Commissioner Rob Manfred once again emphatically denied that Major League Baseball has altered baseballs to generate more offense, amid widespread criticism from some of the sport's top pitchers.

"Baseball has done nothing, given no direction for an alteration in the baseball," Manfred told reporters Tuesday. "The flaw in logic is that baseball wants more home runs. If you sat in owners meetings and listen to people on how the game is played, that is not a sentiment among the owners for whom I work."

Manfred also said "there is no evidence from scientists that the ball is harder" but acknowledged that "the drag of the baseball is less."

He said MLB is trying to find out why the drag is less but had not been given answers by scientists.

"Pitchers have raised issues particularly about the tackiness and seams on the baseball, and we do believe those could be issues," Manfred said.

Manfred's comments came one day after Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander, the American League's starting pitcher in Tuesday's All-Star Game, told ESPN's Jeff Passan that the baseballs being used this season are "a f---ing joke" and that he believes "100 percent" that MLB has implemented juiced balls to increase offense.

Verlander's sentiment was echoed by Mets ace Jacob deGrom, who said Monday that he was "not going to disagree with him," and Nationals ace Max Scherzer, who agreed that the baseball "seems to travel differently."

"All the rules that are changed in the game, that has to be cleared with the players," Scherzer told reporters. "But when the ball changes as much as it has over the last handful of years, the players have no say in that whatsoever.

"We as players wonder why the ball can change that much, that fast, and to have that big of results. That's why as players we deserve an answer to what's going on."

Players union head Tony Clark also chimed in Tuesday, saying "the ball suddenly changed, and I don't know why."

Manfred countered that there is "no desire among ownership to increase homers in the game," saying that "to the contrary, (owners) are concerned about how many we have."

Players belted 3,691 homers in the season's first half and are on pace to hit 6,668 home runs, which would obliterate the record of 6,105 hit in 2017.

Verlander, despite a 2.98 ERA and 153 strikeouts in 126 2/3 innings, has allowed a major-league-leading 26 homers.

Manfred addressed the issue earlier Monday -- before Verlander's comments -- in an interview with ESPN's Golic and Wingo, saying again that the ball has "less drag" but pointing out that "data suggests fans like home runs."

"It's easy to get carried away with 'you have too many home runs,'" Manfred said Monday. "Let's not forget that our fan data suggests fans like home runs. It's not the worst thing in the world.

"We think what's been going on this year is attributable to the baseball. Our scientists that have been now studying the baseball more regularly have told us that this year the ball has a little less drag. ... We are trying to understand exactly why that happened and build out a manufacturing process that gives us a little more control over what's going on. But you have to remember, our baseball is a handmade product and there is going to be variation year to year."

Conversations about a juiced ball have percolated since after the All-Star break in 2015, when home runs spiked. They are up nearly 60 percent from the 2014 season, and a study commissioned by Manfred concluded that baseballs were performing differently but didn't attribute a reason.

In June 2018, one month after the study was released, MLB bought Rawlings, the supplier of the official major league ball.

"It's a f---ing joke. Major League Baseball's turning this game into a joke," Verlander said Monday. "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. If any other $40 billion company bought out a $400 million company and the product changed dramatically, it's not a guess as to what happened.

"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."

Manfred was asked Tuesday whether MLB would consider altering the baseballs to reduce the number of homers.

"If we were going to do it, we would do it in a way that was transparent to the media and fans before making that change," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES -- When Hyun-Jin Ryu started Game 1 of last year's National League Division Series for the Dodgers, it was explained as a strategic decision meant to juggle rest, a circumstance that did not impact Clayton Kershaw's ability to pitch a potential decisive Game 5. When he was named the Opening Day starter five months later, it was a byproduct of others -- namely Kershaw and Walker Buehler -- not being ready enough or healthy enough to begin the season.

Now Ryu will start the All-Star Game, picked ahead of every other pitcher in his league, and there is no need to justify it. Dave Roberts, the Los Angeles Dodgers manager who will lead the National League All-Stars into Tuesday's Midsummer Classic, called it "a no-brainer."

"He's been the epitome of consistency," Roberts said during Monday's news conference from Cleveland. "He's been the best pitcher in the National League."

