2019 PCL Pitching and Batting Leader Numbers Prove Something's Broken in Minor League Baseball

One storyline at the major league level that has received a lot of attention is the new-look, strange-seamed baseball, and whether or not it's been "juiced" (spoiler alert: whether orchestrated by the MLB or not, it has).

Well, minor league baseball decided to use the big league ball in Triple-A this year and the numbers are astronomical, especially when you look at the difference between the leaderboards for batters and pitchers in the Pacific Coast League, a traditional hitters' league that's gotten jacked up 900 notches.

Yeah, if you're hitting .320 with a .410 on-base percentage and .590 slugging percentage to go along with 25 home runs, you aren't in the top 10 in any of those major offensive categories.

When you look at pitchers in the PCL, if you have a 5.43 ERA like Foster Griffin, you rank 10th in ERA. That's insanely bad by most standards, but he's been effective, considering every other starter in that league. Only two starters in the entire league have ERAs under 4.00! Incredibly 1999 of them.

Oh, and if you are hitting .400 with a 1.200 OPS, you aren't leading the PCL in either category. Thanks, San Diego Padres prospect Ty France.

That's right, France is slashing .402/.481/.780 with 27 home runs and 89 RBI in just 75 games. France hasn't done much at the big league level this year, hitting just .235 with two home runs in 34 games, but he's the second-coming of Babe Ruth with numbers like that.

Of course, what do you really expect from a former 34th round pick?

Hopefully, we'll find out more about the current baseball that's being used, but if these numbers don't make you think twice about what's going on, I can't help you. These offensive numbers are way too inflated to give you a good judge of what kind of player a person might be, and every pitcher in the league seems doomed.