How MLB’s baseball meddling is affecting the ALCS

Erik Williams-USA TODAY SportsA player’s critique of human strike zones is often a plea for consistency. Players seldom call out a bad game from a home plate umpire, but rather refrain that they want to see the same pitch called the same way an entire game. A ball called a strike is less of a problem within a particular game if the same pitch is called a strike in every inning.

In a lot of ways, I think that’s how players and teams feel about the baseball this October too. Baseball Prospectus has done pretty solid research that indicates the baseball is behaving differently this postseason, FanGraphs writer Devan Fink has perhaps the best analysis showing that exit velocity, launch angle and…