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Justin Verlander doubles down on juiced-ball claim: ‘I don’t like being lied to’

Jason Rowan
| March 2, 2018

Justin Verlander on Thursday took to Twitter to double down on his previous claims that baseballs are juiced. While the Houston Astros pitcher claims to not particularly care if baseballs are being manipulated or altered in some form, he just wishes Major League Baseball would come clean on the issue.

Verlander preceded the above tweet with another one with a chart which he finds particularly compelling.

Verlander presumably was inspired to restart his crusade due to a study from FiveThirtyEight published Thursday that confronts the juiced baseball conspiracy, as evidenced by a tweet in which he links to a report on the site’s findings.

Verlander has long contended that baseballs have been altered to the benefit of hitters, going all the way back to the 2015 MLB season, when he said the notion baseballs are juiced passes the “old eye test.” A report from The Ringer supported Verlander’s long-held theory. The pitcher at that time referred to the report as “a pretty good article.”

Verlander then made waves last fall when espousing again his theory that baseballs are juiced, which inspired now-wife Kate Upton to call out MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in a since-deleted tweet.

Major League Baseball has consistently and unequivocally maintained that baseballs are not juiced or altered in any form. Good luck convincing Velander of that notion.

Verlander not surprisingly has received support for Thursday’s tweetstorm, some serious and others in jest, with the latter highlighted by a tweet Atlanta Braves pitcher Brandon McCarthy.

And FiveThirtyEight’s own Rob Arthur, who co-wrote the piece published Thursday, hailed Verlander’s acumen by retweeting the graph posted by the pitcher.

No bad for a so-called dumb jock, right?