I am reminded of the old adage "what can be measured can be optimized". Pitchers have always added substances to baseballs, but they were mostly doing it by fe

I am reminded of the old adage "what can be measured can be optimized". Pitchers have always added substances to baseballs, but they were mostly doing it by feel. It was only roughly a decade ago that technology was first introduced that could accurately measure a pitch's movement. It was even more recently that technology was introduced that could accurately measure the spin of a pitch. Now that pitchers are armed with this tech, they can optimize for spin and movement. They can experiment with all sorts of different substances, do the exact experiments described in this article, literally hire chemists to come up with better formulas, and share the most effective substances with their teammates. In the end, this measurement technology has led to a drastic improvement in the effectiveness of the use of these foreign substances. That has altered the balance between pitchers and hitters that is important to keep the game actually entertaining to watch.