Ryu leads the majors in ERA (1.73) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.90) while trailing only Justin Verlander, the American League's starting pitcher, in WHIP (0.91). He has issued only 10 walks in 109 innings and allowed only 100 baserunners throughout the first half, the latter setting a record among those with at least 17 starts and 100 innings before the All-Star break.

Dating back to the start of last season, a stretch of dominance interrupted only by a severe groin injury, Ryu is 17-5 with a 1.83 ERA. His 2019 ERA stands as the sixth-lowest before the All-Star break in 20 years, trailing just the following pitchers: Zack Greinke (2015), Pedro Martinez (2000), Roger Clemens (2005), Jacob deGrom (2018) and Josh Johnson (2010).

"I always thought that I could compete in this league," Ryu said through a translator last week, "but I didn't know I was going to perform this well."

Ryu was a prized acquisition out of the Far East, the first player to go straight from South Korea to the major leagues. Seven years ago, the Dodgers spent nearly $62 million to earn exclusive negotiating rights and then sign him to a contract. But Ryu will tell you he never pitched this well in the Korean Baseball Organization, an inferior league altogether. He was solid in his first two seasons as a Dodger, going a combined 28-15 with a 3.17 ERA in 344 innings from 2013 to 2014.

But he wasn't this precise. He wasn't this dominant. He wasn't Greg Maddux.

Ryu's ascension to stardom -- at 32, an unlikely age in a sport that continually skews younger -- is no coincidence. It's the result of marked evolution, both in his mindset and in his repertoire. It was sparked by maturity, by desire, by failure. It consisted of three critical steps.

Step 1: Overcome

Ryu underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in May 2015 and did not pitch at all that season. He returned in July of 2016, pitched once, then was shut down for the rest of the year with pain in his elbow, ultimately undergoing a debridement procedure to clean up damaged tissue. In two years, Ryu made one start.

"The entire process," he said, "was basically the lowest point in my life."

Tommy John surgery -- a procedure Ryu had as a teenager -- boasts a relatively successful track record, but labrum surgery does not. The shoulder isn't anywhere near as straightforward. It will develop abnormalities over time, some of which are necessary to pitch effectively, and repairing them could prove counterproductive.

Clemens, Bret Saberhagen and Orel Hershiser bounced back well from shoulder surgery, but a host of others -- Johan Santana, Mark Mulder and Mark Prior, to name a few -- never fully recovered.

"Coming back from shoulder surgery was definitely more than I expected or anticipated," Ryu said. "People were doubting me, and there were many people that were saying it's one of the toughest injuries to come back from. But I tried to focus on my goal, coming back and pitching on the mound again, and really try to cancel all those doubts. That definitely helped me come back from it. But to be completely honest, it wasn't easy at all."

What we're seeing now, many will say, is a result of Ryu being fully healthy for the first time in a long time. He said the Dodgers "knew when they signed me I wasn't 100 percent in terms of my body condition and health-wise," alluding to the shoulder soreness that occasionally crept in early on. Getting that corrected, and pitching pain-free for perhaps the first time since coming to the United States, might be the biggest reason Ryu has emerged as a dominant figure.

But it isn't the only one.

Step 2: Expand

A pattern began to develop early in Ryu's career. He was elite at throwing fastballs and changeups thrown arm-side, so right-handed hitters began selling out on those outside-corner pitches in hopes of doing damage. He needed a pitch firm enough to run in on right-handed hitters and keep them honest.

Ryu's slider was inconsistent, so longtime Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt suggested he try a cutter. The mechanics were basically the same; all he had to do was alter the grip. The time spent recovering from surgery presented an opportunity for both of them to explore this further, studying the way CC Sabathia used his cutter to both sides of the plate. Ryu grasped it instantly. Over time, he learned how to manipulate the pitch to give it more depth when necessary.

"You ask him to do something, he can do it," Honeycutt said. "He can do whatever he wants with the ball."

When Ryu returned in 2017, he was suddenly a five-pitch pitcher. He had his three staples -- the four-seam fastball, the changeup and the curveball. But he also had the cutter, a pitch he has thrown 20 percent of the time over the past three years. And he also developed a two-seam fastball, a product of studying the way Dallas Keuchel uses the pitch to bust left-handed hitters inside.

