Baseball is rife with “eras” of one strategy or another, one approach or another. The same goes for hitting and position players. We have had eras of pitching dominance, base stealing, various hitting styles (e.g. Charlie Lau, Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn), power hitters, outfielders with the whole package (Mays, Aaron, DiMaggio). Teams have won over MLB’s many years with all manner of players and approaches. Success in any endeavor will be copied, so occasionally the trend is one direction or the other. But the ultimate champions always turn out to be well-balanced teams that can win in different ways.
TampaFanatic1 is correct about the rule changes after 1968. And it did increase the offense, as did the use of the DH. At some point, continued expansion of MLB into new cities had the effect of diluting the talent pool and pitching may have gotten a little thin. But pitching has been built back up through revamped bullpens, changing roles on the staff, player development and the CBA, so strikeouts are becoming big again. Hitters made a splash with their emphasis on “launch angle” and other metrics, and they feasted for a couple of years. Don’t worry about it. The game has a way of taking care of itself.
Baseball is rife with “eras” of one strategy or another, one approach or another. The same goes for hitting and position players. We have had eras of pitching dominance, base stealing, various hitting styles (e.g. Charlie Lau, Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn), power hitters, outfielders with the whole package (Mays, Aaron, DiMaggio). Teams have won over MLB’s many years with all manner of players and approaches. Success in any endeavor will be copied, so occasionally the trend is one direction or the other. But the ultimate champions always turn out to be well-balanced teams that can win in different ways.
TampaFanatic1 is correct about the rule changes after 1968. And it did increase the offense, as did the use of the DH. At some point, continued expansion of MLB into new cities had the effect of diluting the talent pool and pitching may have gotten a little thin. But pitching has been built back up through revamped bullpens, changing roles on the staff, player development and the CBA, so strikeouts are becoming big again. Hitters made a splash with their emphasis on “launch angle” and other metrics, and they feasted for a couple of years. Don’t worry about it. The game has a way of taking care of itself.