Posted on 05/15/2019 12:33:21 PM PDT by C19fan
MLB did something in 2008 that looked fairly unremarkable. The league set a new record for strikeout rate, bumping just a hair above the record of 17.3% after having spent the last decade bouncing back and forth within the boundaries of a single percentage point.
The 17.5% K-rate was not dramatically higher than the previous record from 2001. But it was the start of something big. Baseball broke this record again in 2009—and 2010, and 2011, and every year since, with no signs of stopping. It’s looked like an unrelenting march across the Land of Balls in Play to the Sea of Three True Outcomes.
The 2019 season has only offered more of the same. In fact, it’s offered dramatically more of the same. It’s not just that the game’s strikeout rate is on track to set a record for the 11th straight year; at this point, the simple existence of a new record hardly feels worth remarking on. No, it’s that the strikeout rate is on track to set a record by a margin that is nearly a record in its own right. Entering Wednesday, 23.2% of plate appearances have resulted in a K—0.9 percentage points above last season’s rate, which might not sound like very much, but on this scale, a tiny fraction can equal hundreds and hundreds of strikeouts. It’s tied for baseball’s eighth-highest increase, year over year, ever, and it’s the second highest in the last quarter-century. So… what does it mean? What does it look like? And where is it going?
(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...
Since I don’t “do” SI I’ll never know.
They’re deflating the balls.
Batters don’t want singles. They want Home Runs. So they’ll keep fouling off off-speed pitches, pitches out of their red zone, etc., until they force the pitcher to throw the pitch they’re looking for. What baseball needs is a 3-foul (5-strike) limit.
During last night's Diamondbacks game, Randy Johnson was saying something to the effect that pitchers these days can't rely on just their fast ball. Today's hitters are too fast and have more analytics and they can take about any fast ball and go yard. The average pitcher today now has to vary the locations of their fastball more today, AND have a greater arsenal of secondary pitches or they're not going to be able to compete.
Joe DiMaggio struck out 39 times in his rookie year. That was the most he ever struck in a year.
“Since I don’t “do” SI I’ll never know.”
I’m holding out for the Burkini issue.
Batters are trying too hard to hit homers. Pitchers are probably better. Almost everyone throws 90+ mph nowadays. Plus they’re pampered a bit. Almost as well as Kobe cows. Starters never throw more than 100 pitches/game anymore.
This increase in strikeouts is positive and fascinating.
Especially since both walks and HR are up and ERA is flat.
It makes for a better game IMHO.
Joe didn’t play against today’s pitching.
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Joe Sewell was the hardest strikeout ever. He struck out 114 times in his entire career. In 1925 he struck out only 4 times in 608 at bats. Sewell holds the record for the lowest strikeout rate in major league history, striking out on average only once every 62.5 at-bats, and the most consecutive games without a strikeout, at 115.
Way too many pitching changes too. So you are bringing in a lot of fresh pitchers throwing 90+.
it’s relative. whoever comes along today hits today’s pitching and that would go for dimaggio, as well as cobb, hornsby and ruth and the rest.
Even if you did, this article doesn’t explain.
Managers don’t want singles. Statistical analysis has shown that swinging for the fences gets you more runs than trying to hit singles.
You could fix this by raising the walls, to make it harder to hit balls out of the park, thus changing the statistical advantage. Hitters would still get hits, sometimes doubles, by hitting off the wall, but doubles off the wall are not as valuable as home runs.
If you do get singles, you’d better be able to steal second on a consistent basis.
pitchers aren’t expected to pitch games anymore, because statistics show that the 3rd time through a lineup, batting averages shoot up. Better to swap out after 5 innings.
Batters aren’t just “trying”, they are hitting more home runs than ever. As would be expected — the statistics again have shown that striking out more, but getting home runs more, is a winning strategy.
Note that a strikeout will virtually never be a double-play. And if your batting average on a “3rd strike safe hit” is 100 points below your general average, you are hardly helping by trying to get on base.
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