[Steve_Seattle]

The home run leaders mostly thrived during the steroid era. And pitching has gotten better in the last 20 years. Every team has five or six pitchers who thrown 95+ miles per hour. It used to be one or two who threw that hard.

[jjotto]

Heck, most teams have one or two guys that can top 100 mph.

A lot of pitchers having been averaging 98-99 mph fastballs this year.

[Dr. Sivana]

Every team has five or six pitchers who thrown 95+ miles per hour. It used to be one or two who threw that hard.

Better pitching, but more home runs. More home runs were hit (per ab) off of Randy Johnson than Tommy John or Bert Blyleven.

[frogjerk]

And pitching has gotten better in the last 20 years. Every team has five or six pitchers who thrown 95+ miles per hour. It used to be one or two who threw that hard.

I don't think this is true as players are swinging for the fences more and more and the strikeout percentage has risen enormously because players want to hit it out of the park everytime they get up. Also, what do you think the ridiculous shift rule next year is going to do to ERA?

[Theoria]

Ebb and flow. Stadiums are much different dimension's now than in the past; smaller. The pitching mound has been reduced. More pitchers per game, thus helping to improve stats. More video on the pitcher, for better scouting, etc.

Pitchers in the past pitched much longer, and more games. So their stats are skewed in different ways. It's hard to compare stats of the past to today's games. What is the truth is the monster shots some of the guys of legend had in the past.