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Too much blame is being put on the hitters for the rising strikeout rate in baseball, and not enough praise is being given to the pitchers
Many prominent individuals in the realms of professional baseball are being disingenuous in their coverage of the sport.
They’re using analytics as a scapegoat for hitters striking out more and making less contact instead of correctly observing that starters AND relievers are better than they ever have been in terms of pitch velocity, movement profiles, and sequencing.
In the last decade we’ve seen a huge spike in pitching development success and while the credit for that has been unfairly limited to a few individuals, which is a whole different topic in itself, the older gatekeepers are using it to shit on this era of baseball.
Its starting to get ridiculous how quick baseball fans, journalists/writers, retired players, radio hosts, etc. are quick to criticize hitters based on standards that are decades old and outdated for a reason.
Not enough people are being honest and objective, and while I understand that from a fan’s perspective, the talking heads and gatekeepers are doing professional baseball a disservice with these erroneous narratives/opinions where they just bitch and moan.
John Smoltz, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, etc. and these other retired prominent individuals using analytics as a scapegoat whenever its convenient are just proving how ignorant they are about the game at this point. If analytics didnt work they wouldnt be so prominent/impactful.
Dont talk about the lack of success hitters have had during this decade when compared to the past if youre not going to bring up the fact that pitchers have taken an exponential leap in ability, and the fact that theyre more athletic, stronger, etc. than ever.
And dont bring up the Tommy John surgeries and other injuries, and the fact that starters in the past were throwing 20 complete games per year. We should not be expecting modern day pitchers to throw anywhere over 200 innings. It is unethical.
Not to mention the leap in medical technology and skill that makes it so players are not playing injured in order to cripple themselves for the rest of their lives trying to play a fucking sport. These guys are the best of the best. Let them take care of their bodies.
I’ll be damned if someone is going to bring up some guy who pitched in the 1950s with a 85 mph fastball and threw 300 innings a year and he couldnt pick up his children because he wasnt able to lift his arm above his shoulder when he was 35 years old.
Not to mention modern hitters realized rolling over a 4 hopper on a 1-1 slider is no better than striking out. Fuck outta here with that bullshit.
The way Matt Underwood, Andre Knott, and Rick Manning went about that tangent they went on about the rising K rate in baseball is a microcosm of everything I talked about in this thread. Theyre putting too much blame on the hitters.
“What would Wade Boggs do againt the shift versus modern pitching”
Yea picking one of the greatest contact hitters in baseball’s history is a great measuring tool to see how hitters of the past would fare makes sense.
Yea picking one of the greatest contact hitters in baseball’s history is a great measuring tool to see how hitters of the past would fare makes sense.