Ryu can throw all of them, in any count, to all four quadrants of the strike zone -- a devastating arsenal, even though the vast majority of them travel less than 90 mph.

In the words of teammate Ross Stripling: "Hyun-Jin doesn't have a fastball count."

Step 3: Evolve

Ryu tore his groin muscle off the bone during a start in Phoenix last May. He carried a 2.12 ERA to that point, but would be sidelined for 15 weeks, yet another setback in a mounting list of them.

Honeycutt took it as an opportunity for Ryu to evolve further.

Ryu was probably the best on the staff at reading hitters' swings, a skill that enabled him to quickly assess how they reacted to certain pitches. He also had a photographic memory for sequences, which allowed him to constantly change his patterns. And so Ryu usually just relied on feel when he pitched, never necessarily scouting his opponents ahead of time.

"Just like in anything that you study, it's way better to learn actively rather than passively," Ryu said. "My first couple years, I was more of a passive learner, just trying to learn about the hitters from others. But the last two years, I've been more active studying these hitters, and I think that resulted in better pitch sequence and just attacking the hitters in general and getting to know them. That really helped my game incredibly."

Honeycutt began by giving Ryu his notes to work off while watching other pitchers' starts. He wanted him to build a foundation of knowledge before meeting with his catcher. He wanted him to take ownership of his starts.

Of utmost importance was having an idea for how to exploit tendencies to begin and finish at-bats, to formulate a plan for how to attack certain hitters when working ahead and behind counts. The next layer was learning how opponents changed their tendencies when given opportunities to drive in runs. Ryu is excelling in that situation. He sports a 3.38 ERA with runners in scoring position this season, easily the lowest mark in the major leagues. Second-best is Max Scherzer -- with a 6.44 ERA.

Since coming back from that groin injury on Aug. 15, 2018, Ryu has allowed 32 earned runs in 161⅔ regular-season innings.

One-hundred and twenty-six pitchers have allowed more runs this season alone.

"You're seeing him very motivated," Honeycutt said. "He worked hard to get himself back, and now he's very in tune with what he wants to do in the game."

CLEVELAND -- The leadoff hitter for the National League All-Stars is reigning MVP Christian Yelich, who has 31 home runs at the break. The No. 9 hitter will be 21-year-old Ronald Acuna Jr., who has matched his age already with 21 first-half home runs. The low power man in the NL starting nine is catcher Willson Contreras, with a mere 18 home runs.

That means all nine starters are on pace to hit 30-plus home runs. Given the record barrage of home runs across the sport in 2019, it's not a big surprise that the NL lineup may be the most power-packed in All-Star history.

"It means there's a lot of talent in the game right now," Yelich said Monday. "I saw they had Acuna hitting ninth. I don't know how many times he's ever hit ninth in his life, but when you have a player of that caliber hitting ninth, it speaks to the depth of talent."

It's also a youthful group of sluggers, none of them even 30 years old yet. The average age of the NL starters is the youngest in All-Star history. "I guess we're doing something good," Cubs shortstop Javier Baez, the No. 2 hitter in Dave Roberts' lineup with 22 home runs, said with a laugh. "It's crazy how you see all this young talent. It's great that the kids are learning so fast."

It's also crazy that Baez, still just 26 years but already in his sixth major league season, refers to the next generation of stars like Acuna as kids.

But this is the game in 2019: home runs and strikeouts and young power hitters. Batting average? Nobody cares about batting average, certainly not like your grandfather cared about batting average.

"If I wanted to hit .300, I'd hit .300," Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. "It's an OPS game, though. It's about driving the baseball and getting on base, walks and extra-base hits. If it turned into an average game, I'd get the ball out of the air and hit line drives and hit .330.

"All the hitters care about now is OPS. We don't care about batting average. Some guys do, I guess. Batting average is an old stat that doesn't matter. It's OPS, runs created, WAR. Look at Mike Trout's numbers. There are guys that hit .340. Mike Trout is hitting, what, .300 on the dot? I'd rather have Mike Trout's numbers with all the walks and the damage than the guy who hits .340 [with a bunch of singles]. It's an OPS game."

