I heard this mentioned from Trevor Plouffe (I think) in regards to the baseball. I hadn’t thought of this aspect of “deadening” the baseball, actually taking out the hardness to help the grip. And maybe it’s a well known theory that I just didn’t realize myself. But the grip on the baseball might be contributing to injury as well. The harder the baseball, the tougher it is to grip, the harder a pitcher is going to have hold the baseball. So, following his theory, the pretacked baseball is easier to grip, and should reduce injury.