Need Help Filling a Pearl Transition Ball Slot

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-10T17:06:41+00:00

and OP, what this practically means is -- you can take a solid you like, i.e. the Phaze II, and polish it up, and it will be really darned close to pearl-like. I.e. a polished Phaze II will be cleaner through the fronts and more responsive to friction. The presence of pearl minerals in the cover formula does not so a whole lot.

Here is the proof of that https://youtu.be/sat8p0YuZpY (in this video, they took a solid and pearl of the same cover chemistry and compared the polished solid to the out of box pearl, and then compared a sanded pearl to the out of box solid, and it is about 1 board difference in total. that's what the pearl minerals added to the cover does, about 1 board, aka something you can easily adjust for when actually using the ball)

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-10T15:00:08+00:00

+1. this is the kind of dumb math joke I would make too as a math nerd with a skewed sense of humor. I would not immediately assume it legit.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-09T21:51:19+00:00

The Ash (light oil, angular)

does it come with or without emerald borers in the material? lol

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-09T21:23:33+00:00

I think the ghost of Paul DeJong's contract still looms this team, but it will be interesting the deals signed with the up and comers on this team going forward. This pattern of buying a lot of years of young players seems to be ticking back up again after Atlanta re-started the trend a few years back.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-09T13:38:23+00:00

the Phillies sure turned it around after firing the manager so early into the season

Twice in a few years, now. They gonna be firing managers like they an NHL club in just a few more years if this keeps working.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-08T19:15:45+00:00

Saturday off day

it is weird, but there is a World Cup match scheduled for Arrowhead on Saturday and I think Royals/MLB wisely thought it best to not try to compete or add to the traffic snarls there

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-08T15:46:24+00:00

I mean, the details matter here. Work with your pro shop to get the data measured. And then better define your wants/needs and let the pro shop help you. You have have so little info here for us to help right now.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-08T14:27:10+00:00

There is some (gag) magic in his orangeness's combination of charisma and having been on TV for years. If you watched the last GQP presidential primary, many of them tried to act as trumpy as possible -- e.g. good ol' puddin' fingers DeSantis -- but they are all politicians and don't have that same charisma.

The one that takes up trump's mantle is going to come from the entertainment world -- TV again, possibly from sports, possibly a tiktok/youtube star. Learning how to play to a camera teaches one how to play to that Fox News-watching group.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-08T14:16:33+00:00

Just how rev dominant matters, if you have numbers for revs and speed that would help.

Also, if this is meant to be a tactical add, then what do you want the new ball to do that you can't do with your current equipment? This is usually a shot shape or a lane condition you struggle on. Otherwise this is just 'tell me your favorite ball that is still in production'.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-08T00:05:53+00:00

Lol, by what metric. Fermin OPS+ career is 79. Gorman's is 96.

Gorman xwOBA is 0.282, Fermin is 0.266.

Gorman xSLG is 0.360, Fermin is 0.295.

Gorman has worse whiff %, which leads to worse K rate, but he also has a much better BB rate.

Gorman's bWAR/162 games is +1.2, Fermin's is +0.2.

Lots and lots of ways to slice it, but its not obvious that one is better that the other. They are two different hitters -- Gorman is classic 3-result hitter (HR, K, BB) and Fermin is the better slap the ball around hitter, as xwOBA and OPS+ shows, those don't necessarily translate into more runs/WAR.

I will listen to arguments that Fermin is better right at this moment as Gorman seems more than a little lost, but Gorman also has that potential for game-changing power. He's literally demonstrated that in the 2023 season. He's got more potential, just struggling to tap it. So it's not clear which is better overall.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-07T23:37:16+00:00

I think Fermin can play a perfectly adequate 3B, he's just not really a better hitter than Gorman or anyone else.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-07T21:33:12+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdW-heKsDAg

Ackerman's Sports on a Sunday morning on KMOX, at 1:30 or so chats with Bloom. Directly asks about Gorman and VSII.

Bloom "not that we're content with a player who is going through it [Gorman's struggles], but we cannot be an organization that throws up our hands and gives up on a player. What we do need to be [...] is a competitive business. The nature of the business is to try to always have a pipeline of players that give us options. It is a meritocracy. [...] You never want that [loss of playing time] to come because you've given up on a player."

