that were squared up by legit HR hitters. There were no cheapies ( like last winter when our leadoff slapped one over the fence in CF).
- more gappers get caught
- fewer grounders get through the IF
- fewer laser line drives / hard ground balls eat up the infielders
I did see balls go well over the fence at PGF this summer and last week. But these were no-doubters that were squared up by legit HR hitters. There were no cheapies ( like last winter when our leadoff slapped one over the fence in CF).