Indeed, Bregman hits the All-Star break with a .265 batting average but ranks third in the American League in OPS and third in on-base percentage. He's not hitting close to .300, but he's been one of the best run producers in the league. That's what matters.

While Yelich says he tries not to look at his stat line during the season, he also cited OPS as a simple measure of how's he producing. "Everyone talks about that now," he said. "That's a big one. To score runs, you gotta get on base and you have to slug, and that's pretty much OPS in a nutshell."

Of course, many fans cry about the lack of singles and the rise in strikeouts. Many still romanticize the .300 hitter, Tony Gwynn or Wade Boggs slapping singles to the opposite field and hitting .350. During the steroid era, the MLB-wide batting average peaked at .271 in 1999 -- when 55 qualifiers hit .300, the most in a season since the pitching mound was lowered in 1999. Still, the .300 hitter is hardly dead, even with pitchers throwing harder than ever. Twenty-five players hit the break hitting .300, with Jeff McNeil of the Mets leading the majors with a .349 average. That's on par with the number of .300 hitters across the majors in recent seasons, although admittedly down from what we saw 20 years ago:

2015-2019: 22.2
2010-2014: 23.2
2005-2009: 37.4
2000-2004: 42.0
1995-1999: 46.0
1990-1994: 31.2

Also, hitting is hard! Heck, just five years ago, after offense dropped to its lowest levels in more than two decades in 2014, the big story was that nobody could hit. The hitters -- yes, with help from the juiced baseball -- have gained their revenge. They got better.

"I think you just learn," said Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado. "Fastballs are so hard and [pitchers] are spinning the ball. You learn that you don't have to do too much to make things happen. I think that's helped me as a baseball player, because you think if someone's throwing hard you have to swing even harder, and I learned just to take a nice smooth swing and put the barrel on the ball and the ball's going to fly. I learned that, and I think these young guys have learned that pretty quickly and they know how to do it, and that's why a lot of homers are happening."

Plus, hitting .300 isn't easy. "It's power hitting and power pitching," said Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, the old man in the NL starting lineup at 29 years old. "That's what it is now. Players are combating high heaters by swinging up and hitting homers. I think the game changes every few years. Three years from now we'll be talking about how the game is a little different again."

Home runs may rule the day, and players know it's easier to score one run with one big swing then three singles, but that doesn't mean they're not impressed by a .300 hitter. Asked if it's more difficult these days to hit .330 or to hit 35 home runs, Freeman laughed. "I think hitting .300 is the hardest thing. You can hit homers. That's where we're at. I have Josh Donaldson on my team, and he asked if you'd rather hit .260 with 50 home runs or .300 with 20 home runs. I always say .300 with 20, but that's just me. I like that '3' in front of the batting average."

It's also not easy to just go up there and hit a ground ball in the hole for a base hit -- no matter what fans may think.

"If you do that, you're not going to have a great approach," Freeman said. "You're just going to lunge at everything just to put it into play. There are certain hitters like Tony Gwynn who can do that, but in today's game I'd say it's a little different, you just have to try to grind out an at-bat. Hitting a round ball with a round bat is the hardest thing to do, and asking yourself to place it somewhere, you just can't really do that. Even bunting the ball is really, really hard."

Mookie Betts, who hit .346 to win the AL batting title last season and is at .272 this season, said hitting .340 is definitely harder than hitting 40 home runs -- although not necessarily more impressive. "The pitchers are a lot better, but some guys have managed to hit a lot of home runs because they found something that worked for them. It's always a cat and mouse game, but .340 is pretty impressive, and so is 30 home runs at the All-Star break."

Maybe we need a pitcher's perspective on this. Gerrit Cole -- after a long pause to think through his answer -- started to say hitting .340, but then interrupted himself and said, "Forty home runs is a lot, though. Forty home runs. I could be wrong, though. I like Jose [Altuve]. I like that idea of spraying the ball around. I watch a lot of baseball for a living, about 130 games a year, and as much I love to see a home run, I love to see a double in the gap and then a guy go run after the ball, so you have a great defensive play and a great swing and great hit. That would be my preference, but 40 home runs is a lot of home runs."