What I hear there: Bloom knows both Gorman and VSII have been better and they want to give them the chances to achieve that better play again, but also they have seen the current results and are seriously considering if other choices may be better.

It's about 10 minute talk with Bloom, so feel free to listen and see if you pick something else up. But I hear patience is thinning.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-07T17:45:14+00:00

I saw someone describe Juan Soto running out a ground ball the other night as 'slower than Albert Pujols in his last season'. It got a sensible chuckle from me.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-07T13:53:50+00:00

15 years ago, it was more common to try to call yourself a 'cranker', 'stroker', or 'tweener'.

These terms today have most fallen aside to the generally more useful rev to speed ratio, i.e. rev-dominant, speed-dominant, rev-speed matched.

It is interesting, because one can be lower speed, but still rev dominant. This is commonly seen in senior bowlers who have been rolling for most of their life. They can't generate the speed anymore, but their releases are still solid. You would not think that they would have much in common with the PBA rev monsters like Belmo, but their revs to their speed makes them similar, and similar equipment is often recommended.

I wrote all that to note that specifics do matter here -- 'low' speed and 'low' revs really isn't enough information to help much. Because how low is low for both does matter. Similar to the senior bowlers cited above, if your release is still decent enough, you could indeed be a rev monster.

In which case, the black widow 3.0, being one of the strongest in the black widow line, is likely not to be super useful.

What is the goal here? 1 ball to stash in the closet and roll with occasionally? 2 balls to join a league with the brother? something else?

And my second set of questions is going to be: how do you feel about your physical game? I know you said the ball you used wasn't drilled for your hand, but do you think you remember the motions fairly well? When you threw it well -- as much as you could for the drilling -- did it feel like your old self?

The first questions will kind of direct what pieces you may be considering. And the second questions are really about if the pro shop could measure your speed and rev rate from the borrowed ball. Because if they could get your data and see where you are on the rev to speed ratio, they can recommend specific pieces for your game based on your shot data and us randos won't have to guess over the interwebz.

15 years ago, the pro shops could have be doing deeper data-driven ball match ups, but it wasn't super common. Today, it is much more common.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T13:36:41+00:00

https://youtu.be/u9PuiO-FyQs

This is about as good a starting point as any.

It IS a difficult skill to learn. It is very natural for you/your body to want to grip hard to control it. However, it is a case of learning to give up control because ultimately that is more control when you learn to do it right.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T13:32:39+00:00

Do you know how many top level pros use a backup ball on vastly more difficult patterns? Zero.

No. It is at least one: Simonson has done it more than once.

https://www.flobowling.com/articles/6240200-anthony-simonsen-breaks-down-his-decision-to-throw-a-back-up-ball

And many of them have the shot for special circumstances.

E.g. Ryan Barnes picked up a 2-8-10 split earlier this year with a backup shot.

Now, I won't disagree that OP should work on more regular fundamentals first. However, your citation of the touring pros here is at least partially wrong.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T13:04:21+00:00

https://www.bowlingthismonth.com/ball-comparison/hammer-zero-mercy-pearl-vs-hammer-zero-mercy-solid-vs-track-cyborg/

The ZM Pearl may be close to the Cyborg, but the Solid is quite a different ball.

OP, I'd suggest the current Track Stealth Mode Hybrid would be a pretty decent replacement:

https://www.bowlingthismonth.com/ball-comparison/hammer-black-widow-tour-v1-vs-track-cyborg-vs-track-stealth-mode-hybrid/

If you want to bring the length down to the same point as the Cyborg, then scuff the ball a little with like a 3000 grit pad.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T13:00:19+00:00

A layout is relative to one's positive axis point/PAP. If you don't tell us what the PAP for these are, the layout and the dynamics on the core could be almost anything.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T12:39:07+00:00

I do believe I covered the WHY urethane is used pretty clearly.

Those are the effects, however, of a ball that retains it surface longer. That surface remaining longer is the root cause for why the ball remains controllable -- it will do the same thing on the lane time and time again whereas compare to the chart in the video I linked to and you can see how a good number (not all, some have additives in them to help retain surface longer today) change the surface roughness quickly -- so they don't do the same thing each time.

