much less steroid use
Sabermetric advancements helping defenses more than offenses
potential power hitters in amateur ranks being chased away to Basketball and Football
Hitters in M.L.B. This Season Have Struggled at Historic Rates
excerpts:
If pitchers are not recording strikeouts, they are often daring hitters to put the ball in play. The avalanche of data in the modern game naturally benefits pitchers, who control the action, more than hitters, who simply react. Teams are more aware of hitters? tendencies than ever, and many have responded with extreme defensive alignments.
According to Baseball Info Solutions, an analytics service that provides most teams with data, major league teams are on pace to use almost 14,000 shifts on balls in play this year, which would shatter last year?s record of just over 8,000. In 2011, the service counted fewer than 2,500 shifts.
This trend, naturally, turns many would-be hits into outs. Yet hitters, so far, have been slow to adjust, partly out of competitive pride.
?None of the stuff that?s come up the last several years has benefited offense,? said Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. ?It?s actually subtracted from offense, and it?s going to continue to subtract. Offense is going to go back almost to the dead-ball era. You?re always going to have several really good hitters ? guys who would have hit well in 1894 and 2014 ? but you?re going back to normal human beings playing the game, with none of the advantages.?
Scouts routinely bemoan the lack of legitimate power hitters in college programs. Since the N.C.A.A. switched to a less lively bat in 2011, the college game has been largely predicated on stolen bases and small ball; Vanderbilt just won a championship despite going almost six weeks without a homer before the title game.
College baseball programs are allowed only 11.7 scholarships, fewer than other popular sports, and most scholarships are only partial. Further, argued the agent Scott Boras, the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, which essentially capped teams? draft spending, has chased away potential power hitters.
Sabermetric advancements helping defenses more than offenses
potential power hitters in amateur ranks being chased away to Basketball and Football
Hitters in M.L.B. This Season Have Struggled at Historic Rates
excerpts:
If pitchers are not recording strikeouts, they are often daring hitters to put the ball in play. The avalanche of data in the modern game naturally benefits pitchers, who control the action, more than hitters, who simply react. Teams are more aware of hitters? tendencies than ever, and many have responded with extreme defensive alignments.
According to Baseball Info Solutions, an analytics service that provides most teams with data, major league teams are on pace to use almost 14,000 shifts on balls in play this year, which would shatter last year?s record of just over 8,000. In 2011, the service counted fewer than 2,500 shifts.
This trend, naturally, turns many would-be hits into outs. Yet hitters, so far, have been slow to adjust, partly out of competitive pride.
?None of the stuff that?s come up the last several years has benefited offense,? said Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. ?It?s actually subtracted from offense, and it?s going to continue to subtract. Offense is going to go back almost to the dead-ball era. You?re always going to have several really good hitters ? guys who would have hit well in 1894 and 2014 ? but you?re going back to normal human beings playing the game, with none of the advantages.?
Scouts routinely bemoan the lack of legitimate power hitters in college programs. Since the N.C.A.A. switched to a less lively bat in 2011, the college game has been largely predicated on stolen bases and small ball; Vanderbilt just won a championship despite going almost six weeks without a homer before the title game.
College baseball programs are allowed only 11.7 scholarships, fewer than other popular sports, and most scholarships are only partial. Further, argued the agent Scott Boras, the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, which essentially capped teams? draft spending, has chased away potential power hitters.