Cody Bellinger is one hitter who can actually somewhat relate to this question because he's hitting .336 with 31 home runs. "I always felt like I could be an average guy, not to say I'm going to hit .340. It's just nice to see results. I don't which is harder. They're both pretty special."

Asked about hitting 40 home runs or .340, Arenado laughed. "I've hit 40 home runs before. I would love to hit .340; that would be so sweet," he said with smile. "But 40 homers looks pretty cool on a baseball card. I don't know, I'd probably say .340. Sleep way better at night knowing that you're getting hits all the time."

But what about, say, an Aaron Judge hitting 50 home runs or Gwynn hitting .370? Which is more impressive? "Tony Gwynn hitting .370, for sure," Bellinger said.

Bregman, not surprisingly, had a different answer to that question: "Look at the OPS."

Former Wales hooker Emyr Phillips has joined the Scarlets as a development skills coach.

Injury forced Phillips to retire from playing in 2018 after more than 150 Scarlets appearances across 10 seasons and winning three caps for Wales.

Phillips will continue in his role as head coach of Welsh Premiership side Carmarthen Quins.

He replaces Dai Flanagan, who has been promoted to the Scarlets' senior set-up.

Editor’s Note: This story was provided courtesy of Robin Miller and was originally published by Racer.com.

Auto racing cultivates a lot of feel-good stories and unlikely successes, but none may be more inspiring than Jeff Dickerson’s.

The Indianapolis native has gone from changing gears on Tyce Carlson’s midget to spotting for Jeff Gordon to representing Kyle Busch to working for Chip Ganassi… to victory lane last Sunday at Daytona as a winning NASCAR car owner.

Rookie Justin Haley was declared the winner of the Coke Zero 400 when rain brought out the red flag, and decided the outcome with Haley out in front in Dickerson’s Spire Motorsports Chevy.

“It’s a great story, and I’m happy for Jeff,” said Ganassi, who has had a working relationship for years with Dickerson involving drivers and sponsors. “I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but I’m glad he did, so he kept it in the family, so to speak.”

As a 17-year-old at North Central High School back in 1993, Dickerson was infatuated with racing but had no connections. So he started writing letters to Carlson, a North Central grad six years older who was running USAC midgets and sprints at the time.

“So I invited him to go to Salem with us,” recalls Carlson, a two-time Indy 500 starter who runs a real estate business today. “We came home, I dropped him off and two hours later he called and asked if he could come stay with me for a while. His dad had died when he was real young, and his mom had basically kicked him out of his house because he wanted to be a racer.

“I was 23 and living with my wife-to-be (Christy) at the time in an apartment, but I said, sure come on up. He showed up with two pillowcases full of clothes and stayed for four years.”

During that time, Dickerson learned how to set up a chassis, work on engines and whatever else needed to be done. But he made friends as fast as he picked up the nuances of racing, and after working with ace fabricator Danny Drinan, he went back with Carlson to be the team manager/spotter of Hubbard/Imke in the Indy Racing League.

It was also during this time that Carlson bought his friend a midget and he began racing at the 16th Street Speedway.

But after helping Robbie Buhl’s IRL team, Jeff got a call from Cary Agajanian that changed his career path. Aggie represented a lot of drivers at that time and saw how connected Dickerson was with all the young stars in USAC, so he hired him. When the son of the longtime Indy 500 car owner decided he was done with being an agent, his protégé formed Spire and signed Busch as one of his first clients in 2003.

Since then, Dickerson has represented Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse, Ross Chastain, Landon Cassill and the late Jason Leffler. But despite having no formal training in that area or marketing, he had a gift for putting deals together, and that impressed Ganassi.

“Jeff is a go-getter and a hard-working guy with a good knowledge of this sport from grass roots all the way to the top,” said Ganassi. “He can talk to anybody and knows how things get done.”

Adds Carlson: “Everything he did was self-made and because of his personality and ability to put deals together. People trust him.”

Last year he and partner T.J. Puchyr borrowed $6 million to buy a NASCAR charter with the goal of growing Spire into a full-time Cup Series effort. Dickerson wasn’t at Daytona to celebrate, but Carlson texted him afterward.

“He’s like my little brother and I just knew he was going to go somewhere in racing because of his drive and his smarts,” said Carlson. “This doesn’t surprise me. It’s only the beginning.”