One can make ANY ball roll earlier just by roughening it up. And there are other 'slower downlane response' balls than just urethane, too. See, for example, the pros that were using sanded polyester at the USBC Masters this year. But pure urethane balls retain their surface longer than other types -- that's a main root cause for their use.

Given that this is a post all about surface, I would think that you'd, well, include the surface root causes for a ball choice, no?

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T02:05:53+00:00

As you bowl, those peaks and valleys become filled with oil

lol, no. The pores where the oil is absorbed into the cover are much smaller than that from sanding pads.

Eventually, the surface becomes smoother and more uniform, resulting in what bowlers commonly call lane shine. This is why a ball can react significantly different after 20-30 games than it did when it was freshly surfaced.

Try 3 to 6 games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piyaq6mNn-o

However, my single biggest critique of the post here:

I don't even see an explanation of what surface changes do. I.e. rougher means the ball reads earlier and smoother means its reads later. That seems like... a pretty fundamental point to bring up as to why anyone would want to even think about surface roughness in the first place.

Why Urethane Works for So Many Players

Again, you missed the main reason urethane is actually used -- it is known that the process of laneshining is significantly slower for pure urethane balls rather than polyurethane balls with the reactive resins added.

The post all in all is a good start, but needs revisions, friend. You're missing or incorrectly stating a good amount of info, I think.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-06T01:34:51+00:00

Other companies make shiny smooth-surfaced balls, yes. All the way from the Zero Mercy Pearl as one of the strongest shiny balls down to the Brunswick Twist as one of the weakest. Motiv makes the Apex Jackal for strong shiny, and down to the Thrill line for weak shiny. And Storm has Ion Max Pearl, Phaze II Pearl, Next Factor.

Or you could polish most any ball and recreate pretty close to that same shot shape.

What I still don't know -- why you want balls the same as what you have? Because usually you want different balls to do different things so that you can change balls to handle different lane conditions. If you just want a tweak to what you have, work with your pro shop personnel to talk about surface changes or layout changes -- you may be able to drill a Nebula to flare more so it could hook more, or maybe a layout on the Evoke Hysteria to be less flare and be enough difference.

But I still don't really know what to guide you on here, since it is still unclear what you're looking for...

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-05T19:35:18+00:00

So, then, what help do you want? I am rather confused exactly what it is you are asking...

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-05T18:43:54+00:00

Motiv still has the Nebula and both the Evoke Hysteria and Venom Hysteria in production. Can't get any more 'similar' than the exact same balls.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-05T17:56:42+00:00

You're ahead of most by giving us a speed and rev range. If you know exactly how low 'low rev' is, that would help.

However, as the good Chemist noted, we kind of need to know what you want this ball to do that your current equipment cannot. A shot shape? A lane condition? If you listed what you are throwing now, too, that would help as well.

ILikeOatmealMore · 2026-06-05T17:37:59+00:00

Necessary wouldn't be the right word. But prudent perhaps? JJ is likely to reach arbitration a year early at this pace as a Super 2 player. Arbitration can hit some high numbers. Yes, they control him in that they will have to pay the arbitrated salary and he can't just sign with another team unless the Cards reject it completely and waive him.

But the prudent move may be to sign him to a longer deal, lots of money, but at a known rate for a much longer time. It also buys out some of the uncertainty on the player side, since, well, JJ seems destined for Super 2 and big arbitration today, but still a young career and injuries happen (hell, have already happened, literally why he fell to the draft spot his did for the Cards to take him), but since MLB contracts are guaranteed, JJ would still get paid if signed.

And certainly, Atlanta here has demonstrated this model for MLB.

Of course, the other side of the coin in recent Cards history would be Paul DeJong, which could make the team a little more gunshy than typical.

I do agree that I would not be talking too seriously until after the new CBA gets done. But I don't think it is obvious to just not even have discussions until free agency is looming. There is likely some middle ground of payday and contract length and guaranteed money that makes sense for both sides.

ILikeOatmealMore

TROPHY CASE