BB Averages Lowest in a Generation. WHY?

[DGS49]

Baseball people generally cite the improvement in relief pitchers, specifically, the number of such pitchers who can throw the ball upwards of 100 mph and beyond. In the Old Days, once you got past the fifth inning you were facing either a tiring starter whom you had seen twice before in the game, or a weaker reliever. Now there is little drop in performance by pitching as the game goes on.

I personally think it's a change in HITTING philosophy - one that explains the explosion of K's over the past few years.

The batters no longer shorten their swing with two strikes. They go for it all regardless of the count. It results in lower batting averages but theoretically more runs over the course of a whole season.

Other opinions?

 

[rightwinger]

I agree
Batters are swinging for Home Runs not contact
The pitchers are MUCH better. I remember there being a few pitchers who could break 100 mph, now each team has several. The closers and middle relievers are lights out.

Also, the shift is bringing down averages

 

[kjw47]

Baseball people generally cite the improvement in relief pitchers, specifically, the number of such pitchers who can throw the ball upwards of 100 mph and beyond. In the Old Days, once you got past the fifth inning you were facing either a tiring starter whom you had seen twice before in the game, or a weaker reliever. Now there is little drop in performance by pitching as the game goes on.

I personally think it's a change in HITTING philosophy - one that explains the explosion of K's over the past few years.

The batters no longer shorten their swing with two strikes. They go for it all regardless of the count. It results in lower batting averages but theoretically more runs over the course of a whole season.

Other opinions?

They all seem to be going for homeruns--Its not very bright, It would be better for the team for most just to go for hits. Its sad to see that many cant even bat .230-In my youth a shortstop batted less than .250 not many others. To many batting less than .200

 

[rightwinger]

They all seem to be going for homeruns--Its not very bright, It would be better for the team for most just to go for hits. Its sad to see that many cant even bat .230-In my youth a shortstop batted less than .250 not many others. To many batting less than .200

They crunched the numbers and say Batting Average doesn’t matter, swing for the fences

It hasn’t made the game better

 

[22lcidw]

They crunched the numbers and say Batting Average doesn’t matter, swing for the fences

It hasn’t made the game better

The athleticism is better today. And it masks the flaws with actual baseball strategies. Bunting was an art as an example many many years ago.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Baseball people generally cite the improvement in relief pitchers, specifically, the number of such pitchers who can throw the ball upwards of 100 mph and beyond. In the Old Days, once you got past the fifth inning you were facing either a tiring starter whom you had seen twice before in the game, or a weaker reliever. Now there is little drop in performance by pitching as the game goes on.

I personally think it's a change in HITTING philosophy - one that explains the explosion of K's over the past few years.

The batters no longer shorten their swing with two strikes. They go for it all regardless of the count. It results in lower batting averages but theoretically more runs over the course of a whole season.

Other opinions?

It's a great topic, and one I've done my own dive into...

My conclusion? Pitchers are too good. When you look at things like rotations per second, they've gone up significantly recently due to slight mechanical adjustments. Thus, the ball moves more.

What happens when the ball moves more? Less batters hit the ball.

Thus, batters, in turn, have admitted "We're going to hit the ball less", but also say "So when we do, we're going to make it count".

The stats pretty much back it up. The data says to swing hard and up to try to drive a pitch over the wall, because making contact is far more difficult than it used to be. Get more bang for your buck.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Shifts are a big reason-when batted balls that would have gone for base hits even <10 years ago are now outs, it makes more sense to swing for the fences every time. Hopefully, this will change next year.

 

[Couchpotato]

Shifts are a big reason-when batted balls that would have gone for base hits even <10 years ago are now outs, it makes more sense to swing for the fences every time. Hopefully, this will change next year.

The players could have solved the shift issue. If a team wants to all but vacate one side of the field bunt to that side. Keep doing it until they stop. Either they stop or lose.

 

[Couchpotato]

It's a great topic, and one I've done my own dive into...

My conclusion? Pitchers are too good. When you look at things like rotations per second, they've gone up significantly recently due to slight mechanical adjustments. Thus, the ball moves more.

What happens when the ball moves more? Less batters hit the ball.

Thus, batters, in turn, have admitted "We're going to hit the ball less", but also say "So when we do, we're going to make it count".

The stats pretty much back it up. The data says to swing hard and up to try to drive a pitch over the wall, because making contact is far more difficult than it used to be. Get more bang for your buck.

Agree with this. There are guys throwing a 100 mph cutter. How do you hit that?

 

[DGS49]

So it's a combination of...

• Better pitchers, especially relief pitchers,
• Batters swinging for the fences,
• The Shift,
• Batters not letting up with two strikes, and
• Sabremetrics indicating that B.A. is not as big a deal as "we" always thought; RUNS rule!