Long but informational writeup on current state of baseball

How many of these trends/changes seem likely to stick in the long term?

Article implies that the Astros certainly benefited from detecting some trends and adapting accordingly.

More HRs and more strikeouts -- fans like this (?) but the old timers are hating it.

This is what happens when the average velocities creep up like this. Teams carry an extra reliever who throws 95+ because it's more valuable to do so. Starters only go twice through the order because they get shelled the 3rd time. Hitters accept their strikeouts and home runs because that's the only way they can hit the ball anyway.

An interesting stat for me is that BABIP has remained consistent since the 90s. So, all this crap about the shift or anything else is overplayed. The issue is that the hitters just can't put the ball in the play (or balls that used to get put in play are going over the fence).

Now, the old time greats will say that the new players don't throw any harder than they do. And they are right. The issue is that EVERYONE throws like old time greats used to.

Yep....same can be said of the NBA. Seem like 3 pointers or dunks now. I can't watch it anymore.

Good read, thanks for posting the link. This is from the article, concerning for sure:

Quote:

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Hall of Famers are not the only ones voicing their displeasure with an all-or-nothing game in which:
The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all plate appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or hit batter.
The .248 MLB batting average is the lowest since 1972, the season before the American League instituted the designated hitter, when it was .244.
There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history in April and, through early August, MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first time.

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