Justin Verlander: “It’s a f***ing joke. Major League Baseball’s turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you’ve got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f***ing company. We all know what happened. Manfred, the first time he came in, what’d he say? He said 'we want more offense.' All of a sudden he comes in, the balls are juiced? It’s not coincidence. We’re not idiots.”
Colin Cowherd: "No, but you’re a stubborn man and a pitcher. I’ll believe there are UFO’s when you show me the alien, I don’t wanna see the fuzzy video. I’ll believe the balls are juiced when you show me proof. ‘Juiced’ is an easy explanation. You know what isn’t an easy explanation? Nuance, context, date, launch angles, defensive shifts, analytics, that’s a hard answer. Stubborn men in sports don’t like to evolve."
Listen to Colin Cowherd comment on Houston Astros All-Star starting pitcher Justin Verlander ripping Major League Baseball and commissioner Rob Manfred apart on Monday, as the American League Cy Young favorite blasted the league for acting like they have no idea why home runs are being hit around the league at an unprecedented pace.
The MLB commissioner shockingly acknowledged there was a difference in the baseballs this season compared to previous years in a phone interview last month on The Dan Patrick Show, but Manfred used rather vague and unsubstantiated reasoning to describe why the league’s official game ball manufacturer Rawlings had been experimenting with the positioning of the ball’s core.
Verlander, who’s given up more home runs than any other pitcher this season, was bothered by the fact that the MLB was acting like Rawlings was going about the design of the ball strictly on their own doing and Major League Baseball was simply going along unknowingly. Verlander has allowed 26 home runs at the All-Star Break. His career-high for an entire season for 30 in 2016.
Colin says it sounds more like a conspiracy theory than an actual complaint, and wants undeniably proof that the balls are actually ‘juiced’.
Check out the audio below as Colin explains why he thinks Verlander is the typical stubborn veteran who is refusing to evolve to a new brand of baseball that is unapologetically obsessed with producing home run hitters.